Dr. Voss to receive lifetime achievement award

Joachim Voss, PhD, will receive the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care for his commitment to nursing leadership, research and education.

Dr. Voss, associate dean of academic programs at the UNMC College of Nursing, will be honored Nov. 14 at the ANAC’s award ceremony in Indianapolis. The award is given to an ANAC member for outstanding lifetime accomplishments.

“Dr. Voss joined the UNMC College of Nursing on March 1 and has become a vital member of our team,” said UNMC College of Nursing Dean Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, DNP. “He is known within the profession for his dedication to nursing research and the advancement of care for those with HIV. We are proud that his work is being recognized with this lifetime achievement award.” 

In making the announcement, ANAC Executive Director Carole Treston said: “We acknowledge your many roles in nursing education and nursing leadership in health care and the HIV response locally, nationally and globally.”

She cited Dr. Voss’ long and sustained commitment including “years of board service, dedicated and insightful leadership as treasurer and on the national finance committee, successfully steering ANAC through a very tumultuous time of transition, and by archiving and donating the organizations documents to the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Bates Center and continued leadership of many local ANAC chapter activities in San Francisco, Seattle and Ohio.”

Dr. Voss, who holds the Charlotte Peck Lienemann & Alumni Distinguished Chair in Nursing, joined UNMC in March after serving as the Independence Foundation in Education Professor at Case Western Reserve University in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Cleveland. A registered nurse, Dr. Voss is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in symptom management research for fatigue, sleep and physical activity in patients with HIV and cancer and has published more than 200 manuscripts.

“I am humbled to receive this lifetime achievement award,” Dr. Voss said. “I started treating HIV patients in 1986 in Berlin, Germany, and 40 years into the pandemic, we have effective treatments, prevention and, while we have no cure, we can offer people living with HIV a normal life expectancy.

“It has been an honor to contribute with my research, my leadership efforts and my passion to the success of ANAC. I want to thank my nominators and will continue to contribute to make ANAC the home for nurses and other health care professionals focused on the care, research and prevention for people living with HIV and their loved ones.”