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UAB School of Nursing alumna Pandora Hardtman, DNP, CNM, FACNM, FAAN (DNP 2012), is the recipient of the 2023 Florence A. Hixson Distinguished Alumni Award, presented at the School's annual Alumni Night.

Hardtman has more than two decades of midwifery experience as both a clinician and consultant and has impacted health care worldwide. She currently is Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer at the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics. Jhpiego is an international non-profit health organization that focuses on maternal, newborn and child health, family planning and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and the overall health of women and families.

"My main duties at Jhpiego include general oversight for the large multi-country Nursing and Midwifery staff, internal capacity support and systems building, targeted maternal child health technical assistance/health systems strengthening for the global south, alongside external representation for nursing and midwifery," Hardtman said.

Before joining Jhpiego, Hardtman served as an educator, consultant and midwifery provider in Ghana, Madagascar, Guatemala, Benin, Czech Republic, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Turkey and Syria. She also was instrumental in starting the first private sector professional diploma program for midwives in Bangladesh and provided online midwifery education during the ongoing conflict in Syria.

"A lot of being a midwife and educating other midwives in less developed countries is relationship building and honoring their cultures and practices, but at the same time ensuring the safety of not only the baby but the mother as well," Hardtman said. "What I admire when I am working with midwives from other countries is seeing the survivor mentality these women have because there is no other option."

Nursing and working in public health have always been a passion for Hardtman. She was born and raised in the Caribbean where midwifery is a big part of women's care and was ultimately motivated to enroll in the UAB School of Nursing Doctor of Nursing Practice Program because she wanted to make a difference in care practices around her.

"I wanted to change what I was seeing on a global level and UAB, and Alabama itself, gave me opportunities to support families with health disparities while also obtaining my degree," Hardtman said. "UAB gave me the tools and guidance I needed to get where I am at today, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the mentors and education I gained in the UAB School of Nursing."

After earning her DNP, Hardtman worked for three years in Rwanda through the Human Resources for Health Project, an initiative funded by the Clinton Foundation in partnership with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and a consortium of more than 20 academic institutions in the United States.

In addition to receiving the School's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2023, Hardtman was honored as one of its 70 Visionary Leaders in 2021. In 2021, she also received the prestigious Dorothea M. Lang Pioneer Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives and was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Established in 1989, the Florence A. Hixson Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the School and is given to an outstanding graduate who has demonstrated leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship and has significantly enhanced nursing within the state and on national levels through clinical and/or administrative practice. It is named for the School's first dean, Florence A. Hixson, Ed.D, RN, FAAN.

In addition to celebrating Hardtman and a number of the School's accomplished alumni, Alumni Night 2023 also commemorated the 30th anniversary and seventh consecutive designation of the School's Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

-Pareasa Rahimi and Hunter Carter