Patricia Lopez, community development coordinator for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, while Barbara Sittner, patient care coordinator at St. Elizabeth Community Health Center in Lincoln, received the Young Alumnus Achievement Award.
The Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes alumni who demonstrate achievement by contributing to nursing research, continuing professional development, and attaining a nursing leadership role. The Young Alumnus Achievement Award honors alumni who have attained a degree within the past five years from the college. Criteria includes publishing research in a nursing periodical, initiating new techniques of nursing, and outstanding community service.
Lopez, a native of Omaha, received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D., in 1974 and her master’s degree in nursing from the UNMC College of Nursing in 1990. She began her public health nursing career in 1975 at the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and has served as the community development coordinator since 1988.
Sittner, a Lincoln native, earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the UNMC College of Nursing in 1990 and her master’s degree in nursing from UNMC in 1994. She joined St. Elizabeth Community Health Center in 1994 as a clinical nurse specialist and was named patient care coordinator in 1996.