Diamond Jubilee Award Recipients 2004

Connecticut Nursing News, Jul/Aug 2004

The Vera R. Keane Award for Distinguished Service to the Connecticut Nurses' Association

Karen V.M. Banks, RN, MS, CNA

Karen Banks for three decades has been educating staff, developing managers and providing and supervising nursing care with expertise and skill. She has distinguished herself as a leader in nursing and through many years of service to Connecticut Nurses' Association (CNA) and to nurses and nursing in Connecticut.

Karen's commitment to professional nursing has been a constant as she advanced professionally and also provided hours of time, skill and energy to the professional association. As a member of CNA she has held a number of offices, served and chaired various committees and task forces, was a member of the board of directors and from 1988 she served as a delegate to CNA's House of Delegates.

Karen is now serving as the chair of the Nominations and Appointments Committee and as a member of the board of directors. She accepted these positions because she was asked to help with the leadership and transition with the recent restructuring of the association. Her organizational skills and inspiring leadership have helped the association with these latest changes and in all the activities that she has been involved with.

Her nominator wrote, "when a job needs to get done, Karen is always one of the first to volunteer, and everyone has learned that whatever task she tackles, it will be done correctly, completely, and on-time. She elicits the best from others in the same way she expects the best from herself. Her self-deprecating manner, sympathetic concern for others, and commitment to nursing have enabled her to be very effective in leading others."

Karen's professional and community commitments also include membership in Sigma Theta Tau-Mu Delta, presentations related to adaptive clothing and providing parish nursing through St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church and consultation regarding patient/public information on appropriate adaptive clothing as owner of Professional Opinion in Newtown, Connecticut.

Karen received a diploma in nursing from St. Vincent's Hospital, a B.S. in nursing from University of Bridgeport and an M.S. in management from the Hartford Graduate Center.

The Josephine A. Dolan Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Education

Ruth N. Knollmueller, RN, PhD

Ruth Knollmueller has an extensive background in public health nursing and home care with experience as a public health nurse, clinical supervisor, administrator, clinical specialist, consultant, researcher, prolific writer and extraordinary educator. She has held faculty positions at Yale University School of Nursing and the School of Public Heath, the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, UConn School of Nursing, the UHart Division of Nursing and the University of Texas School of Nursing at Galveston. Ruth also headed the Division of Education at the National Center for Homecare Education and Research in New York City and helped to set up and headed the Department of Education at the John D. Thompson Institute at the Connecticut Hospice.

Ruth's contributions to public health nursing and home care are many. Her nominator wrote, "she has an uncanny ability to act as "barometer" for public health and home care trends. Over the span of her career she helped develop the nurse practitioner role, the nursing role in the emerging home care specialty and the agenda for public health nursing in this country."

While helping to set the agenda for public health nursing, Ruth was also educating two generations of clinicians and leaders in public health nursing and home care who now hold clinical and leadership positions in public health, home care and nursing education throughout the state and country. Her graduates were sought after, not just because of their schools' prestige, but also because of Ruth and the high regard in which she is held as an educator.

Ruth is an active presence in the nursing and public health communities. She has held numerous state and national offices and chaired or served on committees and task forces in many organizations. When appointed to the State Board of Examiners for Nursing, she was sought out for her vision, clear thinking and her ability to articulate the complex regulatory issues affecting nursing practice and nursing education in the state.

Ruth's nominators view her as a cheerleader, confidant, mentor and expert who shares, without reward, her rich and successful public health nursing career. She is warm, funny, irreverent, self-effacing, articulate, clear-thinking, creative, refreshing-a woman of enormous energy and enthusiasm.

Knollmueller graduated with an associate's degree from North Park College' in Chicago, a BSN from University of Minnesota, an MPH from University of Michigan and received her Ph.D. from Waiden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Agnes Ohlson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Through Political Action

Marilyn Richard, APRN, EdD

Marilyn Richard has contributed significantly to nurses, nursing and patients through her roles as educator, nurse executive and as a psychiatric/mental health advanced practice registered nurse yet her impact and contributions have been notably enhanced through her tireless political action and advocacy.