Undergraduate Nursing Professor Deborah McCarter, Ph.D., RN, WHNP-BC, IBCLC, has received Saint Anselm College’s 2024 American Association of University Professor’s (AAUP) Distinguished Faculty Award.
The annual award celebrates a faculty member’s contributions to the College community through teaching excellence and their enduring relationships with both colleagues and students.
Sociology and Social Work Professor Kevin Doran presented the award to McCarter at the college’s 131st commencement exercises on Sat., May 18.
“This year we honor a faculty member who has made an indelible imprint not only on Saint Anselm College, but in our community broadly,” said Doran. “Students and faculty noted the energy and joy that the recipient brings to the classroom and the broader campus.”
Professor McCarter has worked tremendously to improve childbearing women’s outcomes as a nurse practitioner, nursing professor, and nurse scientist for the last four decades. She is devoted to researching the relationship between postpartum depression symptoms and breastfeeding, breastfeeding confidence, women’s health, gender issues, and global health in all contexts.
Professor McCarter retired this year following 17 years teaching in the college’s renowned undergraduate nursing program. In addition to the AAUP award, McCarter deservingly received the 2024 Excellence in Nursing Award for Academic Nurse Educator-Researcher from the New Hampshire Nursing Association, recognizing her outstanding professional and research accomplishments in healthcare studies.
The college’s commencement exercises took place on the college quad where 507 students earned their Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. This year the college is marking 50 years of full co-education and the inaugural year for the Jean School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Alumna and recent Pulitzer Prize finalist Lauren Chooljian Baer ’10 addressed the class of 2024.
In its inaugural year, the Jean School of Nursing and Health Sciences graduated 98 students in Nursing and Public Health Majors. Dean Diane Uzarski, DNP, MPH, RN, read the names as graduates crossed the platform. Graduates are beginning employment at hospitals and organizations across New England including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Lahey Hospital, and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital.