Swart selected as commencement speaker
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Susan Y. Swart, EdD, MSN ‘05, RN, CAE, who represents the voices of nearly 200,000 registered nurses across Illinois, was selected as the UIC College of Nursing Spring 2024 commencement speaker.
Commencement will be held on May 2 at 2 p.m. at Credit Union 1 Arena.
Swart serves as executive director of three prominent nursing organizations in Illinois: ANA-Illinois, the Illinois Nurses Foundation, and the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing (ISAPN). In these roles, she advocates for policy changes that benefit the nursing profession and improve access to health care services. Swart is also owner and CEO of her own health care consulting business, SYS Consulting Solutions Inc.
Swart was awarded the UIC College of Nursing Judith Lloyd Storfjell Distinguished Award for Scholarly Practice in 2020, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners State Award of Excellence for advocacy in Illinois in 2022, and the Joan L. Shaver Outstanding Illinois Nurse Leader Award in 2022.
Swart was instrumental in shepherding the passage of the 2017 State of Illinois Nurse Practice Act, which granted full practice authority to nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and certified nurse midwives. This act allows qualified nurse practitioners to practice independently in Illinois without a written collaborative agreement with a physician. Following its passage, Swart led negotiations to remove obstacles within the act that put undue burden on nurses seeking full practice authority.
Under her leadership, ANA-Illinois has grown from an organization of 900 members to more than 5,000, and she helped establish the Nurse License Plate in Illinois, which funds grants and scholarships for nurses under the Illinois Nurses Foundation.
Swart earned a Doctor of Education in Ethical Leadership in 2018 from Olivet Nazarene University with a dissertation focused on the development of clinical nurse leaders, titled, “The Relationship Between Clinical Leadership and Professional Identity in Novice Nurses.” She is a frequent speaker and facilitator on topics such as advocacy, ethics, coalition building, organizational growth, and partnership development.