Nursing’s Meneses bestowed esteemed nursing research honor

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karen meneses wSchool of Nursing Professor and Associate Dean for Research Karen Meneses Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, did not set out to become an internationally recognized nurse scientist in cancer survivorship.

She graduated from college with the goal of being a labor and delivery nurse, but the only position she could find was on a gynecologic oncology unit where half the patients on her floor had breast or reproductive system cancers. Fortunately for the millions of cancer survivors touched by her work, the needs of that patient population resonated with her and set the course for her more than 30-year calling in education, research and service for and with cancer survivors.

In recognition of her groundbreaking research and its sustained impact, Meneses has been selected to receive the 2013 Ada Sue Hinshaw Award from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research, one of the highest honors that can be given to a researcher in the field of nursing. Award recipients, according to FNINR, must have a practical, sustained program of research that would afford her or him recognition as a prominent senior scientist. It is named in honor of the first permanent director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, one of the National Institutes of Health. Meneses will receive the award Oct. 16 at the FNINR NightinGALA in Washington, D.C.