Dr. Bennie L. Marshall, RN Ed.D., and president of the Omega Chapter, Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc., Suffolk Chapter, as been selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. This award includes a $30,000 grant for a leadership project for Sentara Southside Hospitals where she is the director of Education and Research Services. Only 20 nurses nationwide were selected this year to participate in the three-year program, which is in its fifth year of the Executive Nurse Fellows Program being sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Fellowship will prove opportunities for educational and national exposure, and Marshall’s leadership project will focus on assisting the nursing services of Sentara Southside Hospitals to earn Magnet Nursing Services Recognition. Via the Magnet Program, excellence in nursing care is also recognized. Magnet-designed hospitals have shown decreased death rates among Medicare recipients, improved quality of patient care, decreased length of patient stays, increased nurse satisfaction, and increased ability to recruit and retain nurses.

Marshall has served as president of the Omega Chapter for the past three years. In 1999, she was recognized as one of Virginia’s Outstanding Nurses, an honor bestowed by the Virginia Nurses’ Association/Virginia Nurses’ Foundation.

In 2001, she was awarded the Helen S. Miller Award, national recognition from Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc. for sustained advocacy, and commitment to advancing the agenda of black nurses. The YWCA of South Hampton Roads recognized her as a 2002 Woman of Distinction for promoting the education and development of nurses and providing community service.

Marshall said she strives to make a difference in the lives of people and communities with whom she interacts.

She founded the &uot;Family Foundations Program,&uot; a program sponsored by Omega Chapter, Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc., which recognizes people who have made a difference in the community via their own children or other children whom they have helped. The 2002 Family Foundations Banquet will be held from 3-6 p.m. on Oct. 13, at Temple Beth-El on Bridge Rd.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is based in Princeton, N.J. and is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.

It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse – tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.