Northwestern Oklahoma State University is pleased to announce that Professor Emerita Shelly Wells, Ph.D., MBA, APRN—CNS, ANEF has been selected to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. (story continues below)
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Induction into the Academy is a significant milestone in a nurse leader’s career in which their accomplishments are honored by their colleagues within and outside the profession. Fellows are selected based on their contributions and impact to advance the public’s health.
“My selection as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing is humbling,” Wells said. “It is the preeminent honor in nursing and one that I am proud to have accomplished in my career. My work with the Charles Morton Share Trust Division of Nursing has played a big role in this accomplishment. Leadership at this level is afforded to less than 1% of the nursing profession, and I am proud to represent nursing on that international stage.”
The Academy is a policy organization and an honorific society that recognizes nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, practice, administration, and academia to advance equitable solutions to the nation’s most complex healthcare challenges. Academy Fellows, from over 40 countries, hold a wide variety of influential roles in health care.
Induction into the Fellowship represents more than recognition of one’s accomplishments within the nursing profession. Fellows contribute their collective expertise to the Academy, engaging with health leaders nationally and globally to improve health and achieve health equity by impacting policy through nursing leadership, innovation, and science.
Through a competitive, rigorous application process, the Academy’s Fellow Selection Committee reviewed nearly 400 applications to select the 2023 Fellows. The 2023 Fellows represent 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 13 countries.
Dr. Wells and the 2023 inductees will be recognized for their substantial, sustained, and significant contributions to health and health care at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference, taking place on Oct. 5 – 7, in Washington, D.C., during the Induction Ceremony on the evening of Oct. 7.
This is a historic year for the Academy as the organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Once the newest Fellows are inducted, the Academy will be comprised of more than 3,000 leaders who are experts in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia that champion health and wellness, locally and globally.
“I look forward to spending the remainder of my career working with world-renown nurse leaders to advance evidence-based innovations in nursing and health care delivery while exploring the health needs of populations, including diverse rural populations, through policy and research at the national and global levels,” Wells said.
Wells, who retires from Northwestern in July 2023, began her career 40 years ago at Graceland College in Iowa. After she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing, she completed her Master of Science, Master of Business Administration, and Doctor of Philosophy in nursing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
She has experience working in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and cardiac units. She has also been a product line manager of the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Specialties at a Level I trauma center. Before coming to Northwestern, she served as associate dean for the graduate programs at Graceland University and assistant dean for clinical and community affairs for the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing Tulsa campus. She worked as a professor of nursing at Northwestern for 11 years and served as the chair of the Charles Morton Share Trust Division of Nursing for nine years (2013-2022)
