The 2021 Alumni Awards recipients

The college conferred the 43rd annual Distinguished Alumni Award and honored the fourth class of Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award winners.

Distinguished Alumni Award: TONDA HUGHES, PHD ’89, RN, FAAN

HENRIK H. BENDIXEN PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL NURSING AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING

As a young researcher in the early 1990s, Tonda Hughes wanted to study the effects of alcohol on lesbian women’s health. It was an area with little research and the studies that had been done relied on problematic methods.

Her advisors discouraged her, saying she might not be able to get funding, publish or earn tenure if she focused on the stigmatized topic.

“My well-meaning advisors didn’t think it was a good idea— that I might jeopardize my career,” she recalls.

Hughes persevered, and 30 years later, she’s an internationally recognized expert in the field of sexual minority (e.g., lesbian and bisexual) women’s health, with more than $25 million in career research funding. A professor emerita at UIC Nursing, she is the Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing and associate dean for global health at the Columbia University School of Nursing.

“The idea of really following your passion—even if it isn’t the most popular thing to do—I think that’s so important, and has made all the difference in my life,” Hughes says.

Hughes grew up in rural, southeastern Kentucky, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Her parents didn’t have much formal education—her father started working in the coal mines at age 18—but they instilled in their children an “unquestionable respect for education,” Hughes says.

Her master’s degree program in community mental health at the University of Kentucky influenced her interest in women’s health, and she chose UIC for her doctoral degree because of its strong program in that area. “UIC was really, truly a leader in the women’s health movement in the 1980s,” she says.

As a young researcher at UIC Nursing, Hughes became interested in studying what she called, “the myth of lesbian alcoholics.” She found that many research papers at the time used the same startling statistic: one-third of lesbians were alcoholic. There was just one problem. The original research —which was referenced by subsequent authors—relied on participants recruited at gay bars, a sample that did not reflect the broader population.

Since then, the field of sexual minority health studies has continued to gain mainstream recognition. Hughes’ early studies have grown into the world’s longest running longitudinal study of alcohol use and health among sexual minority women.

In pursuit of that research, Hughes faced what she calls “bumps in the road,” including being numbered among an infamous 2003 list of more than 200 NIH grantees—most investigating sexual behavior and drug abuse—created by a conservative Christian advocacy group. The NIH reviewed the grants and ultimately determined all were sound.

“Those of us who have known Tonda for many years, know she began this research in the 1990s at a time when there was [almost] no concern or acknowledgement of sexual minority women’s health needs,” wrote Mariann Piano, PhD ’88, MS ’84, RN, FAAN, FAHA, in her nomination letter. Piano, UIC Nursing professor emerita and former Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, is now senior associate dean for research and Nancy and Hilliard Travis Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

Hughes was a UIC Nursing staple for 27 years, serving as associate dean for global health, head of the department of Health Systems Science and Nursing Collegiate Professor.

“She has had a long-term, outstanding program of research that places her among the premiere nurse-scientists in the U.S. and internationally,” Piano wrote. “Her research has had a major impact on both knowledge and healthcare for sexual minority women.”

Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award: DALE BEATTY, DNP ’17, RN, NEA-BC

CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, VICE PRESIDENT FOR PATIENT CARE SERVICES, STANFORD HEALTHCARE

Dale Beatty’s career can be summed up with four words that are good for anyone to consider no matter where life takes them: Listen to your mother.

Two years into college Beatty still didn’t have a career goal. His mother, an occupational hazard nurse at an Ohio steel mill, took notice.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you think about becoming a nurse?’” Beatty says. “This was the 1980s. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility.”

It made perfect sense, even if he was the only man in his nursing program. That experience of “being the only one” helped him understand what many people face throughout their lives and careers.

Now leading a team of 3,000 nurses at Stanford, Beatty cites that kind of empathy as a foundation for his leadership career. He was previously vice president of patient care services and CNO at St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Blue Island, Illinois, and CNO at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Beatty was recognized by US News and World Report’s Top 15 Hospital Chief Nursing Officers in 2021 and is president-elect of the Association of California Nurse Leaders.

Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award: SANDRA MARTELL, DNP ’10, MS ’93, RN

PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATOR, WINNEBAGO COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Sandra Martell, started college with a plan to be a biomedical engineer, but a campus outbreak of Russian flu changed her course. With her dorm quarantined, Martell helped take care of those around her who fell ill.

She recalls one of her dorm mates asking, “Have you ever thought about being a nurse?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it [before that],” Martell says. “But I knew I wanted to help people.”

Now, she’s leading a county of 280,000 people that includes Illinois’ fifth most populous city, Rockford, through the COVID-19 pandemic, setting policy and providing education and guidance to reduce the transmission of the virus.

The pandemic is just one challenge Martell faces because of Winnebago County’s variety of populations: urban, suburban and rural. She has worked for the county since 2014 after serving as the Cook County Department of Public Health’s chief nursing officer and interim chief operations officer.

“It’s the right size for those of us who are looking to do intervention work,” she says. “There are opportunities for community engagement, intervention and evaluation of the impact.”

Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award: TIMOTHY CARRIGAN, PHD ’11, RN

CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, VICE PRESIDENT FOR PATIENT CARE, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

The pandemic hit just four months after Timothy Carrigan came to Loyola, creating an immediate challenge. “You can argue that you learn the strengths and weaknesses of an organization quickly in a crisis,” he says. “It might have taken me a year or two to figure out some of the things I saw in the first six months of the pandemic.”

Carrigan, who grew up in Decatur, Illinois, began his career as an ICU nurse at UI Health, UIC’s affiliated medical center, in Chicago. At the urging of a mentor, he soon began his PhD studies at UIC. Four years into his career, colleagues recognized his leadership potential and encouraged him to apply for a management position.

Leadership positions at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center followed, and Carrigan quickly gained notice for his work. He received the Chicago Health Executive Forum Early Career Healthcare Executive Award and was named to the Illinois Nurses Foundation list of 40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders in 2018. In 2020, he was named a Chicago Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Executive. He is president-elect of the Illinois Organization of Nurse Leaders.

The impact Carrigan has made on healthcare has brought him satisfaction, but what brings him particular joy is the ability to recognize and mentor talent in the same way others made an impact on him—including Mariann Piano, PhD ‘88, MS ‘84, RN, FAAN, FAHA, and Mary Ann Anderson, his PhD advisor and dissertation committee chair.

READ MORE Visit go.uic.edu/MeetNursingAlumni to read full profiles of our award winners.

The college is accepting nominations for the 2022 Alumni Awards Program through Feb. 1. Nominate a colleague at go.uic.edu/NursingAlumAwards.