Alumni celebrated for nursing excellence

The School of Nursing Alumni Society Board named the 2024 recipients of its annual awards – the Excellence in Practice Award, Distinguished Alumni Humanitarian Award and Rising Star Award. Awardees were honored at the All School Reunion in November. 

Excellence in Practice Award: Debra Lynn Eardley, DNP ’12, MS ’11 

The second-ever recipient of the Excellence in Practice Award, Eardley models evidence-based, equity-centered nurse leadership. She is an associate professor at Metropolitan State University in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and director of the Partners in Prevention Community Clinic, which focuses on health promotion and disease prevention. Developed in collaboration with community members, the Minneapolis-based clinic serves a diverse population that typically faces barriers to health care access. Eardley implements evidence-based strategies in her practice at the clinic, including practicing student-centered teaching and culturally sensitive learning activities to prepare students for their service at the clinic. Since the development of the clinic in 2020, Eardley and her students have developed trust with the community the clinic serves, and she has been approached to replicate the clinic’s framework in other areas. The students Eardley works with often go on to working in public health, focusing on removing barriers to health care, evidence of Eardley’s impact as a professor, nurse and leader.

Distinguished Alumni Humanitarian Award: Barbara Balik, MS ’79 

Balik is an expert in transformational health care leadership. Her outstanding nursing career has included work in improving patient safety, collaborating with executive health care leaders to improve systems and engaging health care professionals to promote flourishing. By redesigning core systems with safety and transparency at the forefront, Balik centers patients and families to improve health care experiences and outcomes. She integrates innovation in her approach to complex health care systems, assisting leaders and team members as they implement new technology in their practice. Her pioneering Joy in Work framework reengages health care professionals by providing tools and curriculum to mitigate burnout and identify joy in work. Balik has also coached health care leaders to help them develop health care cultures that center safety, positive patient experiences and employee engagement, enabling her own humanitarian values to ripple throughout other health care systems. Her system-focused, innovation-centric leadership has improved outcomes, saved lives and transformed work, exemplifying the humanitarian service in the healthcare environment.

Rising Star Award: Nicholas Schuler, BSN ’18 

Since Schuler’s undergraduate graduation with honors in 2018, he has remained an integral member of the School of Nursing community, serving on the Alumni Society Board and co-chairing the board’s mentoring committee. He deeply understands the need for mentoring in nursing students and has revised the alumni mentoring program to more effectively engage current nursing students and connect them with fellow alumni. In his professional career, Schuler has served as a staff and charge nurse in fast-paced intensive care units at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) and University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, later assuming the role of pediatric lead in the UMMC Special Pathogens Unit. He has brought his passion for nurse resilience and wellbeing to the pediatric ICU, where he serves as the wellness ambassador to staff and provides resources to over 100 staff members. He is a current Doctor of Nursing Practice student and volunteers on the Nurse Anesthesia Wellness and Mentorship Committee to serve fellow nurse anesthesia students. Schuler’s nominator shared that she looks forward to “continuing to observe the many ways in which he continues to enhance the lives of patients, colleagues, the profession and the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.”