Nominated by four patients, DeWire is a recipient of a 2024 Patient and Family Choice Award.

The COIN program supports research innovations and partnerships to ensure that research has the greatest possible impact on Veterans Health Administration policies, health care practices and health outcomes for veterans.

“I take my time with every single patient and want to hear what brought them here and what they want to take out of their experience.”

They are the only two from Tennessee named this year for the program, which provides support for each student’s dissertation research for up to three years.

In recognition of the importance and partnership of advanced practice practitioners (APPs) with nurses and physicians in delivering patient care, Vanderbilt University Hospital has added APP directors to the VUH segment leadership teams

Over her two decades in the department, Jenkins has worked alongside the program’s educational leadership, managing student recruitment and enrollment, organizing critical data for DBMI’s National Library of Medicine grant, budgeting, overseeing weekly informatics seminars and planning social activities for students.

There, she will develop and implement program aims, participate in strategic decision-making in the Cancer Center, direct pilot project funding, facilitate interactions among Cancer Center members, and assist in the recruiting activities for the 42-member program with over $11.7 million in annual peer-reviewed funding.