Awards

W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service - 1998

About Sandra Burgener

Dr. Sandra Burgener received the W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding service in 1998, shortly following another award, the Midwest Alliance in Nursing's Leadership Award for Excellence in Geriatric Care, for her work to improve the quality of life for elderly patients.

Sandra is co-founder of the Broadway Shalom Wellness Center, an early example of her extended vision for a network of church-based, nurse managed clinics that can reach into the inner city and provide health care for often neglected populations. In one year, the center immunized more than 80 children, provided cancer screening to 199 women and helped hundreds of other patients handle health problems. She has more than 40 publications in a variety of prestigious nursing and multidisciplinary journals, including the Journals of Gerontology; Image; Journal of Nursing Scholarship; Research in Nursing & Health; Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders; and Journal of Religion and Health.

Sandra is currently an associate professor and gerontological nurse practitioner at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing Faculty. Her main research area for the past 20 years has been the examination of variables associated with quality-of-life in persons with dementia, and she has conducted 8 studies in this area since 1987. Sandra’s previous work has included the examination of a variety of personal, environmental, and caregiver-related variables associated with productive, positive outcomes in persons with dementia. Sandra also completed a study of more than 350 inner-city older adults to determine the incidence and effectiveness of management of common chronic illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, and depression.