The American Academy of Nursing named her a "Living Legend" in the Nursing profession. Her recognition will be presented at the November 2009 Academy meeting in Atlanta, GA. If you would like to learn more about the "Living Legend" award click here for more information.

"Leah Curtin, RN, ScD(h), MS, MA, FAAN, may be one of nursing's most multifaceted, provocative, and compelling leaders for our time. She is a person who fought for the rights of patients, nurses, and societal causes. Most know Leah as the "mother of nursing ethics," but her professional influence touched nearly all aspects of nursing and healthcare throughout her prolific writing career and her presentations on practice, healthcare reform and restructuring, and leadership. She is a philosopher, teacher, amateur paleontologist, author (ranging from children's books to philosophy), editor, linguistic analyst, and an international leader on ethics. Her love for nursing is the common thread throughout her work."  Beth Houser & Kathy Player. Pivotal Moments in Nursing: Leaders who changed the path of a profession. Vol II. (2007) Sigma Theta Tau, Indianapolis Indiana - chapter 3

"Leah Curtin's pen just gets better and better. When I am too busy to keep up with the professional literature, I steal time to read her editorials and articles. And when I vow to cut down my journal subscriptions, as I do periodically, Nursing Management reigns at the top of the protected list. Why? Because I know for sure I will find a gem of information on some breaking development and a point of view I need to know. And I will be amused to boot. Moreover, I never want to discard what I have read. So what could be better than a collection of Curtin's writings? Leah is a prolific author. The selections in Nursing into the 21st Century cover a wide range of topics from practice and leadership to health care reform and restructuring. But Leah is no dilettante skimming the surface of a vast pond. Nor is she solely a gadfly pricking the professional conscience and then flitting off in search of another target. And, although she has the uncanny ability to point out the crux of a situation, she is more than an analyst and commentator. Leah Curtin is a seminal thinker. She is a source of new ideas. She plants new seeds in the field of ethics, which nursing and all of the health professions would do well to cultivate. Leah may be best known to nurse managers, who have clung to her wit and wisdom for years. She deserves and is receiving a wider audience, because she has an important message for all who are caught up in the delivery and politics of health care. For those who are her followers, this compendium will serve as a ready source of refreshment. For others, it is a good introduction to a national treasure, to a fine writer, pundit and sage."  Margretta Madden Styles. Forward in Leah Curtin. Nursing into the 21st Century. (1996) Springhouse Corp., Springhouse, PA

Leah Curtin, ScD(h), RN, FAAN, is Clinical Professor of Nursing at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing and Health and she was the Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Management for 20 years where she also helped found the Nursing Management Congress and The Journal of Wound Care Management. Curtin was included in Pivotal Moments: Leaders who Changed the Course of a Profession, volume II ( 2007) and also Nursing Ethics: a vision and a legacy by Winifred Pinch in 2008. Curtin also founded Metier Consultants in 1986, and she is the Director of Cross Country Education's Nurse Manager Boot Camp. In 2007, she was appointed to the Standards and Appeals Board of DNV Health Care - recently deemed by Medicare to Accredit U.S. Hospitals - a radically new approach to accreditation that integrates ISO and NIOSH standards, and CMS Conditions of Participation. A graduate of the Good Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing and the University of Cincinnati, Leah earned a master's degree in health planning and health administration from the University and a Master of Arts in philosophy with a dual major in ethics and linguistic analysis from the Athenaeum of Ohio. In 1982, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in recognition of the national impact of her work, and in 1990 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the State University of New York for the impact her editorials had on the development of nursing and health care in the United States. In 2002, The Medical College of Ohio awarded her a second honorary doctorate for humanitarian services in connection with her work in war-torn Yugoslavia. In 1996, Curtin was scholar-in-residence at Ballarat University in Victoria, Australia. She also has served as a visiting scholar at the University of Oklahoma, Brigham Young University and the University of Eastern Kentucky. She was the first virtual faculty member of the University of Colorado School of Nursing. In 1998, Dr. Curtin was invited to Copenhagen where she testified before Denmark's Ministry of Health on the impact restructuring in U.S. hospitals had on the safety of patient care. In 2001, and again in 2002, she was a distinguished lecturer for the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, Hong Kong, China. She has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1991 and in Who's Who in the World since 1992. She is the author of more 298 articles. The most recent, Leadership of the Spirit is in the October 2008 edition of Nurse Leader. She also published 400 editorials as well as 8 books written for professionals - and one, Sunflowers in the Sand: children's stories of war, written for a general audience. Researched in the Balkans, most notably Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina, this book was endorsed by persons as diverse as the Executive Director of UNICEF, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cleveland, and comedian Jerry Lewis. With a forward written by Tony Danza, and a positive review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, all proceeds from the sale of Sunflowers is sent to The Croatian Children's Fund for the care and treatment of children damaged by war.

~ Information provided by Leah Curtin