DAISY Award Archive — Page 1 of 10

Nurse Jenny Shelton holds a framed award plaque beside a green The DAISY Award bag, with bouquets of daisies displayed around her.
September 14, 2026

40 years, countless lives: Jenny Shelton honored with DAISY lifetime achievement award for extraordinary nursing career

Her husband jokes that she has delivered half of Tullahoma. Sometimes when she’s walking around town, it can seem like it.

By Kylie Avery
September 4, 2026

DAISY Award spotlight: ‘I’m certain that Miss Holly’s warmth and reassurance greatly assisted in my wife’s speedy recovery.’

Holly Bobo, RN, works in the Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt Bedford County Hospital. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

By Kylie Avery
Carsen Hessler, RN, stands with arms crossed in a hospital hallway wearing a Vanderbilt T-shirt; a wall sign behind her reads “Medical Intensive Care Unit.”
September 4, 2026

DAISY Award spotlight: ‘She brought a calm and comforting energy that made one of the worst experiences of our lives feel survivable.’

Carsen Hessler, RN, is a Nurse Resident in the Trauma ICU in the Critical Care Tower. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

By Kylie Avery
Kristi Sherrod, RN, holds a framed “The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses” certificate and a dark abstract nursing award sculpture.
July 20, 2026

DAISY Award spotlight: ‘She is the only reason I didn’t have a panic attack.’

Kristi Sherrod, RN, works at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Clarksville Dunlop Lane clinic. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

By Kylie Avery
Michelle Gontko, RN, smiles while holding a framed DAISY Award certificate for Extraordinary Nurses.
July 20, 2026

DAISY Award spotlight: ‘Trusting someone with your life is one thing, but trusting someone with your newborn child is entirely different.’

Michelle Gontko, BSN, RN, works in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

By Kylie Avery
Katie Leavy, RN, smiles while holding a green DAISY Foundation award folder in a hospital hallway. The folder reads, “The DAISY Foundation” and “Honoring nurses internationally in memory of J. Patrick Barnes.”
July 20, 2026

DAISY Award spotlight: ‘Despite this not being the birth I had envisioned, I still came away feeling overwhelmingly positive, and that is entirely because of Katie.’

Katie Leavy, RN, works in the Labor and Delivery unit at Vanderbilt University Hospital. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

By Kylie Avery