Edilma Yearwood, an associate professor of nursing at the School of Nursing and Health Studies, was honored with the Hendrix Lectureship Award at a recent meeting of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses.

Yearwood won the award because of her abilities as a speaker and her leadership in extending the field of psychiatric and mental health to include marginalized people, particularly children and adolescents.

Yearwood said that she was overwhelmed when she received news of the award.

“When I was hearing the snippets of the award nomination letters [from my peers], I was sitting there, and I got emotional, because it was touching to hear that your peers see how much work you put into a particular area, and took the time to say how you have impacted them and the profession,” Yearwood said.

Yearwood’s colleagues Pamela Galehouse of Seton Hall University and Vicki Hines-Martin of the University of Louisville nominated her for the award.

“As a leader, in both mental health care and the movement to establish both equity for and understanding of our diverse professional and consumer population, she is well deserving of this premier form of recognition,” Galehouse said in a press release from the Georgetown University Department of Communications.

Yearwood received ISPN’s President’s Award in 2012 and, in April 2013, was elected to a two-year term as a division director of ISPN, focusing on the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurses. She promised at the time of her appointment to advocate for mental health services for at-risk youth and has since been working to advance that goal both at home and abroad.

“Last month I had the opportunity to go to Jamaica to set up a research collaboration with the Caribbean mental health organization, so that’s one thing we’ve been working on. The other is just locally in Washington, D.C., trying to get some research done with high-risk youth, with immigrant kids, with kids who have some behavioral challenges,” she said.

She identified problems such as abuse, neglect, trauma and the potential for substance abuse as significant issues in D.C. that she hoped to address with increased research.

As part of the Hendrix Lectureship Award, Yearwood will give a lecture at the annual ISPN conference in Seattle next year. She said that she plans to focus on the importance of recognizing global influences on mental health.

“In the reality of our world, my interest is in kids and their mental health and their well-being, so what I want to talk about is how the local is global.” Yearwood said. “I think a lot of the kids in the area are kids from other places. We need to understand that those kids are coming with specific needs, and we have the responsibility to meet those needs.”

The award is presented by ISPN in honor of late University of Kentucky professor Melva Jo Hendrix, who was a leader in mental health nursing. Although Yearwood did not know Hendrix personally, she was inspired by her dedication to her work and her students.

“Besides her work with underserved populations, [Hendrix] was a really, really strong mentor for her students, and I really try to do that with my students,” she said.

Yearwood said that she tries to share her passions of child and adolescent mental health with her students.

“I talk a lot about well-being, the importance of looking at where people come from, not just what’s in front of you at the moment, but taking the time to talk with people and learn information about their experiences,” she said.

Students who have interacted with Yearwood have been impressed with her pedigree and her care for students.

Yearwood was Betsy Weston’s (NHS ’14) clinical instructor for mental health nursing.

“She’s very knowledgeable and approachable in terms of clarifying questions that I have or providing some advice on how to talk to patients in an in-patient setting,” Weston said. “She’s been a really helpful mentor in my pursuit to be a mental health nurse.”

Lindsay Howell (NHS ’14), who came to the nursing program as a second-degree student with little background in the sciences, found Yearwood’s mentorship instrumental in her success in the program.

“Coming into this program, I was nervous how my past educational experiences would translate into my studies at NHS considering my non-science background,” Howell said. “Studying and working with Dr. Yearwood as a professor was to me the quintessential learning experience. Dr. Yearwood is patient, thoughtful, hardworking and an incredible resource for any matter within the realm of mental health and nursing.”