Linda S. Schwartz named Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing

Connecticut Nursing News, Sep-Nov 2001

Linda Spoonster Schwartz, DrPH, MSN, RN, Major USAF, NC (Ret) has a long history of involvement in nursing and veteran organizations. She retired from the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps and is a veteran of the Vietnam War. Schwartz is an advocate and activist who devoted her nursing practice to healing the wounds of war and improving the lives of America's 26 million veterans. Her perspective as a nurse and veteran have earned her the respect and trust of veterans, Congressional leaders and government officials alike. On numerous occasions, she has provided testimony on veteran issues to both Houses of Congress, the National Academy of Science and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Schwartz served as president of the Connecticut Nurses' Association (CNA) as well as the Connecticut Nurses' Foundation, treasurer of the ANA-PAC and a member of the American Nurses Association's (ANA) Board of Directors. For 12 consecutive years, she has been an appointed consultant to the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs as chair of the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans, vice-chair of the Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Combat Veterans and member of the Committee on Care of Seriously Mentally Ill Veterans. Schwartz was the treasurer and director of Legislative Affairs for the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project and a member of the National Board of Directors of Vietnam Veterans of America. She is currently funded by the TriService Nursing Research Program for a study of the health effects of exposures and service on military women who served in Vietnam. She recently received a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for an international conference on "The Long Term Ecological and Human Consequences of the Vietnam War."

Schwartz received a Diploma in Nursing from Saint Thomas Hospital School of Nursing, Akron, Ohio, a Cum Laude graduate of University of Maryland, and she received a Masters in Psychiatric Nursing from Yale University School of Nursing. In 1998 she completed her Doctoral Degree in Public Health from Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.