Leaders Chosen from Muscogee (Creek) Nation Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Health, Philadelphia FIGHT
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has awarded the 2025 Judy Smetzer Just Culture Champion Scholarship to three healthcare leaders who have embraced the hallmarks and impact of fostering a just culture in healthcare.
The scholarships, which are provided in cooperation with The Just Culture Company, include enrollment in a certification course that helps healthcare practitioners enhance fair accountability principles and system improvements that advance patient safety and workforce wellbeing. Scholarship recipients will learn how to manage staff behavioral choices, design resilient systems, reduce risk, and build a values-based culture.
This year’s scholarship recipients work in a range of practice settings, representing a small tribal run facility, an academic medical center, and a health services organization for those living with HIV/AIDS. The 2025 winners are:
Jamie Flower, RN, MS
Quality Improvement Specialist
Muscogee (Creek) Nation Medical Center
Okmulgee, OK
Renee Miller, RN, MSN, CPHQ, CPPS
Patient Safety and Regulatory Manager
St. Joseph’s Health
Paterson, NJ
Jennifer Wright
Director of Risk Management
Philadelphia FIGHT
Philadelphia, PA
The 2025 Judy Smetzer Just Culture Champion Scholarship recipients were chosen from a large competitive pool of qualified individuals looking to become stronger champions of the just culture model in their organizations. They were selected based on their leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration efforts, dedication to broad staff education on the tenets of a just culture, and potential to impact culture throughout the organization.
This year six partial scholarship winners were also selected in recognition of their outstanding applications and will receive free tuition for the Just Culture Company’s Just Culture Conduct Course for Healthcare Managers and Influencers and a 50% discount for the Just Culture Certification Course in 2025.
This year’s partial scholarship winners are:
Faheem Aahmed, MPH
Brittney Costello, CSSMBB, MBA, CPHQ
Korry MacLeod
Natalie Nguyen, PharmD, MSHA
Lindsey Putman, RN, MSN, LSSGB
Melody Sun, PharmD
For more about scholarship benefits, candidate requirements, and application process, visit:
Judy Smetzer Just Culture Champion Scholarships | Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ismp.org)
Contact
Renee Brehio, ISMP Public and Media Relations, rbrehio@ismp.org
About the Institute for Safe Medication Practices
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is the nation’s first 501c (3) nonprofit organization devoted entirely to preventing medication errors. ISMP is known and respected for its medication safety information. For more than 25 years, it also has served as a vital force for progress. ISMP’s advocacy work alone has resulted in numerous necessary changes in clinical practice, public policy, and drug labeling and packaging. Among its many initiatives, ISMP runs the only national voluntary practitioner medication error reporting program, publishes newsletters with real-time error information read and trusted throughout the global healthcare community, and offers a wide range of unique educational programs, tools, and guidelines. In 2020, ISMP formally affiliated with ECRI to create one of the largest healthcare quality and safety entities in the world, and ECRI and the ISMP PSO is a federally certified patient safety organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a watchdog organization, ISMP receives no advertising revenue and depends entirely on charitable donations, educational grants, newsletter subscriptions, and volunteer efforts to pursue its life-saving work. Visit ISMP and follow @ismp_org to learn more.
