Inside Duke Medicine

Duke University School of Nursing honors faculty excellence

On May 11, 2011, Duke University School of Nursing held an awards ceremony where three faculty members were honored for their accomplishments.

Assistant Professor Helen Gordon received the Distinguished Teaching Award. The award recognizes and rewards demonstrated effectiveness, innovation, and collegial support in teaching at the Duke University School of Nursing. She also received the Outstanding Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) Faculty Award. This award is presented to a faculty member who is an excellent teacher and mentor vested in seeing each student succeed. Gordon teaches the maternity nursing and senior seminar courses in the ABSN program and is a clinical instructor for the program’s community health nursing course. She received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Arkansas and a master of science degree in parent-child nursing and nurse-midwifery from the University of Utah.

Associate Professor Nancy Short received the Outstanding Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Faculty Award. This award is given by the graduating DNP students to the faculty member who best demonstrates excellence and innovation in teaching and mentoring. Dr. Short teaches population health, leadership, health policy, and health economics to graduate students in nursing and clinical leadership majors. She holds a bachelor of science degree in nursing, a master of business administration degree from Duke University, and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her doctoral studies focused on health policy and administration with a minor in leadership, while her research identified gaps in data collected about nurse practitioner practice.

Assistant Professor Frank Titch received the Outstanding Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Faculty Award. This award honors a faculty member who is an excellent teacher and mentor vested in seeing each student succeed. Titch’s interests focus on curriculum development for nurse anesthesia education and techniques of regional anesthesia. He received a bachelor of science in nursing degree from the University of Texas at Austin, completed a certificate in nurse anesthesia from the nurse anesthesia program at Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and earned a master of science degree in nurse anesthesia at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia.