Sandra (Dea) Mahanes
January 2026
Sandra (Dea)
Mahanes
,
DNP, APRN, CCNS, HEC-C, FNCS
University of Virginia Health
Charlottesville
,
VA
United States
Dea models ethical resilience and self-care, fostering a culture of respect and empowerment.
This exceptional nominee exemplifies ethical nursing leadership through unwavering integrity, compassion, and visionary influence on practice and policy. Dea’s work bridges bedside care and organizational leadership, ensuring that ethical principles guide decisions at every level.
One powerful example occurred during the care of a patient with a rare neurological disorder whose hospitalization spanned 11 months. Facing complex ethical challenges—decisional capacity, surrogate identification, and end-of-life planning—Dea led with clarity and compassion. Dea coordinated across legal, ethics, and clinical teams to uphold dignity and patient rights. Their leadership ensured family presence during withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and empowered the care team to navigate uncertainty with confidence and integrity. These actions clearly reflect the ANA Code of Ethics provisions on respect for human dignity, accountability, and advocacy.
Beyond individual cases, Dea transforms systems. Dea revised UVA Health’s brain death and circulatory death protocols, co-chaired the Organ Donation Committee, and collaborates with LifeNet Health to improve processes while centering patient dignity. Dea's leadership yields measurable results: revisions to brain death and circulatory death protocols reduced variability and improved compliance with national standards, ensuring patient dignity and family satisfaction. By co-chairing the Organ Donation Committee and collaborating with LifeNet Health, she advanced ethical organ donation practices. These systemic changes reflect her ability to translate ethical principles into sustainable outcomes that elevate care quality and foster trust across the organization.
As a clinical ethicist and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Dea serves on the Ethics and Moral Distress Consult Service and the Medical Center Ethics Committee, shaping institutional responses to complex ethical issues. Dea’s scholarship—including national and international neurocritical care guidelines and multiple publications on moral distress—advances ethical standards globally.
Dea models ethical resilience and self-care, fostering a culture of respect and empowerment. Dea mentors nurses and interprofessional colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally, teaching evidence-based strategies for ethical decision-making and moral distress mitigation. Leadership roles in the Neurocritical Care Society and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities amplify Dea’s influence worldwide, shaping policy and practice across disciplines.
In every sphere—direct care, policy, education, and scholarship—Dea demonstrates that ethical leadership is not abstract; it is lived through courageous advocacy, collaborative problem-solving, and unwavering commitment to patient-centered care. I am honored to provide this nomination as Dea’s work clearly embodies the spirit of the DAISY Award for Nursing Ethics in Leadership.
One powerful example occurred during the care of a patient with a rare neurological disorder whose hospitalization spanned 11 months. Facing complex ethical challenges—decisional capacity, surrogate identification, and end-of-life planning—Dea led with clarity and compassion. Dea coordinated across legal, ethics, and clinical teams to uphold dignity and patient rights. Their leadership ensured family presence during withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and empowered the care team to navigate uncertainty with confidence and integrity. These actions clearly reflect the ANA Code of Ethics provisions on respect for human dignity, accountability, and advocacy.
Beyond individual cases, Dea transforms systems. Dea revised UVA Health’s brain death and circulatory death protocols, co-chaired the Organ Donation Committee, and collaborates with LifeNet Health to improve processes while centering patient dignity. Dea's leadership yields measurable results: revisions to brain death and circulatory death protocols reduced variability and improved compliance with national standards, ensuring patient dignity and family satisfaction. By co-chairing the Organ Donation Committee and collaborating with LifeNet Health, she advanced ethical organ donation practices. These systemic changes reflect her ability to translate ethical principles into sustainable outcomes that elevate care quality and foster trust across the organization.
As a clinical ethicist and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Dea serves on the Ethics and Moral Distress Consult Service and the Medical Center Ethics Committee, shaping institutional responses to complex ethical issues. Dea’s scholarship—including national and international neurocritical care guidelines and multiple publications on moral distress—advances ethical standards globally.
Dea models ethical resilience and self-care, fostering a culture of respect and empowerment. Dea mentors nurses and interprofessional colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally, teaching evidence-based strategies for ethical decision-making and moral distress mitigation. Leadership roles in the Neurocritical Care Society and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities amplify Dea’s influence worldwide, shaping policy and practice across disciplines.
In every sphere—direct care, policy, education, and scholarship—Dea demonstrates that ethical leadership is not abstract; it is lived through courageous advocacy, collaborative problem-solving, and unwavering commitment to patient-centered care. I am honored to provide this nomination as Dea’s work clearly embodies the spirit of the DAISY Award for Nursing Ethics in Leadership.