Shelly Smith inducted into the National Academies of Practice
Shelly Smith, DNP, APRN-BC, FNAP (M.S.’01/N), associate professor and director of the DNP program at the VCU School of Nursing, has been elected as a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP). The National Academies of Practice welcomed Class of 2021 fellows as part of a virtual awards and induction ceremony on March 20, 2021.
Fellowship in the NAP is extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated to furthering interprofessional practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care. NAP’s central purpose is to advise public policy makers on health care issues using NAP’s unique perspective — that of expert practitioners and scholars joined in interprofessional dialogue and advocacy.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by the National Academies of Practice,” Smith said. “I am looking forward to working with their network of scholars to advance health policy to improve health equity for all citizens. “
A practice and policy scholar, Smith completed a policy fellowship in 2018 through the Office of Public Policy Outreach program at the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU. Her fellowship work focused on translating nurse practitioner outcomes research into public policy, which informed Virginia House Bill 793: Nurse practitioners, practice agreements.
The author of numerous publications, Smith is currently the inaugural Translational Research Fellow in Residence at the Wilder School’s Center for Public Policy. She is also an affiliate scholar to the VCU Langston Center for Innovation in Quality and Safety and serves as the only nurse representative on Academy Health’s State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Advisory Committee.
Smith has been recognized with numerous awards, including an honorable mention as one of the Virginia Nurses Association’s Virginia’s Top 40 under 40 nurses in 2015, the Donna Campanella Distinguished Nurse Practitioner award in 2018, the Virginia Nurse Practitioner of Year award in 2019, and the 2021 American Association of Nurse Practitioners® Virginia State Award for Nurse Practitioner Excellence.
Founded 40 years ago in 1981, NAP is an interprofessional, nonprofit organization, with membership representing a range of health care professions willing to serve as distinguished advisors to health care policy makers in Congress and elsewhere. The mission of the National Academies of Practice is to serve as distinguished professionals advancing interprofessional healthcare by fostering collaboration and advocating policies in the best interest of individuals and communities.
