Rutgers-Camden Nursing Professor Honored as a National Nurse of the Year

CAMDEN — Marian Nowak, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden, has been recognized as a national nurse of the year by Nurse.com.

Nowak, a Sicklerville resident, was honored during Rutgers–Camden’s third annual Distinguished Nursing Lecture on Nov. 5. She is one of six national recipients of the National Giving Excellence Meaning (GEM) Award, and was recognized in the category of volunteerism and service for committing her 39-year nursing career to helping disadvantaged populations.

The Rutgers–Camden nursing scholar was also one of six Philadelphia tri-state regional GEM award winners selected by Nurse.com.

“This recognition is important to me because Rutgers University values reaching out to our neighboring communities,” Nowak says. “One way we accomplish this is to give of our time and talents to help others. This award projects a positive image for nursing and for our university on a national level.”

During her nursing career, Nowak developed community education programs addressing substance abuse prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, teen smoking cessation, and violence prevention throughout southern New Jersey. She is also credited with developing many innovative service projects, including the nation’s first student nurse public health emergency preparedness certificate program, which she established in cooperation with the Philadelphia Department of Health’s Division of Bioterrorism and Disaster Management.

“Every day at Rutgers, I see students who go above and beyond to serve our neighbors here in Camden, as well as educators and researchers committed to making our community a little bit better,” Nowak says. “There are educators and administrators here who are committed to educate nurses who are not only excellent practitioners, but also caring people, and they are as equally deserving — if not more deserving — of this award.”

Nowak earned bachelor’s degrees from Richard Stockton College and Thomas Jefferson University; master’s degrees from Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health; and her doctoral degree from Case Western Reserve University. A widely published author of numerous nursing articles, Nowak is a member of several national and international nursing organizations.

The GEM Award program annually honors outstanding nurses throughout the country and the extraordinary contributions they make to patients, the nursing profession and the healthcare system.