COLUMBIA, Mo. — The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) has honored Lila Pennington, DNP, APRN, FNP/GNP-BC, with the 2011 State Award for Excellence for Missouri. An assistant teaching professor with the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, Pennington will be recognized June 22, during the AANP’s 26th national conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, along with recipients from other U.S. states. The awards recognize nurse practitioners who demonstrate excellence in practice, research, nurse practitioner education, or community affairs.
Pennington has worked for the Sinclair School of Nursing since 1996, where she is coordinator of the family nurse practitioner area of study. She also maintains a part-time clinical practice in Pulaski County where she cares for underserved populations at a rural health care clinic and a rural public health department in south-central Missouri. Pennington previously worked for nearly 20 years as a family nurse practitioner and public health nursing consultant with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
As a member of AANP, the Missouri Nurses Association (MONA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA), Pennington works to promote advanced-practice nursing in Missouri. She serves as chair of MONA’s APRN Special Interest Group and as chair of its Missouri Council for Advanced Practice. Pennington also serves on AANP’s Regional Multistate Reimbursement Alliance covering Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
AANP was founded in 1985 and is the oldest, largest and only full-service national professional organization for nurse practitioners of all specialties.
The University of Missouri is the largest and oldest campus of the state’s major public research institutions. MU’s primary mission in research and graduate education provides enhanced opportunities and challenges in the undergraduate areas of humanities, arts and sciences, and selected professional fields.
