Vanderbilt University’s Susie Adams Named the 2019 Psychiatric Nurse of the Year

Susie Adams, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has been named 2019 Psychiatric Nurse of the Year by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). Professor Adams, a national expert on substance abuse and mental health disorders, was honored recently at the association’s annual convention in New Orleans.

APNA is the largest organization of psychiatric mental health nurses in the world, with more than 12,500 members. The Nurse of the Year award recognizes an APNA member who demonstrates vision, perseverance, dedication, initiative, and facilitation in delivery of mental health services to individuals, families, and communities.

As academic director of Vanderbilt’s psychiatric program for two decades, Dr. Adams transitioned its clinical nurse specialist program into one of the first three psychiatric nurse practitioner programs in the nation. She is also a past president of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.

A native of Missouri, Dr. Adams earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Valparaiso University in Indiana. She went on to the University of California, San Francisco, where she received a master’s degree in nursing. She came to Vanderbilt University in 1995 and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky.