Meet This Year’s Liota and Marren Award Winners!

This year’s winners of the Liota Award to Promote Cultural Diversity in Nursing Leadership and the Marren Leadership Award to Promote Evidence-Based Practice & Quality Improvement were announced recently as part of VNSNY’s National Nurses Week celebration. The honorees were nominated by their VNSNY colleagues and selected by a committee of nursing leaders.

The winner of the Liota Award is… Margarita Luna, a licensed practical nurse with VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care in Staten Island. And the winner of the Marren Leadership Award is… Dawning Greenstreet, a nurse supervisor with the DSRIP/Health Home program, administered by VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS).

Margarita Luna, Winner of the 2019 Liota Award to Promote Cultural Diversity in Nursing Leadership

The Liota Award, named after long-time VNSNY nurse and Queens Regional Vice President Marilyn Liota, is awarded each year to help an exemplary VNSNY nurse realize her or his leadership potential. The award provides a $1,500 scholarship for expenses related to nursing studies, continuing professional development, or communication/English language skills development.

Since joining VNSNY last year, Margarita Luna has provided a “continual source of positive energy” within Staten Island Hospice and has had a “strong influence on how we have become such a cohesive Hospice team,” her colleagues said in nominating Margarita for the award. They added, “She leads our team with motivational and inspirational stories about our Hospice families, and encourages each of us to provide the best care that we can.”

In addition to her regular hospice nursing work, Margarita is studying the use of palliative wound care in a hospice setting under the guidance of VNSNY clinical nurse specialist Anne Walsh, and is actively involved in the promotion of diversity in nursing. She is currently pursuing an Associate of Applied Science degree, and will use the Liota Award to help finish the remaining classes on her path to becoming a registered nurse.

“I feel blessed and honored to receive the Liota Award,” Margarita says. “I love being a nurse. For me it’s a passion, not a job, and I really appreciate those who nominated me. No words can describe how grateful I am.”

Dawning Greenstreet, Winner of the 2019 Marren Leadership Award to Promote Evidence-Based Practice & Quality Improvement

The Marren Leadership Award, named for Joan Marren, former VNSNY Chief Operating Officer and President of VNSNY Home Care, provides a $1,000 scholarship per year of study for a master’s degree in nursing or other nursing-related advanced degree. The award can be put toward school-related expenses not covered under VNSNY’s Tuition Reimbursement Program.

Since starting at VNSNY as a Summer Scholar Intern in 2009 and a BSN-RN Intern in 2011, Dawning Greenstreet has served in a number of nursing roles at VNSNY, including five years as a home care nurse in VNSNY’s Manhattan region. After leaving VNSNY briefly, she returned last year to work in CMHS’s DSRIP (Delivery Service Reform Incentive Payment) initiative in Brooklyn, supervising seven VNSNY health coaches who are providing care coordination services to local primary care practices. She also puts in extra hours with CMHS’s Assertive Community Treatment program as a per diem nurse. “Dawning is passionate and always eager to assist the most vulnerable patients,” notes one of her CMHS colleagues.

Dawning will use the Marren Award to purchase educational materials for the Adult Gerontological/Nurse Practitioner program at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, where she’ll be working toward a Master of Science degree beginning this August.

“I’ve grown a lot since I started working here,” says Dawning. “VNSNY has been very supportive of my development as a nurse, and I feel honored that I was given this award.”