PHILADELPHIA – Eileen Sullivan-Marx will receive the Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice and Martha Curley will receive the Elizabeth McWilliams Miller Award for Excellence in Research.  Both are faculty members in the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

The awards will be presented by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing on Oct. 31 at the 41st Biennial Convention in Grapevine, Texas.

Sullivan-Marx received the award for her leadership and practice in the innovation of care for older adults and for her advocacy on behalf of vulnerable groups. Her research, focused on improving the quality of life for elders, is driven by pressing national and state policy issues. Her leadership with such groups as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Senior Care and Services Study Commission, which she chaired, have led to important reports and nursing payment systems that will continue to influence health-care reform.  

Curley received the award for more than 20 years of scholarly contributions in pediatric critical care in such areas as patient positioning, eye care, endotracheal extubation and sedation management. Curley's multi-site clinical trials have brought her a national and international reputation in the care of critically ill pediatric patients and in the development of instruments that provide clinicians with better tools to assess patient status and risk and on interventions to support parents' needs and priorities in the pediatric intensive care unit.