Washington State Nurse-Midwife Receives The Hattie Award, American College Of Nurse-Midwives' Highest Honor

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 01 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Katherine Camacho Carr, CNM, PhD, a certified nurse-midwife, professor and assistant dean of graduate studies at the Seattle University College of Nursing, is the recipient of the 2009 Hattie Hemschemeyer Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM.) The "Hattie" is ACNM's most prestigious award and was presented to Carr at ACNM's 54th Annual Meeting in Seattle. Carr has been a resident of the Seattle area for 32 years.

"Kathy Carr embodies the very spirit of midwifery," said ACNM President Melissa Avery, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN. For more than 30 years, she has persistently contributed to improving women and newborns' health care in the United States and abroad. Her academic works have helped shape policy and practice, including the advancement of midwifery education through off‐campus/distance learning opportunities. Her colleagues say that she is a leader in midwifery education, scholarship and clinical practice who is devoted to future midwives' success as well."

A 1974 graduate of the University of Illinois, Carr has practiced midwifery in birth centers, hospitals, and homes for more than three decades. She has also taught at numerous universities, including the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing, Community‐Based Nurse‐midwifery Program, the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate, Philadelphia University and the Seattle Midwifery School. In addition, Carr was selected as a US Public Health Service Primary Health Care Policy Fellow in 1996; also, she received the National Perinatal Association's National/International Award for Outstanding Contribution to Maternal Child Health in 2006. In the past, she has served as an ACNM president, vice president and regional representative.

The Hattie Hemschemeyer Award, named in honor of ACNM's first president and a pioneer of the profession, is given annually to an ACNM member who has been certified for at least ten years, has not previously been selected for the award, and has fulfilled one of the following categories: continuous outstanding contributions or distinguished service to midwifery and/or maternal child health; or, has made contributions of historical significance to the development and advancement of midwifery, ACNM, or maternal‐child health.

Source
American College of Nurse-Midwives