2022 Hall of Fame Award Recipient
This award honors alumni who have made significant contributions to the nursing profession in clinical practice, education, administration or organizational work involving health care.
About Dr. Jacquelyn Svoboda
Dr. Jacquelyn Svoboda is a passionate advocate and innovative visionary who has dedicated her career and work to improving quality health access for vulnerable populations and educating and empowering student nurses to do the same. She has been a nurse for 23 years, a women’s health nurse practitioner for 19 years, and a nurse educator for nine years.
Dr. Svoboda earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1999), from the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing (UTMB-SON) and received a Master of Science in Nursing as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (2003), from the University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston. In 2020, she earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Alabama.
Dr. Svoboda currently serves as the Director of Educational Innovations and as an assistant professor at UTMB SON. She continues her clinical practice in the UTMB OB/Gyn department as an Advanced Practice Nurse.
Dr. Svoboda is committed to creating a culture of creativity and collaboration as exemplified in her areas of focus in women’s health advocacy and in advancing academic innovations. Since 2016, she has served as the project director for a service-learning project, the BAMBI/SON Collaborative, which encourages breastfeeding and bonding opportunities for incarcerated mothers by utilizing nursing student-led education and student bedside support. She successfully transformed this project into a flourishing undergraduate scholars program, BAMBI Advocacy Student Scholars Program (BASS), with an additional focus on skill and immersion experiences related to maternal health equity, health policy, and advocacy. She is also the co-principal investigator for two funded grants at UTMB-SON. One grant focuses on the development and implementation of a novel BSN Telehealth Program into the curriculum (2021), and one focuses on the development and implementation of a post-master’s Rural Telehealth Certificate (Spring 2023).
Dr. Svoboda is equally committed to scholarship and academic excellence. She has multiple published peer-reviewed manuscripts as well as local, state, national, and international podiums, and poster presentations related to her clinical and academic work. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the UTMB Outstanding BSN Faculty Award (6 times), 2019 Betty Lee Evans Nursing Excellence Award, and 2015 and 2019 Good Samaritan Bronze Award, among others. Dr. Svoboda was also appointed to the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nursing (AWHONN) National Public Policy Committee (2022) and the Nursing for Women’s Health (NWH) practice journal as a peer reviewer (2022).
Dr. Svoboda also serves and advocates within her community as the founder and president of a local service non-profit, Friends Thru the Fight, which provides financial, social, and spiritual support for breast and gynecology cancer patients in Galveston County. She is thankful for the tremendous support of her husband (Curtis), family, friends, colleagues, and mentors. She is most proud of her influence and opportunity to be the mother to her three incredible children, Emily (20), Bryce (15), and Aubree (12). She is forever grateful for the tremendous influence and nursing inspiration set by her mother, Cheryl Day, the greatest nurse she knows.