ANA Innovation Awards Winners
Learn about the American Nurses Association's Innovation Awards Individual & Nurse-Led Team winners, and hear their nursing innovation stories.
2023 ANA Innovation Award Winners
Winner of the Nurse-Led Team Award
Roxanne McMurray, DNP, APRN, CRNA, Co-Founder and VP of Clinical Management, Inventor of the Distal Pharyngeal Airway - The McMurray Enhanced Airway (MEA)
McMurray Medical Team:
- Peter L. Anderson, Co-founder; Financial Director
- Ryan Artale, Partner, Product Development and Quality
- Steve Fischer, Co-founder and President
- Brian McMurray, Co-founder; Sales, Marketing, and Distribution Director
- Jana Stender, Marketing and Communications Consultant
The McMurray Medical team is passionate about improving healthcare through innovation. McMurray Medical was co-founded by Roxanne McMurray, DNP, CRNA, APRN, a practicing anesthesia provider of more than 30 years. Roxanne's deep experience led her to create a novel and much-needed modern solution to airway management.
The McMurray Enhanced Airway (MEA) is the first distal pharyngeal airway (DPA), which unlike traditional airway devices, has a longer length that extends beyond the tongue, stenting open redundant pharyngeal tissue. The MEA is designed to be a fast, easy, and effective way to open upper obstructed airways, and contribute to improved patient outcomes. When attached to a manual resuscitator or anesthesia circuit via the device’s optional connector, the MEA simplifies positive pressure mask ventilation with intraoral ventilation and can help decrease or avoid hypoxia during intubation.
The MEA is a versatile, intuitive airway management tool for both anesthesia and emergency applications. McMurray Medical is proud to be the recipient of multiple awards for the MEA’s unique and innovative design—and more importantly, to advance patient care in a meaningful way.
Winner of the Individual Nurse Award
Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP
Robin Austin is the nurse and creative mind behind “MyStrengths + MyHealth” (MSMH). It’s an app that provides comprehensive, individual health assessments that’s beneficial for families and communities. The app is designed to identify social determinants of health and enable personal health tracking and public health research. Users can self-report their health data in the categories of strengths, challenges, and needs within four domains: My Living, My Mind and Network, My Body, and My Self-Care. The MSMH app uses health care professional terminology that has been translated into easy-to-understand, reader-friendly content. It seeks to improve the health of individuals by giving the power back to the patients to share their own whole-person health data that includes social and behavioral determinants of health. The app is currently being implemented overseas and is increasing in popularity with usage by public health nurses and older adults in the community.
2023 Team Honorable Mention
Denise Hopkins-Chadwick, PhD, RN
Senior Vice President of Research
Revitalist, LLC
Nurses Set the Standard in Psychedelic Use for Mental Wellness
2023 Innovation Honorable Mention
Sherri Wilson, DNP, MPA, RN
Director, Partnership Development
Stride, Inc.
School to Career Linkages: Strengthening the Nursing Pipeline
2022 Winners:
Winner of the Individual Nurse Award - KaSheta Johnson Jackson, DNP, RN, Vice President, Health Equity and Social Impact at Vidant Health
Winners of the Nurse-Led Team
- Michael Pickett, MSN, APRN, CPNP, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at Texas Children's Hospital
- Marilyn Hockenberry, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Global HOPE Nursing at Baylor College of Medicine
- Jaime Choate, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, Nursing Professional Development Specialist at Texas Children's Hospital
- Jeannie Eggers, MSN, RN, CPN, CCRN, Simulation Education Specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital
- Tadala Mulemba, BscNM, RN – Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Ministry of Health, Malawi
2021 Winners:
Winner of the Individual Nurse Award - Becky Cherney, BSN, RN, TrachTrail™
Winner of the Nurse-led Team Award - Brighid Gannon, DNP, PMHNP-BC and Pritma Dhillon-Chattha, DNP, MHA, RN - Lavender
2020 Winners:
Team 2020 ANA Innovation Awards Winner - Joey Ferry, BSN, RN and Taofiki Gafar-Schaner, MSN, RN – Frontier Health Resources SafeSeizure™
Individual 2020 ANA Innovation Awards Winner – Jan Tedder, BSN, IBCLC, FNP – HUG Your Baby
2019 Winners:
Team 2019 ANA Innovation Awards Winner – Michael Wang, MBA, MSN, RN and Paul Coyne, DNP, MBA, MSF, RN, AGPCNP-BC – Inspiren
Individual 2019 ANA Innovation Awards Winner – Kathleen Puri, MSN, RN – Fitsi Health