ANA Innovation Awards

Innovation Award Applications 

Applications for the next cycle of the Innovation Awards open on June 1, 2024.

These awards offer $25,000 for an individual nurse and $50,000 for a nurse-led team. An honorable mention will be selected from each innovation category.

Innovation comes in many forms, our categories include:

• Care Delivery Models
• Educational Interventions
• Medical Device or Product
• New Business, Program, or Service
• Research
• Technology

Apply Here

Do you have further questions? Check out our 2025 Innovation Awards FAQ’s and Rules. If you want to talk to us in person, join our standing office hours:

• Fourth Friday of every month from 12:00-1:00 pm eastern
• https://ana-nursingknowledge.zoom.us/j/84235985037?pwd=89PoqmN9m1uyPpxMF7aJwrdYbSGXL2.1
• Meeting ID: 842 3598 5037
• Passcode: 736776

What impact can winning have on your innovation work? A lot according to our past winners. So why not take a chance on your ideas?

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2024 ANA Innovation Award Winners

Winner of the Individual Nurse Award

Kwamane Liddell, JD, RN, BSN
Founder and CEO
ThriveLink

Kwamane Liddell is the creative mind behind the advanced technology at ThriveLink, which uses a voice activated program enrollment platform that bridges the gap between individuals and essential social programs that are underutilized.

This innovation helps address the social determinants of health impacting many marginalized communities that inevitably influence health outcomes. The ThriveLink platform connects people to resources such as utility assistance, rental and mortgage assistance, food benefits, health insurance, health care programs and more.

ThriveLink has the ability to create access for the 130 million people who currently struggle to complete the administrative burden and paperwork necessary to successfully enroll in these programs. The ThriveLink technology provides health consumers with a user-friendly experience by eliminating the middleman, the tedious requirement to fill out numerous forms, and language and cultural barriers faced by many families in need. The entire process to apply for an assistance program can be completed by anyone in just four steps and is available 24/7, on a mobile phone or website.

 

Winner of the Nurse-Led Team Award

Wallena (Lena) Gould, EdD, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN
Founder and CEO
Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program

 

Team Members

• Mark Giles, DNP, CRNA
• Tedrick Vernon, DNP, CRNA
• Victor Pareja, DNP, CRNA
• Levia Sutton, CRNA, MSN
• Rylee Apodaca, DNP, CRNA
• Daniel Payne, CRNA, MSN
• Jiale Gary Hu, PhD, RN, FAAN
• Nathaly Palacios, DNP, CRNA

 

                           

The Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is dedicated to promoting and advancing diversity within graduate nurse anesthesia programs. This is primarily accomplished through the Immersion Model for Diversifying Nurse Anesthesia Programs (The Immersion Model), an innovative, evidence-based program focused on the diversification of the nursing workforce. It was created specifically for nurses of color who have been historically underrepresented as certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs); thereby, aiming to help reduce health disparities, structural inequities, and institutional biases. The Immersion Model prepares nurses of color to be competitive applicants for graduate anesthesia programs and successful students while equipping them to provide better health outcomes for the diverse population.

What’s unique about the Immersion Model is that it’s the only program that actively engages with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions Schools of Nursing. With the award funds, The Immersion Model’s goal is to expand its professional events for CRNAs across the country. It also seeks to replicate this successful program for Advance Practice Nurses (APRNs).

 

2024 Individual Honorable Mention

Brenda Lessen Knoll, PhD, RN
Founder
PIOMI

2024 Team Honorable Mention

Diane Miller, CRNA
CEO
PeDIA, LLC

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Need inspiration? Check out the videos of all winners here.

View past winners

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Thank you to our sponsor Stryker for their support of nursing innovation!