Directory of Scholars


Tristen Hensen 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Tristen Hensen is using her NEF scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Nursing Administration and Management from Norwich University. During the past 3 years she has worked on an Orthopedic/Trauma/Plastics medical-surgical floor and for 2 of those years... read more.

Sirena Hughes 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Sirena Hughes, NSNA winner, is currently enrolled in the Nurse Anesthesia program at Villanova University. After getting her BSN she worked in a Pediatrics Intensive Care unit at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. It was here that she was inspired to... read more.

Helen Masters 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Helen Masters, LILLIAN HIEMENZ award winner, worked as a Med/Surg nurse at Crittenden Regional Hospital but came to realize that her passion is oncology and the reason she became a nurse in the first place. She now works weekends providing direct pat... read more.

Mark McGraw 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Mark McGraw, winner of the MIRIAM POWELL scholarship, has been interested in pursuing a career as a nurse anesthetist since he got his BSN from the University of Delaware. After college he entered the critical care nurse internship program at Christi... read more.

Shaini Moonjeli 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Shaini Moonjeli, winner of the A.J.N. SCHOLARSHIP, began her career as a staff nurse in 1994 in a rural hospital in India. Currently she is working as an Advanced Nurse Clinician in the Coronary Care Unit at Emory University Hospital and studying in... read more.

Rafael Jose Ramos 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Rafael Jose Ramos is using his NEF scholarship award as a graduate student of Nursing Anesthesia at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. He worked for 3 years at a Cardio-thoracic Intensive Care Unit at Stanford Hospitals in California before d... read more.

Jana Ryan 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Jana Ryan, ISABEL McISAAC Scholarship, is completing her work toward an MSN at St. Louis University in the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner track and plans to test for her ANCC certification in January. For the last 8 years she has wor... read more.

Faresha Sims 2012-2013 Winner | Master’s Degree
Faresha Sims, winner of the ESTELLE OSBORNE scholarship, is a native Mississippian who is presently attending Virginia Commonwealth University Nurse Anesthesia Program. After completing her first year of advance practice study in the field of nurse a... read more.

Beth Chiatti 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Beth Chiatti, a nurse educator and winner of an NEF Scholarship, is pursuing her doctoral degree at Widener University in Chester, Pa. (where she also got her Masters degree). Her BA in Anthropology gives her a particular insightful slant as a nurse... read more.

Deborah Croy 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Winner of the Eleanor Lambertsen Scholarship, Deborah Croy, works with the underserved in rural Appalachia where she hopes her research studies in the doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) program will result in the ability to apply advanced evidence b... read more.

Kathleen Dermady 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Lillian Heimenz Scholarship winner Kathleen Dermady provides midwifery services to women in an academic prenatal center and has a special interest in caring for women challenged with diabetes in pregnancy. She began her nursing studies at the Univers... read more.

Heidi Gilroy 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Heidi Gilroy, winner of the Judith Whittaker Scholarship is studying for her PhD in nursing science at Texas Woman’s University in Houston, Texas. She earned her masters in nursing at Benedictine University before returning to Texas Woman’s for gradu... read more.

Joseph Halvorson 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
The National Student Nursing Association Scholarship winner, Joseph Halvorson, is pursuing his doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) in the adult-geriatric nurse practitioner specialty at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He has two goals: to... read more.

Ashley Henneghan 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin, Ashley Henneghan, winner of the Evelyn Barclay Scholarship, intends to become a nurse educator with a tenured position in the school of nursing to help educate more nurses to meet the... read more.

Gina Kearney 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Gina Kearney, winner of an NEF Scholarship is a doctoral candidate at Molloy College in Long Island, New York. Gina has been a nurse for over 20 years. She received her undergraduate degree in nursing from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Gr... read more.

Renee McLeod-Sordjan 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Renee McLeod-Sordjan, NEF Scholarship winner, is a native New Yorker and presently attends Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. She is studying for a PhD in nursing. Her road to a successful nursing career includes a BSN from Pace University... read more.

Maura Moran Brain 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Maura Moran Brain, winner of the Isabel Hampton Robb Scholarship, is pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts in Boston while working as a nurse practitioner at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. It was also at the Universit... read more.

Cheryl Petersen 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
The Barbara Tate Scholarship was awarded to Cheryl Petersen who is pursuing her doctoral degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while working as an oncology research nurse at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. With twenty years of nur... read more.

Leslie Rhodes 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
The Margaret Tyson Award went to Leslie Rhodes who is pursuing her doctorate at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, while working as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She is involved in b... read more.

Sarah Rozychi Giron 2013-2014 Winner | Doctoral Degree
Sarah Giron was awarded the Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association/ J. M. Ida Mutch Scholarship. She will use her award to pursue her doctoral degree at the University of San Diego’s Hahn School of Nursing and... read more.

Donate Today


Support Graduate Nursing Education

NEF’s only purpose is to provide nursing scholarship assistance to make graduate level nursing education possible. NEF is one of the largest, national, private, professionally endorsed source of funds for advanced nursing study with over one hundred years of service to and for professional nursing.

NEF’s Board of Directors is comprised of leaders from nursing, education, technology, and business communities. Members donate their time and talent to the advancement of the nursing profession. NEF operates with exceptionally low overhead. NEF employs only one individual who serves in several capacities. NEF is a non-profit organization with 501(c) status; thus, your contributions are fully tax-deductible.