Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s Susie Adams, Ph.D., APRN, and Kelly Wolgast, DNP, MSS, R.N., have been elected as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in recognition of their consistent contributions to the profession of nursing.
“Susie is nationally known for her leadership in advanced practice psychiatric nursing, her service on behavioral health and advanced practice nursing advisory groups and task forces, her media presentations and publications on mental health topics. Kelly has spent much of her career leading and serving our country through her military service in Afghanistan, Germany, Hurricane Katrina disaster relief and as an executive nurse leader in the U.S. Army health system throughout the country,” said Linda Norman, DSN, R.N., Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing and dean of VUSN.
Adams is serving a two-year term as president of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. She served on the Institute of Medicine committee that recently released “Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders: A Framework for Establishing Evidence-Based Standards.” She was named Nursing Faculty Scholar for Community Engaged Behavioral Health at VUSN in 2014, where she partners with existing and new agencies affiliated with the school to evaluate evidence-based health practice, analyze outcomes and disseminate findings.
She served as program director for the school’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program for nearly two decades, growing the program to become one of the most popular specialty tracks at the school, which was recently ranked fourth by U.S. News and World Report among PMHNP programs. Locally, she has focused her efforts on the well-being of women with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders. Since 1997, she has served on the board of the Mental Health Cooperative, a multi-site network that provides a continuum of services for individuals and families with serious mental illness.
Before becoming a member of the VUSN faculty in 2011, Wolgast served in the U.S. Army for more than 26 years, beginning as a clinical staff nurse in Medical/Surgical and Emergency nursing in Frankfurt, Germany, and rising to Chief Nurse Executive, U.S. Army Medical Command headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. She also deployed to New Orleans in support of Operation Katrina humanitarian relief operations and to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Wolgast currently leads the VUSN Healthcare Leadership specialty which was recently ranked 10th in the nation in the U.S. News and World Report best nursing programs edition.
Wolgast is active in numerous organizations such as the American Organization of Nurse Executives and is also a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. She earned her Master of Science of Nursing from VUSN, where she was the 1993 Founder’s Medalist.
Adams and Wolgast will be inducted as fellows at AAN’s Health Policy Conference in October in Washington, D.C.