Vanderbilt University School of Nursing celebrated graduating students and their entry into the nursing profession with a pinning ceremony and reception Thursday, May 7, followed by Investiture on Friday, May 8, on Vanderbilt’s Magnolia Lawn. The ceremonies recognized students completing their programs in August and December 2025 and May 2026.
The Class of 2026 included 354 Master of Science in Nursing students, 49 Doctor of Nursing Practice students and 41 Master of Nursing students. Maggie Root, who earned a PhD in Nursing Science from the Vanderbilt Graduate School, was also recognized. In addition to their degrees, several nurses earned Post-Master’s Certificates in additional advanced practice specialties.
Dean and Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing Pamela Jeffries, PhD, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, called the graduates innovators and leaders.
“By virtue of your work as nurses and nurse leaders, you will become innovators,” Jeffries said. “Your daily experiences as part of the largest professional group in the health care workforce give you the unique opportunity to develop practical, empathetic solutions to address patient care. Your ingenuity and talent, traits which have served you well here at Vanderbilt, will be incredible assets at the next stage of your careers.”
Graduating students received words of encouragement from Chief Program Officer for the National League for Nursing Gordon Gillespie, DNP’15, PhD, FAAN, who encouraged students to accept the call for leadership.
“As future nurses and advanced practice nurses, you will be in positions to mentor, guide, nurture and coach others,” Gillespie said. “Leadership goes beyond being a charge nurse or director of patient services. Leadership is about how you respond to environmental stressors and organizational changes. I challenge you to take up the call to leadership and seek it out when you can.”
Robert Midkiff, a Nursing Informatics MSN graduate, was selected as Founder’s Medalist for the School of Nursing. Each year, Vanderbilt awards the Founder’s Medal to the top scholar in each of its 10 schools in honor of founder Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Midkiff’s path to nursing was shaped by the loss of his father, who died from a heart attack after living with heart failure and undergoing open-heart surgery. As part of his Vanderbilt studies, Midkiff developed ShieldFlow, an AI-enabled life-support machine with a monitoring and decision-support platform designed to standardize care and reduce complications for patients needing high-level life support.
“Robert has forged an identity as a technologically motivated and innovation-focused nurse,” Jeffries said. “He is driven to help bridge the gap between advanced critical care capabilities and underserved communities through scalable, data-driven, and ethically integrated solutions.”
The Class of 2026 included 42 Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, 19 Adult- Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, 77 Family Nurse Practitioner, 23 FNP/Emergency Nurse Practitioner, 11 Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, 16 Nurse-Midwifery, seven Nurse-Midwifery/Family Nurse Practitioner, six Nursing and Health Care Leadership Nurse Practitioner, seven Nursing Informatics, nine Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, 41 Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, 79 Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, 26 Women’s Health and Gender-Related Nurse Practitioner, and six Women’s Health Gender-Related Nurse Practitioner/Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner graduates.
