Meet Our Alumni Award Winners

Each year, the School of Nursing Alumni Association presents awards to recognize the achievements of outstanding alumni. We are pleased to announce awards for two exceptional nurses who are part of our alumni community: Carter Hunter, CPNP (BSN ’15) and Anne DuVal Frost (BSN ’64), PhD.

Carter Hunter (BSN ’15)
The Decade Award

Carter Hunter is a board-certified pediatric nurse practitioner who has been a part of the Commonwealth Pediatrics team in Richmond, Va., since 2020. Prior to her current role, she worked as a pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant nurse and a pediatric urgent care nurse practitioner. Carter earned a master's degree from Emory University. She was nominated for UVA's Decade Award by her Emory professor Sharron Close, who called her "a highly motivated, high-achieving student and novice clinician." Since becoming a nurse practitioner, Hunter's nursing interests have also branched out to caring for children in global settings, including in Haiti and El Salvador.

Driven by her keen interest in pediatric mental health, Hunter eventually hopes to establish a mental health clinic for children in her native Richmond. "There is no doubt in my mind that she is capable of accomplishing this goal, among others," wrote Close. Hunter is currently enrolled in the post-master's certificate program in psychiatric mental health nursing at UVA, and "loves children for their resilience and candor," and "watching children grow and helping families achieve happiness and health." 

An award-winning nurse who earned both the Hannah Gerloff and Johnny Callan Compassion Scholarship Award from UVA and the Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship from Emory, Hunter bikes, paints, hikes, and plans to work with her husky-lab dog "Aspen" to become a certified therapy dog "so he can work with me in my next job as a PMHNP!"

The Decade Award recognizes alumni with outstanding early nursing careers who've been practicing fewer than 10 years and have shown distinction in the areas of scholarship, leadership, teaching, research, and nursing practice well beyond what might be expected early in one's career and in recognition of "promise for the future and an expectation of sustained excellence."

Anne DuVal Frost (BSN ’64)
The Distinguished Alumni Award

Frost was nominated by fellow UVA alumna Susannah Ayers Wornom of Newport News, Va., who called Frost "a true leader and visionary humanitarian." After earning an undergraduate degree from UVA and master's and a PhD from NYU, Frost practiced in various acute care positions and served as a professor of nursing at Lehman College of the City University of New York and the College of New Rochelle for more than 30 years.

It was while teaching that Frost determined to demonstrate to students how to get involved in creative solutions to prevent illness and promote independent nursing practice at a grass roots level. In 1985, she and four fellow nurses founded the Nurses Network, which has since been renamed Project Community, Inc., an organization that emphasizes "healthcare knowledge" instead of the more traditional approach of "healthcare directions."

Since its founding, Project Community, Inc. has deployed a variety of impactful programs that support children, teens, young adults, and their families, including:

• Project CHILDD (Community Help in Learning about Development Disabilities), New York state's first family respite program for children with special needs
• YOU&ME, a collaboration with local police departments to build independence and safety among children with special needs who are often misunderstood by community members
• Interactive programs to prevent binge drinking based on "Knowledge is the Power to Save a Friend" model, which has been delivered to more than 90,000 teens in New York state over the last 30 years

Other of Project Community's programs emphasize bystander interventions, address self-awareness, anxiety, and sexual assault.

Frost served for three terms as Sigma Theta Tau's distinguished speaker, making more than 30 presentations both nationally and internationally. In addition to continuing to serve as president of Project Community Inc., Frost also produced and moderated "Healthstyles," a radio program that aired on WBAI-FM for the New York State Nurses Association.

Frost has received multiple accolades across her distinguished career, including recognition from the New York State Senate as a "Women of Distinction," a manuscript award from the Journal for Holistic Nursing, and the Denzel Washington Award for Community Service for Teens. Frost has also been honored by civic organizations in Pelham, NY, where she has lived and worked for more than 50 years, and where she continues to maintain a counseling practice serving children, teens, and adults.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is the Alumni Association's highest recognition for an alumna or alumnus and is awarded annually to a UVA School of Nursing graduate who demonstrates outstanding contribution in teaching and scholarship, leadership, research, clinical practice, and contributions to the Nursing Alumni Association.

Both nurse alumni will be honored at a UVA Colonnade Club ceremony April 28 with Dean Marianne Baernholdt and the School's Alumni Council members and board. 

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