Over the last year, Lisa has had to take over the SUD Partial program and help completely overhaul the program when she suddenly needed to take it over. She studied and worked hours on working with other members of management of modifying the program to be able to accept Medicaid. She has been working with local EDs and doctor offices, sending information about our program to do marketing. She has done some education on substance use with local colleges. We recently had budget cuts, and she needed to remodel our programming to fit with our reduced staffing. She has accomplished all of this in addition to her normal duties and participation in as many committees as possible, truly dedicating a significant amount of her time to this program. It is evident that she is deeply passionate about it. She always answers questions and helps staff who ask questions after hours, and has gone above and beyond to advocate for staff members on the unit. She started group team chats with the contact center and Redwood to increase communication between the programs, which has been very impactful on the number of referrals that our program has received. She helped initiate a TCM program for call-backs to better support our patients after discharge. There is likely much more I am missing out on, including the fact that she is always a role model and remains positive when talking with staff on our unit, while it has been a very rough year with some very significant changes.

***

We are so proud to honor Lisa Zwerk with this award. I want to share a few thoughts about Lisa. She is the kind of nurse and the kind of leader who is so committed to the profession of nursing, to care of those with addictions and mental health issues, and to the development of nurses that she is always willing to give of herself.

A few examples that I have witnessed include:

1. Being on the original steering committee to get nursing peer review started

2. Helping lift the first (and 2nd) annual Psych Nursing Conference off the ground

3. Doing a last-minute presentation at the conference so that the nurses could get another contact hour

4. Presenting at Nursing Grand Rounds

5. Going into high schools to present (and getting students excited!)

6. Participating in community events

These are just a few of the ways I see Lisa as an exemplar of the DAISY Nurse leader. Thank you, Lisa. I am so grateful for you!