Goldfarb School of Nursing, including the nurse anesthesia program, celebrated its commencement ceremony on Saturday, December 17, 2022, at Powell Symphony Hall.
On Saturday afternoon, family members and anesthesia providers were invited to a special ceremony where leadership—including: Angela Clark, PhD, RN, MSN, CNE, FAAN, the Maxine Clark and Bob Fox President of Goldfarb School of Nursing; Mayola Rowser, PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, PMHNP the Jack Taylor Dean of Goldfarb; and Michael Avidan, MBBCh, FCASA, Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology and head of the Department of Anesthesiology—gave opening statements to the graduates. Alex Mohrmann, CRNA, and Mallory Light, the Class of 2022 Class President, provided wonderful presentations to all in attendance.
Remaining, left to right: Katherine “Katie” Mette, Mallory Light, Robert “Frank” Graham, Hunter Niemeyer, Benjamin Thomas, Frank Bougher
Bernadette Henrichs, PhD, CRNA, CCRN, CHSE, the program director, presented the Tsugie Watanabe Award for Outstanding CT SRNA, and Brian Torres, CRNA, the assistant program director, presented the Watanabe-Henrichs Endowed Scholarship Awards and the Agatha Hodgins CRNA award. Sarah Perez, CRNA, nurse anesthesia program faculty, presented the Award for Clinical Excellence. The graduates also presented awards. Tsugie Watanabe, former CRNA in the anesthesiology department for 33 years, traveled from New York to attend the ceremony.
Overall, nine graduates completed their nurse anesthesia education and received a Doctor of Nursing Practice—the first cohort to graduate with a doctoral degree. Seven of the graduates will be working as CRNAs in the Washington University Department of Anesthesiology once they complete their certification examination with six working full-time and one graduate working per diem. The following awards were given:
- Tsugie Watanabe Award for Outstanding CT SRNA: Frank Bougher
- Award for Clinical Excellence: Hunter Niemeyer
- Agatha Hodgins CRNA Award: Hunter Niemeyer and Katie Mette
- GSON’s J.L. London Nursing Award: Christine Johnson
- AANA Foundation Program Administrator’s Outstanding Project Award: Ben Thomas
- GSON’s Anna Ikeda-Tabor Nursing Research Award: Ben Thomas
- Watanabe-Henrichs Endowed Scholarship Award Recipients: Taylor Crittenden, Sean Potternger, and Meghan Woodham
- The Beverly Krause Outstanding CRNA Clinical Instructor: Elizabeth Schappe
- Outstanding MD Clinical Instructor: Dr. Swarup Varaday
- The Helen Lamb Outstanding Didactic Instructor: Dr. Krikor Dikranian
Congratulations to the entire Class of 2022 Nurse Anesthesia cohort!