The American Academy of Nursing inducted 116 nurse leaders, including Margarete Lieb Zalon, Ph.D., professor of nursing at The University of Scranton, as Fellows during the academy’s 37th annual meeting and conference on Nov. 13 in Washington, D.C. This is the largest class of inductees since 2002. 

“Selection for membership in the Academy is one of the most prestigious honors in the field of nursing,” said Academy President Catherine L. Gilliss, DNSc, RN, FAAN. “Academy Fellows are truly experts. The Academy Fellowship represents the nation’s top nurse researchers, policymakers, scholars, executives, and practitioners.” 

Selection criteria include evidence of significant contributions to nursing and health care. Each nominee must be sponsored by two current Academy Fellows. The new Fellows are selected by a panel comprised of elected and appointed Fellows, and selection is based, in part, on the extent to which nominees' nursing careers influence health policies and health care delivery for the benefit of all Americans. New Fellows will be eligible to use the credentials FAAN (Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing) after their November induction.

Dr. Zalon’s leadership legacy includes grassroots advocacy, progressive program design, execution, and outcomes in state and national nursing organizations focused on establishing practice and education policy, and building research funding capacity. These activities have made a unique impact on the work of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA), American Nurses Credentialing Center, American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Nurses Foundation (ANF). As PSNA president, her legislative testimony helped secure the first nurse appointee to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an agency that has propelled the state to be a leader in public outcomes reporting. 

As ANF board chair, she strengthened the philanthropic initiatives and the premier grants program that launched the careers of many nurse researchers. She dramatically increased ANF’s visibility and ability to fund promising new investigators, doubling its funding partners and more than doubling its grant awards. She worked to augment support for the AAN/ANF/ANA Institute of Medicine Scholar-in-Residence program, ensuring nurse leaders are active participants in policy discussions. Dr. Zalon’s efforts in tracking National Institutes of Health funding obtained by ANF Scholars documents the value of seed money for nursing research.

Dr. Zalon is the chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the American Nurses Foundation.  She is a recipient of the Duke University School of Nursing Distinguished Alumna Award and the PSNA Distinguished Nurse Award.

Dr. Zalon received her BSN from Duke University and her MA and Ph.D. in nursing from New York University. She is certified as a clinical nurse specialist in adult health nursing.