VNA Honors Professors Bragg, Boitnott, as Professor Apple is Elected VNA VP

At the Virginia Nurses Association’s annual gala event in Norfolk, assistant professors Amy Boitnott and Sharon Bragg were honored with teaching awards as fellow faculty member Ashley Apple officially took the reins of the VNA as vice president.

The VNA Gala is the group’s annual celebration of Virginia nurses. On hand to administer the awards was VNA president Kathy Baker, the School's associate dean for clinical affairs and UVA Health University Medical Center chief nursing officer and faculty member Mesha Jones, a UVA Health nurse manager, the  Virginia Nurses Foundation's president.

Ashley Apple
VNA vice president

Apple, who previously served two terms as the VNA’s commissioner on government relations, is a former emergency room nurse-turned family nurse practitioner who practices in pediatric emergency care at a clinic near Richmond. As commissioner of government relations for the VNA since 2022, she led the Virginia Legislative Nursing Alliance, a collaborative thinktank for specialty nursing organizations across Virginia, and has played a key part in the passage of numerous bills related to nurses’ professional practice. Apple brings nursing students to VNA’s annual “Lobby Days” event, introducing students to lawmakers, discussing key initiatives with them, and inspiring them to become involved in advocacy and as VNA members.

In the classroom, Apple teaches health policy, public health nursing, and pathophysiology, among others. She is a guest lecturer for both undergraduate graduate students on a variety of topics, including caring for transgender and gender non-conforming young people in the primary care setting, nurse activism and advocacy, and political determinants of health. Apple 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. 

Amy Boitnott
2025 VNA Nurse Educator Award

Nurse practitioner Boitnott, the pediatric primary care specialty lead and co-director of the UVA Health mobile health van, is an award-winning nurse educator, a beloved mentor, and was the first graduate of UVA’s DNP program in 2008. Twice each week, she is the primary clinician staffing the van in Southwood, a high-need community in Charlottesville, whose ability to translate real-world pediatrics clinical experiences into meaningful classroom learning is, her students and colleagues say, “unmatched.”

“She’s an example for me and my peers to follow,” said former student and BSN graduate, Alice Xie. “She’s inspired me to consider teaching in my future. I keep a note on my laptop of what kind of professor I want to be, and many of those points are taken from her teaching practices.”

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis nearly 20 years ago, Boitnott has adapted her teaching methods to meet the demands of her condition while continuing to deliver exceptional instruction. Her resilience and transparency also serve as a powerful model for students and demonstrate how personal challenges might be transformed into strengths that enrich the learning environment.

Sharon Bragg, DNP, RN, CCRN
2025 VNA Nurse Educator Award

Bragg, specialty lead for the Clinical Nurse Leader master’s program, is a veteran critical care nurse who specializes in pulmonary and medical intensive care with a long history of teaching, precepting, and nursing leadership. Long celebrated for her clinical teaching and mentoring, and often described by her students as “empowering” and “generous-spirited,” she is a former nurse manager who led operations at UVA Health’s medical ICU and its Special Pathogens Unit, including during the COVID pandemic, overseeing 150 team members.

A dynamic and award-winning educator, Bragg’s teaching portfolio includes graduate level courses in leadership, complex care, and capstone development, and she consistently earns high marks from students, who, themselves, thanks in part to her mentoring, also achieve high marks, including consistently high NCLEX pass rates and preparedness for diverse clinical environments.

In addition to her academic role, Bragg has served on the National Teaching Institute Planning Committee for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, held leadership roles within the Virginia Nurses Association, and led the Beta Kappa Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau to earn the prestigious Key Award for chapter excellence.

The VNA represents the interests of Virginia’s more than 140,000 registered nurses and is led by Kathy Baker, president, a UVA School of Nursing faculty member.

UVA School of Nursing is home to two finalists for VNA's Nurse Educator Awards for 2025, including Gretchen Wiersma, associate professor, and Emily Evans, assistant professor. The VNA/VNF's annual gathering, sponsored by UVA Health, the School, and organized by the Virginia Nurses Foundation (VNF), the VNA's fundraising arm, gathered hundreds of nurses from across the state.

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