Mathy Mezey Scholarship
For Nurses Engaged in Graduate Geriatric Nursing Programs
In 2013, while Chairman of the John A. Hartford Foundation, Norman Volk created a permanent NEF scholarship to honor Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, a noted international geriatric expert and current NEF Board Member. The focus of Dr. Mezey’s interest and scholarship has been on nursing ethics and care of older adults, and ensuring that nurses have the necessary skills and knowledge to provide quality care to this potentially vulnerable population.
Dr. Mezey spent 50 years in nursing, first working in home care with Visiting Nurse Service of New York and at Jacobi Hospital, NY Health and Hospitals Corporation, and then having a career as a nurse educator at Lehman College, City University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. She directed two major national initiatives focused on care of older adults: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Teaching Nursing Home Program; and the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU’s College of Nursing. She was also a Founding Director of NICHE (Nurses Improving Health Systems to the Elderly), an initiative involving over 700 hospitals nationwide. Learn more about Dr. Mezey.
This scholarship is awarded to nurses engaged in graduate geriatric nursing programs.
Featured Mathy Mezey Scholarship Recipients
Recipients of the Mathy Mezey Scholarship are committed to improving patient outcomes, advancing evidence-based practice, and strengthening healthcare, with a shared emphasis on geriatric nursing and older adults, which is made evident by these three featured NEF Scholars:
Natalie Radino, MS, RN, ANP, AGNP-C
- Held early roles in critical care and emergency nursing at Long Island Community Hospital (now NYU Langone Hospital–Suffolk), exposing her to the complex needs of older adults and sparking her passion for gerontological care
- Led and partnered on quality improvement efforts, developed new policies, and oversaw advanced infusion therapies as an Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner at NYU Langone Hospital–Suffolk Infusion
- Received the 2024 Nurse Practitioner of the Year Award for Excellence in Patient Care
Cristina de Rosa, PhD, RN
- Used her clinical experience to incorporate patients’ experiences and values into her role as a nurse educator
- Focused her dissertation on older adults and their family caregivers, utilizing innovative analytic approaches to examine how members of a caregiving dyad simultaneously influence each other’s health outcomes, particularly when older adults have dementia
- Was the first author of several peer-reviewed, data-based publications, and has received academic poster awards from the Eastern Nursing Research Society and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing
Jennifer Dillon, PhD
- Was a clinical instructor at Mount Saint Mary College for Community Health
- Worked for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as an RN Care Manager for the Catskill Community Based Outpatient Clinic
- Was a member of the Dutchess County Hazmat Team and the Dutchess County Medical Reserve Corps, and the National Advisory Board for Operation PCOR, a program to research veteran-driven Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment options
- Focused her dissertation research on interdisciplinary team relationships in chronic disease management, particularly the extent to which relational coordination among VHA Patient Aligned Care Teams is associated with better outcomes