Prof. Apple Earns VCNP's 2025 'NP Advocate' Award
Assistant professor Ashley Apple—two-term VNA commissioner on government relations—earned the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners' “NP Advocate Award” at the group’s spring conference.
Apple, a triple Hoo, is a dogged supporter of legislation that supports Virginia nurses at all levels, and was among those responsible for the June 2024 passage of House Bill 971, which reduced the transition to practice period for nurse practitioners from five years to three.
Across the span of her professional career, Apple, a self-described "policy nerd," has been involved in numerous health policy and advocacy initiatives at both the state and federal levels. Deeply committed to advancing equitable public policies, Apple works closely with legislators and stakeholders across the political spectrum to address sociopolitical barriers to wellness.
Nursing and activism need not live in separate silos, says Apple. "They actually go together, and should go together."
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A member of the VNA board of directors who leads the Virginia Legislative Nursing Alliance, a collaborative think-tank for specialty nursing organizations across Virginia, Apple has played a key role in the passage of numerous bills related to professional practice in the Commonwealth and has inspired legions of colleagues, as well as undergraduate and graduate nursing students to develop as nurse advocates along the way.
In her role as a faculty member, Apple has introduced students to her brand of nurse advocacy through VNA’s “Lobby Days,” an event that offers nurses-to-be a chance to meet and speak with state legislators, understand how bills become law, and observe how nurses can advocate for the profession by investing time in understanding legislation and using their platforms as nurses to advocate for change.
She encourages her students to take an active role once they move beyond their education and provides a model for students to not only to be members of their state’s professional nursing organizations but to use their voices to lift up the profession, patient care, and fight for legislation that supports equity, health, and well-being.
“I wanted to gain a behind-the-scenes look at lobbying,” explained BreAnn Dishman, an accelerated BSN student who took part in VNA Lobby Day with Apple in early 2025, “and now I have a much deeper understanding of the effort required to introduce and gain support for new legislation,” and “insight into how real-world events influence policy development—something I hadn’t fully considered before.”
In the classroom, Apple teaches health policy, public health nursing, and pathophysiology, guest lectures on topics ranging from caring for transgender and gender non-conforming young people in the primary care setting, nurse activism and advocacy, and political determinants of health. Apple also works with clinical students in various community settings, including low-resourced and refugee communities, public and private elementary schools, a day shelter and resource center for people experiencing homelessness, the Charlottesville Health Department, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, and the Ryan White HIV Clinic at UVA.
An alumna of the inaugural cohort of Healing Politics and its Campaign School for Nurses and Midwives, a network of clinician-educator-advocates interested in running for elected office "up and down the ballot."
At the VCNP conference, Apple was honored alongside Carola Bruflat, who earned the group’s Distinguished NP Award, Sarah Knoeckel, who was lauded with a VCNP Education Award, Terry Guyton-Smith, who also received the VCNP’s NP Advocate Award, and Samantha Rothman, who earned the group’s Rising Star Award.
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