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Mary Dee Hacker Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From NurseWeek Magazine at its Annual NurseWeek Excellence Event

CONTACT:  Steve Rutledge at (323) 361-4121

Kathy Ruccione, RN, was nominated in the category – Advancing and Leading the Profession

LOS ANGELES – Mary Dee Hacker, R.N., MBA, vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, received the “Diane Cooper Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Annual NurseWeek Magazine “Nursing Excellence Awards” ceremony held at the Garden Grove Hyatt Hotel on Sept. 25, 2009.

“Diane Cooper is one of my nurse heroes,” Hacker said, “and it is a great honor to be recognized with a lifetime achievement award in her name.

“I’m so proud to work at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles where I’m surrounded by the best.  And we’re supported by an organization that believes in professional nursing and the safety and care that we provide our children.  I love this profession, and I always say that I am most proud when I can tell someone that I am a registered nurse at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles,” she concluded.

Hacker is no stranger to accolades.  She received the St. Catherine University Alumnae Award (2009), the “Profiles in Nursing” award from Working Nurse (2007) and “Best Practice – Administration” from the Association of California Nurse Leaders (2003).

Hacker received the Marion Vannier Award for the “Advancement of the Profession of Nursing and the Care of Children” (2001), and was the recipient of the Association of California Nurse Leaders  “Excellence in Nursing Leadership” award  (2000).  She was named one of “California’s 100 Most Influential & Interesting Healthcare Leaders” by California Medicine magazine in 1997.  Hacker also received the 1997 “RN Excellence Award” bestowed by NurseWeek magazine.

Hacker is among the best-known leaders in nursing in California.  At Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, she initiated the development of an R.N. Residency known nationally as Versant.

Hacker is a member of the California Institute for Nursing and Healthcare (CINHC), Cerner’s Patient Care Executive Council, the Governance and Advisory Council for CalNOC, the American Nurses’ Association/California, the California State University, Los Angeles Department of Nursing Advisory Committee, the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the Society of Pediatric Nurses.

She is very active in the community, serving as a Board member for the DAISY Foundation and Versant, and as a member of numerous organizations, including Campbell Hall School, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and Hillsides.

Hacker was named a member of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Board of Trustees in 2008.

She earned her R.N. degree from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her MBA from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.  She also graduated from the Wharton Fellows Program in Management for Nurse Executives, an intensive three-week management education program held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Hacker is married to Steve Nishibayashi, M.D., a pediatrician and clinical associate professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, who practices in Glendale.  The couple and their two children, Kathryn and Mark reside in Glendale.

In addition, Kathy Ruccione, R.N., MPH, CPON, FAAN, director of Center Communication and co-director of the HOPE Program (Hematology-Oncology Psychosocial and Education) at the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, was a nominee in the category  “Advancing and Leading the Profession.”

Ruccione was honored with the Davol Award for Excellence in Research from the Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses (APON) in 1989 and 1990; and the Jean Fergusson Award for Excellence in Education from the APON; the Senior Writing Award of The Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing in 1994 and 1999; and the Founders Award from the Southern California Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses in 1996, which was named for her.  She received the APON Casey Hooke Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and was named a finalist in the California NurseWeek “Nursing Excellence Awards” (Advancing and Leading the Profession category) in 2009.

Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been treating the most seriously ill and injured children in Los Angeles for more than a century, and it is acknowledged throughout the United States and around the world for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health. Childrens Hospital is one of America’s premier teaching hospitals, affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932.  The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is among the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States.

Since 1990, U.S. News & World Report and its panel of board-certified pediatricians have named Childrens Hospital Los Angeles one of the top pediatric facilities in the nation.  Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is one of only 10 children’s hospitals in the nation – and the only children’s hospital on the West Coast – ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and named to the magazine’s “Honor Roll” of children’s hospitals.