Dr. Patti Rager Zuzelo, Professor and Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing on October 13, 2012 in Washington, D.C. at the Academy’s 39th Annual Meeting and Conference.

The American Academy of Nursing’s approximately 1,890 Fellows are nursing leaders in education, management, practice, policy, and research. Selection criteria include evidence of significant contributions to nursing and health care and sponsorship by two current Academy Fellows.

Zuzelo was acknowledged as an expert educator, researcher, and advanced practice nurse leader. She has been recognized with the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Einstein Hospital Network’s 2005 Shared Governance Award, the 2006 Nurse Researcher Nightingale Award of Pennsylvania and several Excellence in Nursing Research Awards from the Kappa Delta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International.

The Clinical Nurse Specialist Handbook, written by Zuzelo, was recognized with the 2007 AJN Book of the Year Award in the Advanced Practice Nursing Category. The book is recommended as a certification examination preparatory book by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and is used in many graduate programs nationally and internationally.

Zuzelo has served as President of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists and is an appointee to the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist examination content expert panel and, most recently, to the Strategic Advisory Group for Quality and Safety Education.