National Nurses Month 2023
May 1st kicked-off the annual National Nurses Month celebration of the most trusted profession. This National Nurses Month, we’re celebrating nursing professionals for their excellence and contributions to nursing research, practice, leadership and education. All award recipients were honored at the School of Nursing’s Annual May Celebration on May 25, 2023.
Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient:
Audrey Koertvelyessy, MS ’66, BS ’62, is the 2023 recipient of the University at Buffalo School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award.
Koertvelyessy, who grew up on the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation of New York as a member of the Heron Clan, was exposed to nursing profession at a young age. She was fascinated by her three aunts who were registered nurses, two in the Army, one in the Navy.
After graduating from high school at age 16, she followed in her aunts’ footsteps and interviewed for the Massachusetts General Hospital nursing program. The school recommended she wait and apply again in a year, but she instead forged ahead and enrolled in the Buffalo General Hospital nursing program, graduating in 1959.
Koertvelyessy began her career as a staff nurse and head nurse at Buffalo General Hospital. She then moved on to the Buffalo Veteran’s hospital while earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at UB in 1962 and 1966, respectively. Subsequently, she served as a staff nurse, research nurse, and clinical specialist at Roswell Park Memorial Institute.
When Ohio University launched a nursing program in the mid-70s, Koertvelyessy was invited to join the faculty, where she received tenure and rose to through the ranks as program director.
Koertvelyessy’s career next took her to Washington, DC, as the director and chief of nursing in the Indian Health Service—part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—with its 52 hospitals and 500 clinics. She was also detailed to the Department of Defense to start the graduate school of nursing at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.
Her role with the Indian Health Service came with an appointment to the rank of captain — equivalent to the rank of colonel in the Army — in the Commission Corps of the United States Public Health Service. That made Koertvelyessy one of the highest-ranking American Indian women officers in uniformed federal service. She is also the recipient of two prestigious honors: the Outstanding Service Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. Ja:göh!
