Academics

Nursing faculty member, alumna inducted into American Academy of Nursing

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A faculty member and an alumna of Penn State’s College of Nursing were among 163 nurse leaders selected for the 2015 cohort of American Academy of Nursing (AAN) Fellows.

Harleah Buck, assistant professor of nursing, and Kelly Ambrosi Wolgast, a 1985 nursing graduate, were inducted as AAN Fellows during the AAN’s annual conference Oct. 17 in Washington, D.C.

Fellowship in the academy is a prestigious honor reserved for those nursing leaders who have made significant contributions to nursing education, management, practice, policy and research. Selection is based in part on the extent to which nominees’ careers have influenced health policies and the health and well-being of all.

Buck joined the Penn State College of Nursing faculty as an assistant professor in 2010. She is co-director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn State. Earlier this year, Buck was selected to appear on the cover of the Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing as a “Face of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA).” In 2014, she was inducted as a Fellow of the HPNA and also received the John A. Hartford Geriatric Nursing Practice Research Award from the Eastern Nursing Research Society. Her most recent project, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health and supported by the Highmark Foundation, focuses on “Improving Rural Geriatric Care through Education.” Buck holds a doctorate in nursing from the University of South Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wolgast received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Penn State in 1985. She is an assistant professor and director of Vanderbilt University’s master of science in nursing degree program in health care leadership. Before arriving at Vanderbilt in 2011, she served 26 years of active duty in the U.S. Army as a nurse, retiring with the rank of colonel. While serving in the Army, Wolgast earned the Bronze Star for combat experience as deputy commander and chief nurse in Afghanistan. She also served as a hospital commander for relief operations following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and as senior nurse executive of the U.S. Army Medical Command. Wolgast was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2008. That same year, she was named one of 100 Distinguished Graduates of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, from which she earned her master of science in nursing in administration and education in 1993. Wolgast also holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle and a doctor of nursing practice degree in executive nurse leadership from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Last Updated October 21, 2015