American Public Health Association honors faculty, student
American Public Health Association honors faculty, student
(l-r) Krista Jones, Victoria Aladeokin and Shannon Simonovich
UIC Nursing Urbana campus director Krista Jones, DNP ’11, MSN ’07, RN, and clinical associate professor Shannon Simonovich, PhD, RN, both received national awards from the Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association at the association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in early November.
DNP student Victoria Aladeokin was also recognized as a 2025 Public Health Nursing Section Scholar in partnership with the organization DNPs of Color.
- Krista Jones: Jones received the Ruth B. Freeman Award, the highest individual honor given by the American Public Health Association, Public Health Nursing Section. It honors an individual who has had a distinguished career and record of noteworthy accomplishment in public health administration, education, policy, practice, or research, recognizing their significant contributions to the field. The award serves to highlight the vital role of public health nursing in improving community health outcomes.
- Shannon Simonovich: Simonovich received the Public Health Nurse Creative Achievement Award, which recognizes an agency’s, individual’s, organization’s, or media’s exceptional and creative contribution to public health nursing administration, education, practice, or research. Simonovich’s nominators highlighted her research and prevention efforts focused on at-risk maternal and child populations as principal investigator of the Maternal Child Health Initiative (MCHI) Research Collaborative, and her longstanding service in APHA leadership roles focused on diversity and social justice.
See: All college news
Modified on January 15, 2026