School of Nursing Alumni Award Winners
Learn about the incredible nurses who embody the highest values of the OHSU alumni community.
Congratulations 2023 School of Nursing Alumni Award Winners
Amy Corcoran, B.S.N. ’05
2023 Distinguished Alumna of the Year
Amy Corcoran pushes herself toward excellence, consistently looking for processes to improve the quality of care provided by OHSU’s Cardiovascular Intermediate Care Unit. In 2013, she launched Heart Failure University to help adults who had suffered heart failure and their caregivers by providing them the tools they needed to improve self-care and quality of life. Corcoran sits on the board of directors of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses, designing and leading learning activities for nurses to improve their knowledge of heart failure. In her role as transition to practice coordinator for the unit, she finds it rewarding to help new hires shift from student to working nurse.
Lydia Bartholow BS ’10, MN ’12, DNP ’16, PMHNP, CARN-NP
2022 Distinguished Alumna of the Year
Dr. Lydia Bartholow has committed her entire professional career to providing health care for vulnerable and marginalized populations. As the associate medical director of Portland’s Central City Concern Substance Use services, Bartholow is dedicated to delivering health services to people experiencing houselessness, substance use disorders, toxic stress and oppression. She is also devoted to education, and teaches as an assistant professor at University of California San Francisco, as well as a consultant and workshop leader for behavioral health organizations.
Ashley Billingsley, B.S.N. ’19
2021 Early Career Achievement Award
A graduate of Oregon’s nationally-recognized Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE) program, Billingsley worked as a pediatric nurse while studying for her B.S. in nursing. The emergence of COVID-19 in March 2020 re-defined Billingsley’s role at OHSU Primary Care at Orenco Station, where she had been employed since December 2019.
Billingsley takes energy from the gratitude she has seen from her patients. “This has been a very challenging year both mentally and physically but it has been very rewarding to support the various vaccine clinics OHSU has implemented,” she says. “Patients are so thankful we are working extra hours, showing up to shifts and keeping up with the constant changing demands of this pandemic.”