Blaakman Selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing

Susan Blaakman, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FNAP, a nationally certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and longtime faculty member at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, has been selected to join the American Academy of Nursing’s 2022 class of fellows.

A professor of clinical nursing and specialty director of the Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (FPMHNP) program, Blaakman is among 250 distinguished nurse leaders representing 35 states and 17 countries chosen for the academy’s largest cohort to date.

The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) comprises nearly 3,000 nursing leaders who are experts in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia who champion health and wellness, locally and globally. The academy's fellow selection committee reviews hundreds of applications each year and selects applicants based on their contributions to advance the public’s health. Induction into the academy is a significant milestone in a nurse leader’s career, in which their accomplishments are honored by their colleagues within and outside the profession.

Blaakman has been a member of the psychiatric nursing faculty at the UR School of Nursing since 1999. She has taught and advised students at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral level, and has been specialty director of the Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program since 2011. A founding member of the School of Nursing’s Wellness Task Force, she co-directs the wellness goal in the school’s strategic plan, is the co-director of clinical scholarship, and the program director of a federally funded education project addressing childhood trauma.

As a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, she has acquired vast clinical expertise in psychiatric assessment and diagnosis, crisis intervention, tobacco dependence intervention, high-risk youth behaviors, research with vulnerable populations, motivational interviewing, and health behavior change across the lifespan.

She also serves as a project nurse, senior leader, and research mentor in general pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and a clinician in the community.

She has co-authored many publications and was honored with the 2013 Rochester Academy of Medicine Nursing Award for her clinical research. She was named a fellow of the National Academies of Practice in Nursing in 2020.

“I am extremely grateful to the academy for this honor and to the URSON and my sponsors for supporting a career that made this recognition possible,” said Blaakman. “I’m truly humbled to be recognized among so many talented peers and look forward to the important work we will be able to advance together.”

Blaakman’s active professional memberships include Sigma Theta Tau, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association for whom she is a founding member of the Motivational Interviewing Task Force, former co-chair of the Tobacco Dependence Council, and expert consultant for a national project aimed to reduce vaccine hesitancy in vulnerable populations in conjunction with the CDC and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

She earned a bachelor's degree from the Honors College at SUNY Oswego and bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the UR School of Nursing.

Blaakman and all the honorees will be officially inducted as fellows at the academy’s annual Health Policy Conference on Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C.