HPNA.org

Friend of HPNA Award Recipients

2011 Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy

Currently serving her 8th term representing Long Island's 4th Congressional District, Representative Carolyn McCarthy was first elected in 1996 and has served in Congress for over 12 years. A life-long resident of Mineola, NY, she has over 30 years experience as a nurse. Rep. McCarthy holds many honors. She is the first Congresswoman from Long Island and is included in Newsday's 100 Long Island Influentials, Long Island Business News' Long Island Top 50, Congressional Quarterly's 50 Most Effective Legislators, Redbook Magazine's Mothers and Shakers and the Ladies' Home Journal 100 Most Important Women.

Congresswoman McCarthy successfully fought to have language included in the Higher Education Opportunity Act, signed into law in 2009, which addresses the nurse shortage crisis. The bill provides for increased numbers of nurse faculty to train new nurses, a loan forgiveness program for new nurses, and requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate constraints encountered by schools of nursing in admitting and graduating the number of registered nurses. The Congresswoman also introduced the Nurse Training and Retention Act. This bill would provide grants to help provide training to ancillary healthcare workers who are interested in becoming nurses. The bill also provides for continuing education for nurses. Congresswoman McCarthy was able to include this legislation as a part of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

2010 Congresswoman Lois Capps

Congresswoman Capps has supported the HPNA mission by leading Congress on issues of public health, passing legislation to address the national nursing shortage, helping people improve their daily lives through quality health care, and providing immediate Medicare coverage to patients suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Capps serves on the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce and is the Vice Chair of its Health Subcommittee. She also sits on the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. From these posts, Capps continues to focus on Medicare reform, the nursing shortage, and cancer.

During her 20-year tenure as a nurse and health advocate for the Santa Barbara School District, thousands of Santa Barbara’s children and families benefited from Capps’ personal care and leadership. Capps draws on this extensive healthcare background as founder and co-chair of the House Nursing Caucus. She also serves as co-chair of the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition, the House Cancer Caucus, the Congressional School Health and Safety Caucus, and the House Democratic Task Force on Health.

Capps was born in Ladysmith, Wisconsin on January 10, 1938. After graduating with honors from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, she worked as a nursing instructor in Portland, Oregon. Capps earned a Master of Arts degree in Religion from Yale University while working as Head Nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition, she earned a Master of Arts degree in Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara and received honorary doctorates from Pacific Lutheran University and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.