Expert Clinician and Faculty Member Kathleen Rea Lauded with Legacy Award

Assistant professor, clinician-educator, and alumna Kathleen Rea, DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, PCCN, CNL (BSN ’93, MSN ’02), earned the 2025 Legacy Award for Clinical Teaching Excellence.

Rea is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at UVA Health University Medical Center who specializes in digestive health, solid organ transplantation, and staff development and quality improvement. She's also a key part of the School's Synergy Center and its critical effort to recruit, develop, and retain new nurses through the UVA Health's Nursing Professional Development Services, which Rea helped develop and launch in summer 2024 with colleagues including associate professor Sarah Craig (MSN ’10, PhD ’14), Reba Childress, lead nursing professional development specialist, and others, work that guides new nurses in how to offer care “the UVA Health way” specific to infection control, vitals and assessments, wound care, giving medication, using and disposing of sharps, and safety and emergency response skills. 

Across Rea's many years of partnership at the School of Nursing, she's taught students enrolled in the BSN program, supported CNL students as a preceptor, and been a practice mentor to DNP students. 

Dean Marianne Baernholdt called Rea, "a strong leader, educator, and an incredibly supportive faculty member and colleague, and well-deserving of this honor."

Created in 2023 by 13 members of the Diploma class of 1968, the Legacy Award for Clinical Teaching Excellence recognizes innovative approaches to teaching and learning that inspire students and School of Nursing faculty members.

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