A Retirement Open House was held Friday, April 25th, 2008 at the
American Heritage Center Stockgrower's Room in honor of Dr. Norma
Wilkerson's 25 years of service at the University of Wyoming School of
Nursing. Wilkerson is "deeply respected by faculty and
administration for her high standards and commitment to the state of
Wyoming," said Dr. Pamela Clarke, who welcomed the crowd of
approximately 60 guests. Dr. Mary Burman, Dean of the Fay W. Whitney
School of Nursing, brought her congratulations to the podium, and Mary
Behrens, District Representative from Casper for the Wyoming Nurses'
Association (WNA) and Advisory Board member for the Fay W. Whitney
School of Nursing, gave a presentation that is available in video
by clicking the link in the header section of this page. (You
must have QuickTime to view the presentation, so a link can be found
there as well from which to download the program.)
Clarke noted that Wilkerson has been a nurse for
more than 40 years; she received her PhD in Education and Curriculum
from The University of Texas at Austin (1982) and came to Wyoming one
year later. During her 25 year stay in Wyoming, she has amassed
numerous professional honors and awards. Most recently she was honored
as Albany County Nurse of the year (2007). As noted on her web page
(click HERE), she has
won many teaching awards, meritorious service awards, awards for
excellence in advising, project awards, and the list goes on.
She has multiple publications to her credit (also
listed on her web page); her grants have been in the area of Maternal
Child Health and substance abuse prevention---with a coveted National
Institute of Health (NIH) RO1 grant which received the award of
'promising practices' as an exemplary project….."something only a few
of us have achieved," said Clarke. Wilkerson has also mentored
faculty, nurse educator students, and undergraduate students at all
levels. Clarke stated, "to her credit she has focused on the very
beginning Nursing 1000 freshman students." Each year for several
years Wilkerson and her husband, joined by other interested faculty,
have been taking the Nursing Freshman Interest Groups (FIGS) for field
trips. See the FIG Tour link for
beautiful pictures of their Fall 2007 escapade to the Snowy Range.
Our school echoes Clarke's thank you to Dr.
Wilkerson: "Thank you for your sage advice, your passion for students;
thank you for what you have done for the school and for nursing in the
state of Wyoming over the last 25 years." You will be deeply
missed.
