Gov. Youngkin Appoints Professor Shelly Smith to Virginia Board of Nursing
Professor Shelly Smith (BSN ’99, DNP ’12) was appointed in July by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to the 14-member Virginia Board of Nursing, a key group that oversees the regulation of nurses, prescriptive authority for nurse practitioners, and in-state education programs for nurses, nurses’ aides, and medication aides.
The year-long appointment comes just as Smith’s two-year term as a member of the Virginia Healthcare Workforce Development Authority ends, a nomination she earned from Gov. Youngkin in 2022.
Smith has helped shape House Bills 793, 1600, and Senate Bill 170, as well as, more recently, House Bill 971, which recently passed, importantly reducing the transition to practice period for nurse practitioners from five years to three and was several years in the making.
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Smith, who teaches DNP students and directs the School of Nursing’s advanced practice programs, is among the state’s leading clinician-advocates who frequently lends her voice and expertise at the Virginia General Assembly, providing expert testimony during legislative sessions, at caucus, subcommittee, and committee meetings. Through that work, she has helped shape House Bills 793, HB 1600, and Senate Bill 170, as well as, more recently, House Bill 971, which recently passed, importantly reducing the transition to practice period for nurse practitioners from five years to three and was several years in the making.
Prior to her appointment at UVA, Smith was a clinical associate professor and served as director of nursing graduate programs at VCU School of Nursing. As a Translational Research Fellow in Residence at VCU, Smith also mentored faculty scholars in legislative advocacy, proposal and grant writing, and authoring policy briefs and white papers.
A long-time preceptor to UVA students, and a part of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority’s nursing preceptor incentive program work group, Smith understands well the importance of nursing schools’ ability to build and maintain strong clinical partnerships with health systems around the Commonwealth that augment students’ education and experience.
Smith is an American Academy of Nursing Fellow, was named a Distinguished Policy Fellow for the National Academy of Practice, is a Wilder School of Government & Public Policy Translational Research Fellow alumna, and an AACN Leadership for Academic Nursing Program alumna. She’s earned multiple awards, too, including an NP State Excellence Award from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2021, Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners’ (VCNP) Distinguished NP Award in 2019, and a Distinguished Nurse Practitioner Award from the Richmond chapter of the VCNP.
With her UVA colleagues, she's helped develop a new BSN to DNP pathway program that will debut in fall 2025.
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