Melissa
Herman
March 2026
Melissa
Herman
,
MSN, RNC-NIC
HHCCA North Texas
Frisco
,
TX
United States
She has taken each one of us under her wing and helped us to become better educators for our staff.
Melissa continuously goes above and beyond for everyone around her. She is THE expert on gamification and writing abstracts, and she is the guru behind all things neonatal. Melissa is such a great role model and mentor-- clear communication, critical thinking through gamification, and always a helping hand to her team. She does not like to be in the spotlight, but she deserves so much recognition for her hard work. When I first started in my role, I was overwhelmed and confused most days, but Melissa checked in daily on me. I know that she is always just a phone call away for our team and me. Even from a completely different state, Melissa always makes me feel a part of the team.
***
Melissa is an outstanding educator. She thinks outside of the box and has been able to reach many different generations of nurses with her different educational modalities. Melissa consistently shows up for her staff and is always there to support them when needed. She works quickly and thoughtfully to produce the best education. Her area of expertise is gamification, which makes learning more fun and interactive. To test the theory that staff learn better with gamification, she came up with an idea to do a study on how staff learn best. She tested this theory by having half the staff do an escape room with a quiz and the other half do a PowerPoint and a quiz, then 3 months later, a second quiz was sent out to see which staff retained the best information.
Melissa not only takes care of her own staff, but she takes care of her team as well. She has taken on the role of service line lead, and she leads our team with compassion and kindness. She has taken each one of us under her wing and helped us to become better educators for our staff. She encourages us to think outside the box and supports all the ideas we have to provide better education to our NICU staff across the division. She also takes time to make sure each one of us is doing ok in our personal lives. Our team would not survive without her leadership!
***
Melissa has presented several different neonatal topics at the local and national levels. She has presented on the topics of total body cooling, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), sepsis, and the development of a NICU-specific advanced skills class that has helped lower mortality rates in our division.
***
She is passionate about education, she works hard to share good information and education about the neonatal population, and she supports her team no matter what. Melissa is most deserving of this Award.
***
Melissa is an outstanding educator. She thinks outside of the box and has been able to reach many different generations of nurses with her different educational modalities. Melissa consistently shows up for her staff and is always there to support them when needed. She works quickly and thoughtfully to produce the best education. Her area of expertise is gamification, which makes learning more fun and interactive. To test the theory that staff learn better with gamification, she came up with an idea to do a study on how staff learn best. She tested this theory by having half the staff do an escape room with a quiz and the other half do a PowerPoint and a quiz, then 3 months later, a second quiz was sent out to see which staff retained the best information.
Melissa not only takes care of her own staff, but she takes care of her team as well. She has taken on the role of service line lead, and she leads our team with compassion and kindness. She has taken each one of us under her wing and helped us to become better educators for our staff. She encourages us to think outside the box and supports all the ideas we have to provide better education to our NICU staff across the division. She also takes time to make sure each one of us is doing ok in our personal lives. Our team would not survive without her leadership!
***
Melissa has presented several different neonatal topics at the local and national levels. She has presented on the topics of total body cooling, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), sepsis, and the development of a NICU-specific advanced skills class that has helped lower mortality rates in our division.
***
She is passionate about education, she works hard to share good information and education about the neonatal population, and she supports her team no matter what. Melissa is most deserving of this Award.