Frances G. Crane was the founder and President of Tri-Cities and Helpmates, Inc. and the Tri-Cities Nurses’ Registry in Latham and Schenectady, New York.  She pioneered new patterns of independent practice and, with her husband and business partner Edward Crane, interpreted and staunchly defended professional nurses’ rights and responsibilities as independent contractors.

Past Awardees:

2002 – Marilyn Stapleton, MS, RN, C
2001 – Nancy Flanagan, PhD, RN
2000 – Joan Arnold, PhD, RN & Penelope Buschman Gemma, MS, RN, CS, FAAN
1999 – Jane Ruby, MS, RN

Rita C. Kopf served as Director of Nursing at Saratoga Hospital; Clinical Nursing Specialist and Director of Quality Assurance at Albany Medical Center; and faculty at Russell Sage College and Adelphi University.  She was widely respected for her fierce and unbending commitment to standards and the dignity of patients and nursing.  The Kopf grant was begun by friends in her name and maintained for twenty years.  In 2013 when the decision was made to retire the grant, awards were made three times.

January 2013

• Virginia Riggall, MS, RN, CCRN
• Jennifer Klimek Yingling, PhDc, APRN, ANP-BC, FNP-BC

May 2013

• Nancy Scanlon, PMHNP-BC
• Anne Mare Simmons, MSN, RN
• Karen Bourgeois, PhD, FNP-BC, RN
• Kathleen Lucke PhD, RN
• Heide Shepard, BSN
• Robin Lally, PhD, MS, BA, RN, AOCN

September 2013

• Donna TydingsMS, RN, CNS-BC, CCRN
• Jennifer Muilenburg, RN, MS, ANP-C, CCRN
• Ronn Callada, MS, RN
• Patricia Reineke, PhD, RN
• Sabrina Nitkowski-Keever, MSN, RN
• Peggy Tallier, EdD, RN
• Chris Malmgreen, MS, MA, RN,-BC

2012

• Rhonda Reader, MS, RN, CNE
• Denise Famolaro, MSN, RN
• Darcel Reyes, RN, ANP-BC, AAHIVMS

2011 – Christine Rem, MS, RN

2010 – Elizabeth Scannell-Desch, PhD, RN

2007 – Peggy C. Tallier, EdD, MPA, BSN

2003 – Leigh Small, PhD, RN, CPNP-PC

2002 – Debra Jeffs, MS, CPN, RN

2001 – Wei-Ti Chen, MSN, RN, CNM

2000 – Tobie H. Olsan, MS, MPA, RN

1999 – Craig R. Sellers, MS, RN, CS-ANP, ACRN