2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient
This award honors an alumnus who has made major contributions to nursing through a commitment of excellence in patient care, research, publications, education, community service and/or leadership.
About Susan Ruppert
Susan D. Ruppert completed the UTMB School of Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner post-graduate certificate program in 1995. She currently holds the PARTNERS Endowed Professorship in Nursing and is a professor and the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston.
Dr. Ruppert is certified as both a Family Nurse Practitioner and an Adult Nurse Practitioner and maintains a faculty practice in addition to her distinguished academic role. She is a well-known expert on nursing education, advanced practice nursing, accreditation, and certification.
Her awards and accolades include being named a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor in 2021, a recipient of the 2018 University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, and induction into The University of Texas Kenneth I. Shine, MD Academy of Health Science Education as a Distinguished Teaching Professor.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, American College of Critical-Care Medicine, and National Academies of Practice.
Dr. Ruppert has been a textbook editor/contributor and serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, and the Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice. She is an author/editor and a reviewer for numerous journals and books.
Additionally, she has served as a national/international practice and education consultant for colleges of nursing across the United States, Oman, and Hong Kong.
Dr. Ruppert has held national leadership positions within many professional organizations including her role as chair of the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) Board of Commissioners. She also served on the CCNE Accreditation Review Committee as Co-Chair and the CCNE 2017-2018 Standards Committee. She was Co-Chair of the CCNE Nurse Practitioner Residency/Fellowship Standards Committee, Vice-Chair of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB) Board of Commissioners, and a member of the AACN Essentials Revision Task Force.
Dr. Ruppert currently serves on the AACN Essentials Implementation Steering Committee, CCNE 2022-2023 Standards Committee, CCNE Report Review Committee, International Council of Nurses (ICN) Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nurse Network Education Subgroup Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Texas Center of Nursing Workforce Studies Advisory Committee.