The Hattie Hemschemeyer Award 2018: Nancy K. Lowe, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN

Nancy K. Lowe, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN, is the 2018 recipient of the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award. Named after the first President of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), this award honors an exceptional midwife for continuous outstanding contributions or distinguished service to midwifery and/or maternal and child health (MCH), or contributions of historical significance to the development and advancement of midwifery, ACNM, or MCH. The Hattie Hemschemeyer Award is ACNM’s most prestigious honor. Dr. Lowe is one of midwifery’s most accomplished and esteemed researchers. She developed the Childbirth SelfEfficacy Inventory, which has been used in numerous studies and translated into multiple languages. Her groundbreaking research on pain in labor, labor progress, and labor dystocia has advanced understanding of these phenomena and improved care. She developed a kit for women in the military to self-diagnose and self-treat genitourinary conditions in deployment settings where health care resources are unavailable or unacceptable. These are just a few examples fromDr. Lowe’s body of work, which has remarkable breadth and depth of scope. Awards for her scholarship include the 2015 and 2018 Best Research Article of the Year Awards from the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health (JMWH), Best Research Forum Presentation and Honored Scholar at the 52nd ACNM Annual Meeting, Irwin Chabon Award for Research and Education from Lamaze International, and the AWHONN District V Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Lowe is especially known for her exceptional talent and dedication as a research mentor. Midwives mentored by Dr. Lowe are now leading researchers in the profession and will continue to better science and practice for decades to come. She also led the formation of a consortium of US midwifery researchers, which is creating unprecedented collaboration among these scientists and providing opportunities for new research that will be of great value to the profession. Dr. Lowe is also an inspirational educator who makes quality teaching look effortless. She was the founding director of The Ohio State University midwifery education program and the Elnora Thomson Distinguished Professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University. She is currently a Professor and the Director of Global Nursing Education Initiatives at the University of Colorado Denver. Her teaching awards include the Faculty Leadership Award from The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the Graduate School Chancellor’s Teaching Award from the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Lowe has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing (JOGNN) since 2001. Having a midwife of her high caliber in this prestigious position has elevated the midwifery profession. Under her leadership, JOGNN has grown into a leading and highly ranked international journal, publishing research and evidence-based articles that improve the care of women and infants provided by midwives and nurses. Dr. Lowe’s service to midwifery includes 2 elected terms as President of the ACNM Certification Council/American Midwifery Certification Board, membership on the ACNM Division of Research’s Board of Directors, and Chair of the ACNM Evidence-based Midwifery Practice Task Force. She is a Fellow of ACNM and the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). She is Co-Founder of the AAN Maternal and Infant Health Expert Panel, which has raised the voice of midwifery in the Academy. Dr. Lowe is seen as a role model who demonstrates the best of professional values. She is passionate about her work, maintains the highest standards and integrity, fosters collaboration, and is widely respected yet always humble. Her strong vision does not preclude listening deeply and valuing new ideas and perspectives. Colleagues describe her as a midwife’s midwife who gives them courage to continue laboring through their work, never taking their power but encouraging them to own their strength. She sees the talents in others and inspires them to achieve their best. Throughout her career, Dr. Lowe has had a deep and unwavering commitment to the health and health care of women and infants, normalization of birth, meaningful research, evidence-based practice, development of her students andmentees, and growth in the stature of themidwifery and nursing professions. Her insatiable quest for knowledge along with her unstoppable and fearless pursuit of excellence have made her not only a consummate researcher, but also a driving force in midwifery science who raises the bar for the profession. The impact she has made by being a gifted educator, inspiring midwives to pursue research careers, and guiding developing researchers to become expert scientists will endure andmultiply long beyond her lifetime through the accomplishments of her students and mentees.