Yoko Shimpuku named UIC Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award winner
Nominators praise Shimpuku as 'accomplished scholar' with 'dedicated' international health career Heading link
Yoko Shimpuku, PhD ’10, CNM, RN, vice president of public relations and professor at Hiroshima University, was named the 2023 UIC College of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award winner, the college’s highest alumni honor.
“Dr. Shimpuku is an accomplished scholar with an international health career dedicated to pregnancy, childbirth, and midwifery education issues in Sub-Saharan Africa and Japan,” wrote her nominators for the award, which include former and current faculty members Crystal Patil, PhD, Linda McCreary, PhD ’00, MS ’93, BSN ’73, RN, FAAN, Kathleen Norr, PhD, and Rohan Jeremiah, PhD, MPH. “Her career accomplishments are inherently linked to her formative training at UIC Nursing. Today, Dr. Shimpuku is recognized as a leader in training the next generation of global health nurse leaders.”
Shimpuku will be honored at the UIC Nursing All-Alumni REUNION on Sept. 23 in Chicago.
After graduating from the UIC Nursing PhD program, Shimpuku helped develop the first midwifery master’s degree program in Tanzania at the Muhimbili University of Health Sciences School of Nursing, increasing midwifery capacity and improving care in the resource-poor country. Her scholarship includes more than 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She is a member of the Young Academy of Japan, made up of influential scientists under the umbrella of the Science Council of Japan, and was invited to speak at the 5th International Day of Women and Girls in Science at the UN Headquarters.