NightinGala and Nurse Hero Awards

More than 300 people attended the 2025 NightinGala and Nurse Hero Awards on May 2 at the FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms. Guests enjoyed entertainment by Nurse Blake, bidding on Silent Auction items, and honoring winners of the nursing awards. Professor Michelle Decker, DNP, RN, won the Dr. John W. Runyan Jr. Community Nursing Award for her leadership of the Jeannette M. Travis School of Nursing and Health Sciences at UT Southern. Richard Schenk, BSN, RN, of Baptist Memorial Health Care, and Kierra McCallum, BSN, RN, ACRN, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, both received Bedside Nurse Hero Awards. The late Tracy Tidwell Dixon, MSN, FNP-BC, PPCNP-BC, was honored posthumously with the Advanced Practice Nurse Hero Award for her lifelong commitment to pediatric nursing in Memphis. Anna Leigh McGrath, MSN, RN, director of nursing services at the West Cancer Center and Research Institute, was recognized with the Executive Leader Nurse Hero Award. Congratulations to all of the deserving winners at the ninth annual NightinGala, and thank you to our sponsors who make this important event possible. Learn more about the award winners.