Annually, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) recognizes a nursing informatics leader who demonstrates significant leadership contributions by optimizing health engagements and care outcomes through information and technology. This award is given to an individual for success and achievement as a nursing informatics leader in a provider, a supplier or academic organization, or a professional society.
This year, HIMSS and ANI are pleased to announce Cheryl Parker, PhD, RN-BC, CNE, FHIMSS, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 HIMSS-ANI Nursing Informatics Leadership Award. Dr Parker is a well-respected nursing informatics thought leader who has served in a variety of leadership capacities in both academia and industry. She is developing the informatics curriculum as a clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Texas at Tyler.
Dr Parker has demonstrated a lifetime of exceptional leadership in nursing informatics. She is an exemplary clinician leader and strategic thinker and consistently serves as a positive advocate and role model for HIMSS and other nursing informatics endeavors. Dr Parker has a strong history as a respected clinician leader, mentor, and educator. She is an accomplished author and editor and willingly provides her expertise and shares her thought leadership through her numerous volunteer and academic leadership roles.
"For the past 26 years, it has been my pleasure to be an active part of the nursing informatics community," Dr Parker said. "HIMSS-ANI has now chosen to honor me for my activities with the 2021 HIMSS-ANI Nursing Informatics Leader of the Year. There is truth in the adage, do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life. Nursing informatics has never been a job for me but a joy. Spending the last phase of my career sharing my love of informatics with my students is the reward."
"This prestigious award, adding my name to the list of outstanding former recipients, words fail me. And those of you who have spent any time with me will know that's an extremely rare occurrence. My profound thanks to those who nominated me and to the committee for selecting me. To my many colleagues, thank you for your friendship and mentoring through the years! It is each of you who has made my career what it has been."
Dr Parker was selected jointly by the HIMSS Board of Directors and the Governing Directors of the ANI. She was honored at the HIMSS21 Awards Gala on August 11, 2021.