On October 27th, 2018 as part of its 3rd Annual Black Nurses Rock Convention, the “Shades of Blue” National Awards and Scholarship Banquet was held in San Antonio, TX, giving recognition to those individuals who demonstrated outstanding service to both their local communities and the Black Nurses Rock organization. The honorees are as follows:

• Chapter President of the Year: Drumeka Rollerson, RN (Ocala, FL)

• Most Innovative Chapter: Kansas City Chapter (Kansas City, MO)

• Largest Chapter: Greater Atlanta Chapter (Atlanta, GA)

• Community Award: Orlando Chapter (Orlando, FL)

• Nurse Mentor of the Year: Rachel Drayton, CRNA (Ocala, FL)

• Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year: Onissa S. Mitchell, FNP-C (Tyler, Texas)

• Retired Nurse of the Year: Beverly Johnson (Philadelphia, PA)

• Black Nurse Rock Award: Barbara Kinney, RN (Kansas City, MO)

• Nurse Entrepreneur of the Year: Juliua Williams (Tyler, Texas)

• Faculty Member of the Year: Shanita Wideman, RN (Tyler, Texas)

• Community Service Nurse of the Year: Patricia Branham, RN (Tyler, Texas)

• Nurse in Non-traditional Setting: Patricia Crowder, RN (Tyler, Texas)

• Military Nurse of the Year: Major Richard Smith (Seattle, WA)

• Corporate Partner of the Year: Diane Deese, VITAS Healthcare

Each year, in addition to recognition awards, Black Nurses Rock also presents scholarships to active Black Nurses Rock members on the basis of academic achievement, financial need, and community involvement. As of today, BNR has awarded over $70,000 in scholarship/grant funds. The 2018 scholarship recipients are as follows:

JaDaun Rawls , RN - Frontier Nursing University, Midwifery Program (Daytona, FL)

• Barbara Kinney , RN – Grand Canyon University, MBA/MSN (Kansas City, MO)

• Traci Miles, RN –Laboure College, BSN Program (Brockton, MA)

Black Nurses Rock couldn’t be more proud of these remarkable nurses and their passion towards influencing and inspiring communities through their work!