The Nashville Business Journal recently honored professor Jane Shelby as one of the 2009 Health Care Heroes in Middle Tennessee. Shelby is a professor of nursing and the former director of the university’s undergraduate nursing program.
“I am very honored and humbled by this award,” said Shelby. “It really is not an award for me personally but for all the faculty and staff in the School of Nursing who work so hard to prepare our students for their profession.”
Shelby was recognized in the “Behind the Scenes” category along with other local leaders, including Aileen Katcher of Katcher, Vaughn and Bailey Public Relations, Julie Warner from the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center and Jonathan Uttz from Psychiatric Solutions. This was the third annual luncheon to “help celebrate the accomplishments of the leaders, innovators, strategists and caretakers, whose work is helping to grow the region’s health care industry and reinforcing Nashville as the health care capital of the nation.”

Professor Shelby’s nomination letter included the following accolades:
“In every nursing program there is usually one person who is the “glue” that holds the program together. It is a person who handles thorny student advising issues, who plans complex student schedules so that student learning is maximized, who is the “go-to” person for fellow faculty as they confront difficult learning situations, who grieves with students and faculty when life experiences are not positive, and who rejoices with students and faculty as the experience life-changing events. For Belmont, Jane Shelby has served as that “glue” in her role as Undergraduate Chair of the School of Nursing for the last ten years. Although she is stepping aside from that role this year, we are grateful she is staying on in the role of Associate Professor of Nursing.”