UNMC will honor three people who have displayed tremendous dedication and excellence in their fields during its May 10 commencement ceremony in Omaha. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at the Omaha Civic Auditorium for students in the College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, College of Nursing Omaha division, School of Allied Health Professions and the Graduate College.
UNMC will award its Distinguished Service Award to Stanley Truhlsen, M.D., emeritus professor and former interim chairman of UNMC’s department of ophthalmology. UNMC will award an Honorary Doctor of Science degree to Marla Salmon, Sc.D., dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing of Emory University. Donald H. Zornes, who recently retired as president and chief executive officer of the Columbus Community Hospital, is this year’s recipient of the J.G. (Jack) Elliott Award, given annually to a Nebraska resident who has made significant contributions to medicine and health programs for the State of Nebraska and for UNMC.
UNMC will kick off its spring commencement ceremonies May 8, at 7 p.m. at the Health & Sports Center at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for students in the College of Nursing Kearney, the School of Allied Health Professions and the Graduate College.
On May 9, at 2 p.m., students in the College of Dentistry and the Lincoln division of the College of Nursing will participate in commencement ceremonies in the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln.
In all, approximately 530 students will graduate this spring from UNMC.
Distinguished Service Award
Stanley Truhlsen, M.D., is nationally recognized in the field of ophthalmology. A native of Herman, Neb., Dr. Truhlsen graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1941 and received his doctor of medicine from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in 1944. After completing residency-training programs in New York and St. Louis, Mo., he returned to Omaha in 1951 and entered private practice. At that time, he joined UNMC’s department of ophthalmology, where he served as interim chair of the department from 1989-90. He retired in 1993.
In 2001, he received the Lucien Howe Medal from the American Ophthalmological Society (AOS), the oldest ophthalmic organization in the United States. The Howe Medal is considered one of the most prestigious awards in ophthalmology and is the only honor award of the AOS. It is given in recognition of “conspicuous services as a researcher or a teacher during long years of devotion” and for contributions to ophthalmology.
Dr. Truhlsen’s professional involvements include: former president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Eye Study Club and Nebraska Academy of Ophthalmology, and member of the American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, Nebraska Medical Association, Omaha Ophthalmology Society and the Lions Eye Bank of Nebraska.
Dr. Truhlsen continues his service to the University as a founding member of the Friends of the McGoogan Library of Medicine and currently serves on the executive council for that group. He also is a trustee for the University of Nebraska Foundation.
UNMC is deeply grateful to Dr. Truhlsen’s generosity for establishing the Truhlsen Eye Research Laboratories in the Durham Research Center, which is scheduled to open this fall.
The UNMC Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals or organizations that have demonstrated outstanding support for UNMC by way of personal service, private contributions or other meritorious advocacy for the campus mission.
Honorary Doctor of Science degree
Marla Salmon, Sc.D., is the dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing of Emory University, and is a professor of nursing and public health. She is the founding director of the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing in the School of Nursing. Her leadership in these roles builds on a career that has been dedicated to improving the health of people through nursing and public health.
Dr. Salmon joined Emory in 1991 after serving as professor and graduate dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that role, she was director of the Division of Nursing for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, leading the key federal programs aimed at shaping the nation’s nursing workforce. She has held several academic and administrative positions at the universities of North Carolina, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
Dr. Salmon has been extensively involved in the area of international health, beginning early in her career with a Fulbright scholarship focused on national health systems development in Germany and Kuwait. Since then, she has worked with the World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses, the Pan American Health Organization and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Dr. Salmon has consulted with governments and organizations outside of the United States and served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the World Health Assembly. She is the past-chair of the World Health Organization’s Global Advisory Group on Nursing and Midwifery.
In her national leadership roles, Dr. Salmon is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has been involved in several key advisory groups, including the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform. She chaired the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. In these and other roles, she has led in the development of many important national initiatives aimed at interdisciplinary workforce planning, enhancing diversity in nursing and meeting the needs of underserved populations.
J.G. (Jack) Elliott Award
Donald H. Zornes retired recently after serving as the president and chief executive officer of the Columbus Community Hospital (CCH) in Columbus, Neb., for 24 years. Zornes’ contributions to rural health care and education have impacted on the health care of Nebraskans, as well as UNMC. His leadership focus, which encompasses all aspects of health care, has benefited Columbus, as well as surrounding counties and areas of the state, rural educational student rotations, patient referrals throughout the state and the future of medicine in Nebraska.
While president and CEO of the Columbus hospital, Zornes was instrumental in bringing groups together to plan, build and open the $35 million Columbus Community Hospital as a state-of-the-art facility in a rural community.
During his tenure, services were added or expanded including Life Flight Services; outreach, home health and hospice skilled nursing units; cardiopulmonary rehabilitation facilities; occupational health services; personal care services for those caring for chronically ill family members; speech therapy; and expanded Women, Infants & Children (WIC) and immunization services within the surrounding four counties. He has taken an active lead in the development of county and district health departments and organizations, the Platte Valley Physician Hospital Organization and the creation of the CCH Foundation.
He was instrumental in supporting UNMC’s medical students during their third-year, two-month rural rotations and their first-year, three-week preceptorships as well as in providing experiences for pharmacy and physician assistant students. In addition to developing rural, clinical experiences for UNMC students, Zornes worked with individuals and community groups to provide room and board for students to minimize further accrual of educational debts for the students.
He received a bachelor of science degree in economics and a master’s degree in hospital and health care administration from the University of Minnesota. Zornes, who currently lives in Arizona, has served on the national level as a member of the American College of Health Care Executives and on the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) board of directors as well as a variety of capacities on many of the AHA councils and committees.