Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

2025 - 2026

Jennifer Adamski (MSN ’02)

Distinguished Service Award

Cheryl Schmidt Jennifer Adamski earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Carlow University, a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of South Alabama.

She is a clinical associate professor, assistant dean of professional programs, director of the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse/Master of Science in Nursing programs and director of post-graduate flight education at the Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to her current roles, she led the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, as director for a decade. She has also maintained a clinical practice as a critical care nurse practitioner for the last 23 years.

Dr. Adamski is the immediate past president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. Prior to serving as president, she was president-elect and served as a board member. In addition, she served a three-year term as a director on the AACN Certification Corporation Board of Directors and also served as a board member.

Additional affiliations include the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Nominations Council; the AANP Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; the Society of Critical Care Medicine Graduate and Medical Education Committee; and the Society of Trauma Nurses Nominations Committee, among many others.

Dr. Adamski is an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) representative on the Georgia Board of Nursing. She is also an independent consultant for APRN model development and serves as an APRN expert witness for trauma and critical care. Her areas of research include trauma prevention and system development, rapid response teams and critical care/trauma advances in hemorrhagic shock. She has lectured nationally and internationally on the critical care nurse practitioner model and trauma resuscitation and management.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including March of Dimes Critical Care Nurse of the Year, the Excellence in Leadership Award for Emory School of Nursing Faculty, the Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice from Carlow University and the Women in Leadership Award from the American College of Chest Physicians. In addition, she was inducted as a Fellow to the American College of Critical Care Medicine in 2021, and she will be inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in October 2025—the highest fellowship recognition for nursing.


Gerene Bauldoff (MSN ’93, PhD ’01)

Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award

Ratsiri ThatoGerene Bauldoff, a registered nurse for 45 years, earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from La Roche College, now called LaRoche University. She also earned a Master of Science in Nursing in medical-surgical nursing and a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Bauldoff’s career has spanned clinical practice and academia. She is currently an Academy Professor Emeritus-Clinical at the Ohio State University College of Nursing and a nurse scientist in the Center for Nursing Excellence at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus, Ohio. The first 21 years of her work focused on clinical practice, including medical-surgical nursing, home health nursing, lung transplantation coordination, pulmonary rehabilitation program coordination and research project direction.

Upon completion of her PhD, she transitioned into academia at the Ohio State University College of Nursing, where she taught undergraduate, master’s and doctoral level programs for 23 years. Since 2011, she has served as chair of 23 doctor of nursing practice (DNP) student committees and as a committee member on an additional 33 DNP committees. She also advised more than 100 master’s students while at OSU.

In addition to her teaching, Dr. Bauldoff has served on a multitude of university and college committees and as a member and vice-chair of the OSU Biomedical Institutional Review Board. Upon her retirement from OSU in 2024, she accepted a position as a nurse scientist in the Center for Nursing Excellence at NCH, collaborating with frontline care providers in the development and implementation of clinical inquiry projects. She also serves as a member of the NCH Institutional Review Board.

She is the first author on the Pearson Higher Education medical-surgical nursing textbook, “Medical-Surgical Nursing: Critical Thinking in Client Care, 7th edition,” and she previously served as a co-author on the 5th and 6th editions. She also serves as the co-editor on the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) book, “Guidelines for Pulmonary Rehabilitation (5th edition),” with the 6th edition currently in development.

Dr. Bauldoff is an active member of multiple professional organizations, including the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the AACVPR, the American Thoracic Society Nursing Assembly and the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST). She is a recognized expert in medical-surgical nursing, focusing on care of patients with chronic pulmonary disease and serving on committees focused on international standards for patient-centered outcomes in pulmonary rehabilitation. She has been honored with fellowships in AAN and CHEST and has been designated as a Master Fellow in AACVPR


Margaret-Ann Carno (PhD ’02)

Distinguished Practice Award

Margaret-Ann CarnoMargaret-Ann Carno earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Business Administration with a concentration in operations management from Syracuse University. She also earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Jurisprudence in Health Law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Dr. Carno’s pediatric nurse practitioner career began in 2008 after receiving advanced certificates as a pediatric nurse practitioner in primary care and acute care from the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She also earned an advanced certificate in online education from the UR Warner School of Education and is certified in Health Care Research Compliance from the Health Care Compliance Association.

She is currently the interim director of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, where she has held multiple leadership positions and chairs two Research Subjects Review Boards. Dr. Carno has been a faculty member at the University of Rochester School of Nursing since 2003 and has taught several programs.

She has more than 35 years of pediatric nursing experience, which includes pediatric critical care, pediatric sleep medicine and pediatric sedation. Her research interests include pediatric sleep and pediatric sedation, and she has published numerous manuscripts and textbooks. Dr. Carno is one of only a handful of nurse practitioners who hold the designation of Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. She was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2011 and as a Fellow of the American Thoracic Society in 2018.

Dr. Carno has served in national leadership roles in many organizations. She most recently served as nursing assembly chair for the American Thoracic Society and previously held presidential appointments on the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Committee and Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence developed a clinical practice guideline related to the management of children with persistent obstructive sleep apnea post-adenotonsillectomy and held a workshop that developed strategies to assess the effect of continuous positive airway pressure on long-term clinically important outcomes among patients with symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea


Rachel Cellurale (BSN ’07, MSN ’11)

Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award

Rachel Cellurale Rachel Cellurale earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating magna cum laude. She was an undergraduate member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society. She also earned a Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia from the University of Pittsburgh.

Cellurale is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) and a clinical leader with nearly two decades of experience in perioperative nursing care. She currently holds the title of assistant CRNA clinical director at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, where she had been cross-credentialed for several years as part of the UPMC CRNA Tier Program. She fulfills a multitude of departmental responsibilities, including supervising and mentoring CRNA providers and student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs), advocating for patients, overseeing committees, developing projects to improve the department, and interfacing with multidisciplinary hospital and University of Pittsburgh Physicians leadership. She continues to uphold her focus on education and professional development as an instructor for the Winter Institute’s OB Anesthesia-Critical Scenario course and through her active coordination of departmental education/annual safety training for the surgical services department and anesthesia providers at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.

Cellurale began her nursing career working as a critical care nurse at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in the medical intensive care unit (ICU), where she gained valuable bedside experience caring for high-acuity patients. Her expertise and affinity for cardiac specialty was further developed through her work as a travel nurse in a cardiothoracic ICU in the state of California.

She practiced as a CRNA for 11 years at UPMC Shadyside Hospital, caring for high-acuity patients undergoing procedures across a wide range of surgical specialties, primarily cardiac, thoracic, neurologic, orthopedic, robotic-assisted, plastics and various oncologic specialty surgeries. She gained additional experience working at several settings across Western Pennsylvania, including both academic and community hospitals, ophthalmologic and plastics surgery centers, and dental surgery offices. Her clinical and professional focus in education was elevated by her appointed role as a student coordinator at UPMC Shadyside, where she had clinical oversight over SRNAs from the University of Pittsburgh Nurse Anesthesia Program.

Cellurale has also served as an executive board member of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, adjunct faculty to the University of Pittsburgh Nurse Anesthesia Program, CRNA mentor to SRNAs through the Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program and as a member of the UPMC CRNA Advisory Committee. She has received several awards and achievements, including the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Nurse Anesthesia Program Above and Beyond Award in Recognition of Professional Leadership and Service, the Helen Lamb CRNA Educator Award in Recognition and Dedication of Valuable Contributions to Instructional Excellence, the Nurse Anesthesia Traineeship Scholarship, and the Doris and Davina Gosnell Endowed Nursing Scholarship.


Nora Warshawsky (BSN ’82)

Distinguished Research Award

Nora WarshawskyNora Warshawsky earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a Master of Public Administration from Troy University and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She is a nationally recognized expert and thought leader in the field of nursing leadership science and currently serves as the inaugural nurse scientist at Press Ganey Associates, a data-driven organization committed to transforming the human experience of health care. Dr. Warshawsky previously held academic appointments as professor and program director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Health Systems Leadership and Master of Science in Nursing programs at the University of Kentucky and the University of Central Florida. Her expertise is built on more than 40 years in nursing practice, leading graduate nursing academic programs, and coaching nurse executives and nursing workforce scholars.

Dr. Warshawsky’s scholarly contributions reflect a distinguished record of excellence in nursing leadership and administration. She is widely recognized for her innovative research examining how leadership competency development, job structure and work environment influence nurse manager performance. Her seminal contribution is the development of the Nurse Manager Practice Environment Scale, designed to assess the work environment from the perspective of nurse managers, which has been translated into three languages. Dr. Warshawsky is frequently consulted by nursing leaders for her expertise, as demonstrated by her extensive portfolio of peer-reviewed publications, national presentations and advisory roles with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL).

Dr. Warshawsky has been named the 2026 Creighton Distinguished Scholar. In 2022, she was recognized as the Nurse Researcher of the Year by the AONL Foundation and in 2021 with the Suzanne Smith Memorial Scholarly Writing Award from the Association for Leadership Science in Nursing in recognition of the impact of her research on nursing leadership practice.


If you wish to submit any additional documents, you may attach them to the bottom of the form or email Taylor Andrekanic at tva4@pitt.edu