Distinguished Alumnus and Young Alumnus Award Recipients
2012 Recipients
Dinstinguished Alumnus Award: Mary D. Moller, DNP, APRN, CPRP, FAAN (MSN '82)
Dorothy Patach Spirit of Service Award: Dorothy Patach, '44
Biographies
Mary D. Moller (Distinguished Alumnus Award)
Mary D. Moller is an Associate Professor at the Yale University School of Nursing where she is the Director of the Psychiatric-Mental Health Master’s Program. She is dually licensed as an advanced registered nurse practitioner and as an advanced practice registered nurse. She is dually certified as a clinical specialist in adult psychiatric-mental health nursing and a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner.
Dr. Moller earned her BSN in 1971 from Mount Marty College; her MSN from UNMC-College of Nursing in 1982, and her DNP from Case Western Reserve University in 2006. She received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Marty College in 2010. From 1993-2008 she was owner, Clinical Director, and clinician of The Suncrest Wellness Center, a nurse managed outpatient psychiatric clinic in Spokane, WA that was featured with Patty Duke on Good Morning America. In addition to her administrative duties, she managed a full caseload of over 300 patients where she was responsible for primary mental health care.
She is principle investigator of a two-year study investigating the effects of case manager education on medication adherence, life satisfaction, symptom management and progression through the phases of post-psychotic adjustment for patients with schizophrenia. She is in clinical practice as a psychiatric APRN at the Yale Behavioral Health Services of Hamden, CT. She is also President of NurSeminars, Inc, an international consulting firm. She has authored over 40 articles and book chapters including a pharmacology review book. She has served on several editorial review boards and currently serves as a reviewer for Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, and the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association. She is the co-author of a new psychiatric nursing undergraduate textbook that is scheduled for publication in 2013.
She is producer of the award-winning Understanding and Communicating With ... videotape series which has four videos covering the understanding of hallucination, mania, delusion and relapse in Schizophrenia. She has made over 900 professional and research presentations in 46 states and in 12 countries. She has received numerous awards spanning her career, including most recently the Dean’s Legacy Award from Case Western Reserve University and Induction as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She served as President of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association in 2010. In November, 2012 she will receive the Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. She has been married to Chuck Moller since 1970. They have two grown sons, and three grandsons.
Dorothy Patach (Dorothy Patach Spirit of Service Award)
Special note: The College of Nursing Alumni Association created the inaugural Dorothy Patach Spirit of Service Award in 2012 and Dorothy is the first recipient. This award will be given in the years ahead in Dorothy’s honor.
Dorothy Patach is a native of Omaha, Nebraska. She has spent her life and career practicing and teaching nursing, and advancing the nursing profession. 
Dorothy received her nursing diploma at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1944, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition in 1957 and a Master of Science in Nursing Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1961. In 1969, she also earned a BS in Health Education from UNO.
During her diverse career, Dorothy worked at Jenny Edmundson Hospital School of Nursing, Clarkson Hospital, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Working in the operating room, Dorothy accumulated many unique experiences. In the mid-1950s, Dorothy developed surgical drapes for new procedures that were later made into pre-packaged sterile plastic drapes by the Minnesota Mining Company. She assisted with the testing of Formula 99, a liquid soap, which in bar form later became “Dial Soap.” She was part of a team that modernized the old Clarkson Hospital operating room which went on to receive the “Hospital of the Year Award.”
As a teacher at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Dorothy was Assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences and ended her tenure at UNO with the title of Professor Emeritus. She counseled many future nurses on their prerequisites, and is remembered by those she counseled as a compassionate and supporting advocate for countless future student nurses.
When asked what motivates her, Dorothy says, “I was raised to serve mankind and keep my community healthy and safe. In nursing, you work to meet the medical, physical, and emotional needs of your patients, which is truly rewarding.”
Dorothy’s service to the nursing profession is vast and comprehensive. Among the many professional organizations she has been involved with, Dorothy has served in leadership roles in the Nebraska State Nurses’ Association, the District 2 Nurses’ Association, the National League of Nursing, the Nebraska League of Nursing, and in every office on the UNMC College of Nursing Alumni Association Board of Directors. In 1983, Dorothy traveled to China as part of a Nebraska League of Nurses study tour. She was also involved in the International Nurses Association and attended conventions in Canada and Israel. Dorothy was instrumental in the planning and development of the Student Nurses Association at UNMC. She was one of the first in the community to see the need to develop nursing leaders, and she knew it needed to begin while they were stull students. She continues to volunteer at UNMC, including in the Alumni Relations Office.
Dorothy has been involved with community and neighborhood betterment since 1945. She is a long-time advocate for community wellness. She founded a senior walking club at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and she organized that group for 20 years. Dorothy was one of the first individuals to begin the popular parish nursing, which started as South Omaha Pastoral Care. She is involved with countless South Omaha community groups, including the South Omaha Neighborhood Alliance, the South Omaha Business Association, and the South Omaha Community Care Council, among many others.
In 2001, the Omaha City Council passed a resolution that designated a parcel of public property to be named the "Dorothy Patach Natural Environmental Area." There are 26 fruit trees planted at the park. This was in honor of her commitment and activism on behalf of neighborhoods, civic organizations, the environment and public health.
Dorothy is certainly a woman with passion for her profession, her community, and continually looks to the future on ways that she can make a difference. She has the distinct ability to pull people together for a good cause. The students Dorothy mentored and nurtured are now following in her footsteps and are making a difference in nursing organizations, the nursing profession, and in their communities. Dorothy truly is a one-of-a-kind!
In her free time, Dorothy enjoys gardening and yard work, sewing and hand crafts, non-fiction reading, home repair, and working to improve her community!
Past Recipients
2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award: Liane Connelly, PhD, RN (ASN '81)
2011 Nursing Excellence Award: Suzanne Nuss, PhD, RN (ASN '82, PhD '07)
2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award: Maj. Gen. Linda Hemminger, RN, MSN (M.S.N. '85)
2010 Nursing Excellence Award: Michelle Kowalczyk, B.S.N. '04, M.S.N. '10
2010 Honorary Alumnus Award: Ruth Scott
2009- Distinguished Alumnus Award: Kathleen E. Chavanu Gorman R.N., (M.S.N. '89)
2009- Honorary Alumnus Award: Charles S. Wilson M.D.
2008 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Col. Kimberly A. Siniscalchi R.N., (MSN '88)
2007 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Susan B. Hassmiller – (MSN '83)
Honorary: Judith S. Billings
2006 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Linda J.Miers - (BSN '71, PhD)
2005 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Marcy J. Echternacht - (BSN '74, MS)
Excellence Award: Rebecca Keating-Lefler - (ASN '86, BSN '87, MSN '92, PhD '01)
Honorary: Ada Lindsey
2004 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Sandra Borden - (MSN '87, PMC '96)
Excellence Award: Angie Andersen - (MSN '94, PMC, '01)
Honorary: Bill Lohr
2003 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Audrey Nelson - (BSN '72, PhD)
Excellence Award: Leann Stofferahn - (MSN '98)
2002 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Martha Foxall – (MSN ’76, PhD)
Excellence Award**: Jo Marsh – (MSN ’99, PMC '03)
Honorary: Del Lienemann
2001 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Nancy Schneckloth – (BSN ’60, MSN ’75)
Young Alumnus Award: June Eilers – (BSN ’71, MSN ’74, PhD ’96)
2000 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Marilyn McCubbin – (BSN ’60)
1999 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Peggy Hawkins – (BSN ’74, MSN ’79)
1998 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Barbara A. Winfield – (BSN ’56)
1997 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Patricia Lopez – (MSN ’90)
Young Alumnus Award: Barbara J. Sittner – (BSN ’90, MSN ’94)
1996 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Gloria O’Dowd – (BSN ’61)
Young Alumnus Award: Carol Iverson – (MSN ’94)
1995 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: JoAnn Mulligan – (BSN ’58)
Young Alumnus Award: Michele Cornay – (BSN ’90)
1994 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Rosalie Yeaworth, PhD
Young Alumnus Award: Dawn Duncan (ASN ’83, BSN ’84, MSN ’94)
1993 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: L. Colette Jones, Ph.D. – (BSN ’58, MS, PhD)
1992 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Carol M. Wilson – (GND ’51, BA, MA)
Young Alumnus Award: Susan Daubman – (ASN ’82, BSN ’91)
1991 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Gwen Macklem Finn – (GND ’52, MSN ’74) –
Young Alumnus Award: Elizabeth Dorencamper Schneider – (BSN, MSN ’89
1990 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Kay Barnard – (BSN ’60)
1989 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Marian Olson – (GND ’44, BSN ’53, MSN ’61, PhD)
Young Alumnus Award: Kristine Turner Norvell – (ASN ’79, BSN ’85, MSN ’87)
1988 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Emily Brickley – (BSN ’30)
Young Alumnus Award: Ann Berger – (MSN ’84, PhD '96)
1987 - Alumni Achievement Award: co-winners
Marjorie Moore Cantor – (GND ’47, BSN ’49, MA, PhD)
Elizabeth Kentopp - (BSN ’48, MS)
1986 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Gladys Sorensen – (BS ’45, MS, EdD, HDS)
1985 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Beatrice Petersen Kalisch – (BSN ’65, PhD)
1984 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Velma Sexmith Mason – (BSN ’31)
1983 - Distinguished Alumnus Award: Theta Cole Bullington – (GND ’38, BSN '39)
**Young Alumnus changed to Excellence Award in 2002
