The President’s Award is awarded annually and presented to an individual for faithful and diligent service to TNP. This year I would like to recognize Dr. Barbara Chapman.

Barbara Chapman is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Lead Faculty in the Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner programs at The University of Texas at Tyler. She is also one of the Lead Clinical Directors of the universities Free Mental Healthcare Outreach Line, initially formed to provide free consultations to educators, healthcare workers and students, but now sees patients across the State of Texas.

Her goal is to increase access to both Primary Care and Mental healthcare to Texans across the State.

She has been a nurse for over 35 years and has practiced as a Family Nurse Practitioner for over 9 years at the Community Health Care Clinic in McKinney, Texas focusing on providing care to the uninsured and medically under-served population at 200% or below the poverty level. She also practices as a Family Nurse Practitioner on The INTUNE Mobile Unit, a collaboration between The University of Texas, at Tyler and Special Heath Resources Texas. The goal of the INTUNE is to provide both Mobile Primary healthcare and Telepsychiatry services to rural and under-served areas throughout in East Texas.

She has also traveled to rural Southwest Virginia where she volunteered with The Health Wagon, providing mobile healthcare to rural and underserved populations throughout coal country, seeing patients in areas with the highest rate of Black Lung disease in the world. She has volunteered on the Ronald McDonald Mobile Health Van, in area around Houston, Texas, seeing pediatric patients for primary care visits and vaccinations.

She completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), at The University of Texas at Tyler, disseminating and implementing her DNP evidence-based project on education and prevention of diabetic foot complications in Hispanic female patients while developing an evidence-based practice specific foot care Provider protocol now in place at several facilities.

In 2018, she traveled with students from the University of Texas, Tyler, and in affiliation with the World Health Organization, to Shandong University in Jinan, China as part of a 12-day journey on nursing collaboration and evidence-based practices discussing topics such as cultural diversities and patient care practices. The trip included visits to the local hospitals, community center, and at-home patient visits.