(Photo by Alex Dolce)

Three faculty members of Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing have been named 2024 Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). As distinguished nurse leaders, they will be recognized for their substantial and sustained impact on health and health care at the AAN’s annual Health Policy Conference this fall in Washington, D.C. This year’s conference theme is “Courageous Transformations Toward an Equitable Future.”

The AAN serves the public by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis and dissemination of nursing knowledge. AAN Fellows are inducted into the organization for their extraordinary contributions to improve health locally and globally. With more than 3,000 fellows, the AAN represents nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice and academia. The newest fellows represent 37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and 14 countries.

“Being inducted into the American Academy of Nursing is one of the highest honors of the nursing profession and underscores the importance of leadership, science and innovation to improve health and wellness and achieve health equity, a hallmark of the academy,” said Patricia Liehr, Ph.D., interim dean, FAU Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. “We are incredibly proud of our nursing leaders for being named Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing this year and applaud them for their untiring contributions in research, education and community service.”

The 2024 Class of Fellows, selected from a competitive pool of applicants, represents a cross-section of nursing’s most dynamic leaders who are making positive change in their systems and communities to champion health and wellness. The AAN will host the induction ceremony and soiree on Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C., as a special tribute to showcase nursing leadership, science and innovation.

The FAU Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing AAN Fellows are: 

Lisa Wiese , Ph.D., is an associate professor, whose research and scholarly work is aimed at increasing understanding, early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in rural populations. She has received state and federal funding, including from the Florida Department of Health, Washington State University, and the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Wiese is the principal investigator of a recent five-year, $4.2 million R01 NIH grant, “The Role of Air Quality and Built Environment in Social Isolation and Cognitive Function Among Rural, Racially/Ethnically Diverse Residents at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.”

The project includes collaborators from the University of Miami, Colorado State University and Washington State University and involves more than 1,000 individuals ages 45 and older who have not been previously diagnosed with ADRD who reside in the communities of Canal Point, South Bay, Pahokee and Belle Glade in Palm Beach County. The community-based participatory research is led by a multidisciplinary group of local faith-based health educators. Supported through state, federal and private funding, this powerful collaboration is focused on empowering rural, older racially/ethnically diverse adults to age in place through dementia awareness, detection and management.

Wiese is board certified in advanced public health nursing, gerontological nursing and rural health nursing. She was selected as a 2021 Hartford Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing and a 2023 Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She serves on the Florida State Health Improvement Plan taskforce and also is a member of the “IMPACT-AD” Class of 2023 and a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. 

Beth King , Ph.D., is an associate professor, a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, and a certified HeartMath® trainer and certified telehealth health provider. She is the coordinator of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program and practices at the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center, a nurse managed clinic at FAU. King’s research focuses on mental health issues in vulnerable and often marginalized populations and development of prevention strategies and caring science in nursing education and practice.

King received a four-year, $3.9 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services for a nurse-led mobile health unit to create healthier populations in rural and medically underserved regions. She is the project director for HRSA grants, Caring-based Community & Academic Relationships for Excellence (CARE): Nurse-led Mobile Health Unit (2022-2026), Caring-based Academic Partnerships in Excellence: Veteran RNs in Primary Care (CAPE-V) (2019-2022), both focused on primary care practice in the community, impact of the social determinants of health-on-health outcomes, and caring practices in nursing.

King is the associate editor of the Journal of Art and Aesthetics in Nursing and Health Science and author of several publications related to mental health issues. King is co-author of Nursing Case Studies in Caring: Across the Practice Spectrum, which provides a teaching framework for the study of nursing grounded in caring science.

Angela Prestia , Ph.D., is an adjunct professor and a distinguished alumna of FAU, whose prominent career spans nearly 40 years. Since 2009, she has served as the chief nursing officer of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach, a role she previously held at Jupiter Medical Center.

Prestia is committed to advancing the nursing profession by developing nurse leaders, helping them meet challenges and problem solve to serve the best interests of their patients. As an adjunct professor at FAU, she also shares her knowledge and expertise with students. She taught an online course on clinical informatics just one semester after completing her doctorate at FAU in 2014. While few nurse executives contribute to the nursing literature, Prestia is the author of several peer-reviewed publications on nursing leadership.

Prestia serves as the president for the Association of Leadership Science in Nursing (ALSN), an international nursing organization inviting and respecting the uniqueness of its members in advancing nursing leadership science. ALSN provides multifaceted opportunities for the generation, dissemination and sustainability of nursing leadership science in education, research and practice.

In 2024, Prestia was named a FAU Hall of Fame inductee, and in 2015, the FAU Alumni Association named her a distinguished alumna. She also received the 2014 Rising Star Award from FAU’s Graduate College.

Prestia was part of the winning team for Tenet Corporation’s Circle of Excellence in both 2011 and 2012. Under her leadership, the hospital has received several accreditations and accolades, including being named a comprehensive community-based cancer center and chest pain center of excellence.

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