Louise Fleming Honored with UNC Alumni Award for Outstanding Nurse Innovator

Associate Dean of Academic Operations and Professor, Louise Fleming, PhD, MSN-Ed, RN, FAAN, was honored with the UNC Alumni Award for Outstanding Nurse Innovator.

This award recognizes a UNC School of Nursing graduate who is applying new ideas and methods to the field of nursing to improve patient experiences, health outcomes and nursing practice, research and/or education.

Louise Fleming is currently UVA School of Nursing’s inaugural associate dean for academic operations. She has expansive experience in academic and operational leadership, research, and advocacy. An award-winning educator and scholar, she is deeply engaged across a variety of practice and research communities, including as a nurse scientist and scholar of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) who creates systems, technological supports, including a mobile health app focused on preventing adrenal crisis events (PACE), and care and training protocols that support families and children with CAH. 

Because of her research in and connections to CAH communities, Fleming was appointed in 2019 to the American Psychological Association’s seven-member Task Force on Differences in Sex Development (DSD), where she continues to collaborate on work to guide increased education, training, practice, and policy related to many DSD conditions, including CAH. She is also a consultant for the CARES Foundation and is its immediate past chair.  

Previously, Louise was at UNC Chapel Hill, where she was associate dean of its School of Nursing’s undergraduate division and programs. She earned a PhD from UNC Chapel Hill in 2016, an MSN-Ed from Duke University, and baccalaureate degrees from both the University of South Carolina and Clemson. Named a UNC Nursing Faculty of the Year and among the “Great 100 Nurses of North Carolina” for her work during the pandemic, she is an AACN Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing Fellow alumna, a 2026 Fellow in the ACC Academic Leaders Network, and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. 

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