2023 Student Leadership Award Recipient
This award recognizes a student(s) that has demonstrated leadership and contributed significantly to the School of Nursing during the academic year.
About Judson LaGrone
Judson LaGrone is a native Southeast Texan, growing up in Fannett. After graduating from East Texas Baptist University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN degree), he began his nursing career as an Emergency Room (ER) nurse at St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital in Bryan, Texas. He then completed the Nurse Educator track program at Texas A&M University in 2017.
In 2014, Mr. LaGrone became a travel ER nurse in Southern California while his wife attended podiatry school and later transitioned to becoming a Cardiac Catheterization and Electrophysiology (EP) nurse at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, California.
In 2019, he returned to Texas and began working as a staff nurse at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center - Temple. Shortly after transitioning to Nurse Manager of the Cardiac Cath and EP Procedural Area, Mr. LaGrone was nominated by the staff of the department for the Daisy Nurse Leader Award.
Over the years, Mr. LaGrone has served as an adjunct and full-time faculty for several nursing programs including Texas A&M, Chaffey College, and Lamar State College-Orange. In 2022, he returned to Southeast Texas and currently is a nursing instructor at Lamar University in Beaumont.
Mr. LaGrone continues to seek out educational opportunities and professional development that will benefit both his students and him. He has been enrolled as a full-time student in the UTMB School of Nursing PhD program since August 2020. He continues to have many valuable opportunities, including representing the Nursing PhD program students as a Graduate Studies Student Representative in both the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Nursing, serving on the Program Evaluation Committee, and participating in the Interprofessional Scholars Program as a UTMB Disaster Day Incident Commander. He also was selected as a Jonas Philanthropy Scholar Nominee by the School of Nursing Faculty related to his research.
Mr. LaGrone is an Eagle Scout and a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. He is also a Certified Cardiovascular Registered Nurse (CVRN-BC).
Drs. J. Michael Leger, D. Cheyenne Martin, Carolyn Phillips, and Mary O’Keefe have been invaluable mentors to him throughout his time at UTMB. He is immensely grateful and credits many of his successes to his wife Frankie LaGrone, son Jude, and their family. Mr. LaGrone also credits his nursing career to his mother, Toni LaGrone, who is a nurse.