Rockford prof honored for outstanding career
On March 22, Judith Heinschel, PhD, PMHNP-BC, received the 2018 Excellence in Nursing Award from the Stateline Nurses Network. Heinschel is clinical assistant professor based at the college's Rockford campus.
The award recognizes an outstanding nurse who has demonstrated excellence in practice through professional activities, leadership and positive attitude.
Heinschel has been an educator and practitioner for 35 years. When she joined the UIC Nursing faculty in 2008, she was a practicing psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner at the University of Illinois Family Health Center in Rockford. She continued that practice in addition to her faculty role for five years, then went to work in service to UIC nursing, medicine and pharmacy students at the Rockford campus's Health & Wellness Center.
"I am really humbled, and grateful not only for the award, but to be able to do what I do every day," says Heinschel, who completed her post-master's certificate in psychiatric and mental health nursing at UIC in 2005.
The award was conferred in Rockford at the Nurses Expo, hosted by the Stateline Nurses Network, which strives to advance the profession for clinicians living and working near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. The annual expo brings together major employers, colleges, businesses and nurses from all practice settings and levels with the purpose of building bridges and networking.