DENVER, Co. – Stacy Jaskwhich, RN, lead nurse practitioner (NP) at the Emory Women's Heart Center (EWHC), is the 2017 recipient of the Terry Thomas Clinical Practice Award from the Preventive Cardiovascular NursesAssociation (PCNA). She is receiving the honor this week at the PCNA Annual Symposium in Denver.

The Terry Thomas Clinical Practice Award annually recognizes one individual who has made significant contributions to the field of preventive cardiovascular nursing in the United States.

According to PCNA, Jaskwhich is being recognized for her accomplishments as a cardiovascular provider and educator, contributions to the development of others, and her community outreach efforts, which include more than 300 talks to community groups in Metro Atlanta.

Jaskwhich is a co-investigator and facilitator of Emory's 10,000 Women project, whose mission is to screen 10,000 African-American women for hypertension in the communities where they reside and provide awareness, education and access to care.

"Stacy has been instrumental to the success of the Emory Women's Heart Center and Emory's 10,000 Women project," says EWHC clinical director Gina Lundberg, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Emory University School of Medicine. "She has shown outstanding leadership and dedication in raising awareness of and helping to prevent heart disease among women and so much more."

Earlier in her career, Jaskwhich assisted Lundberg with the initiation and development of Saint Joseph's Heart Center for Women, one of the first women's cardiac prevention programs in the state of Georgia. The program eventually evolved into the present Emory Women's Heart Center and has expanded to multiple locations where Jaskwhich functions as the lead NP.

Jaskwhich also serves as adjunct faculty for Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, acting as an instructor for nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical students.