Georgette Viellion Scholarship
For Doctoral Nursing Students Preparing to Become Full-Time Nurse Educators
The Georgette Viellion Scholarship was established in 2021 by a generous donation of $50,000 from Mary V. Insall to honor her cherished nurse friend “Gigi,” in memoriam. Ms. Viellion graduated from the Hotel Dieu School of Nursing in 1960. Her career in nursing took her from New Orleans to San Francisco, New York City, Indianapolis, and even Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She received the Clara Donahoo Memorial Lectureship Award from the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses in 2004.
This scholarship is dedicated to the advancement of nursing education and is intended for a doctoral student devoted to becoming a full-time faculty member. As a doctoral-prepared nurse educator and leader, the recipient will develop expertise in teaching and scholarship, as well as a service orientation for educating future nurse leaders.
Featured Georgette Viellion Scholarship Recipients
Recipients of this scholarship are committed to educating nursing students, as evidenced by their doctoral student roles as teaching assistants, lecturers, and instructors. These scholars go beyond the classroom to develop new programs and maintain clinical expertise that will benefit the next generation of nursing students:
Carrie Barr, MSN, RN
- Worked as a critical care nurse at the Alaska Native Medical Center during COVID-19, where she witnessed how profoundly social determinants of health shape patient outcomes
- Helped develop a nursing program at Alaska Pacific University that received special commendation from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing for its foundation in Cultural Safety
- Serves as BSN Program Director and Senior Lecturer at the University of Wyoming's Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, and as a partner in the Revolutionizing Nursing Education in Wyoming (ReNEW) collaborative, a statewide partnership with eight community colleges that allows ADN graduates to complete their BSN in as little as one semester, expanding access for rural and non-traditional students across the state
- Received the Excellence in Leadership Award from the Wyoming Nurses Association
Alexandra "Ali" Gordon, MSN, RN, CEN
- Began her nursing career in the Alameda County Medical Center Emergency Department, serving some of the most vulnerable patients in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Serves as a full-time Assistant Professor at the Loretto Heights School of Nursing at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, where she teaches and mentors undergraduate nursing students
Roland Tuquero, DNP, CRNA
- Worked at Kaiser Permanente Hospital as a medical-surgical nurse, the University of California San Diego Medical Center as an RN in the cardiovascular, neuro, and trauma ICUs, and the cardiac catheterization lab
- Gained experience as a CRNA at Kaiser Permanente, Henry Ford Hospital, and Botsford Hospital before becoming staff CRNA at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan for over 10 years
- Educated student nurse anesthetists from various programs, including the University of Southern California-Kaiser Permanente, United States Navy-Balboa Hospital, Wayne State University, Oakland University, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan-Flint
Jennifer Myers, MSN, RN, CNE
- Worked in pediatric and neonatal intensive care settings where patient and family education was a critical component of her nursing care
- Assumed the role of a preceptor in the clinical setting, fostering the growth and development of nurses new to the profession or the pediatric and/or neonatal specialties
- Taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels in traditional classrooms, a simulation center, and online learning environments
- Was director of the online nursing education program at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and heavily involved in the curriculum revision process in the college of nursing
Phoebe Lim-Vuong, DNP
- Worked on the front line during the COVID pandemic, providing COVID testing and vaccination to the community.
- Taught at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington, and worked as a teaching assistant at Johns Hopkins University
- Accepted into the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS) mentorship program, then volunteered to pay it forward as a mentor for first-generation college students interested in health care
- Served as membership coordinator and then president of the Rush University Student Nurses Association, Director-at-Large for the Washington State Nurses Association, and member of the King County Nurses Association’s Nominating Committee
Wayne Quashie
- Certified as an Adult Health CNS by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and an Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist by the Oncology Nurse Society
- Responsible for ensuring that oncology and neuroscience nursing practice reflected the current evidence to ensure high-quality nursing care resulted in positive patient outcomes
- Served as a member of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, Oncology Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, and the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
- Now Director of Nursing, Evidence-Based Practice at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center