NMCC Establishes Nursing Scholarship in Dr. Ellen Williams’ Honor

The Dr. Ellen Williams Endowed Scholarship at Northwest Mississippi Community College was recently established by the Nursing Division. The announcement was made at the Nursing Graduate Luncheon held on April 27. Williams was dean of the Nursing Division from 2008 to 2014, and taught at Northwest from 1990 to 2014. Pictured left to right, front row are Nursing instructors Deanna Wooddy, Catina Mathena, Mandy Deshotels and Pam Briscoe; Dr. Denise Bynum, division director of Nursing; Ellen Williams; Sybil Canon, associate vice president of Development and Special Projects; Charisse Reed, Pam Llana, Dianne Scott, Lacey Gentry and Stacie Pegues, Nursing instructors. Second row, left to right are Lisa Vincent, Stephanie Stevens, Olivia Russom and Monica Williams, Nursing instructors; Leslie Legendre, administrative assistant; Toni Blair, Cindy Springer, Stephanie Kennedy, Allison Pugh, Toni Barden, Stacy Taylor and Karin Randolph, Nursing instructors.
Photo by LaJuan Tallo

The Division of Nursing has established a scholarship honoring Dr. Ellen Williams at Northwest Mississippi Community College. Williams served as dean of the Division of Nursing from 2008 to 2014.

She taught at Northwest from 1990 until 2014. Her vast work experience includes nursing in several local hospitals and owning and managing a home medical equipment company. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from The University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences College of Nursing. Williams has received numerous honors including, Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities; the Scholarly Writing Award, Mississippi Nurses Foundation; the Dean’s Scholarship for Outstanding Ph.D. Student for 2007-2008 at University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and Mississippi Business Journal Outstanding Businessperson in 1988. Williams is a two-time recipient of the Renee Reeb Research Award for Excellence in Qualitative Research in 2008 and 2011.

She is currently a member of the Mississippi Education Redesign Committee, the Regional Health Council and is an appointed member of the Mississippi State Board of Health. She is a member of the Mississippi Nurses Association, The Southern Nursing Research Society and the Beta Theta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society of Nursing. Williams chose as her dissertation, “Transgenerational Meanings and Experiences of Body Size and Obesity Among African-American Female Dyads.” She completed her study in the Mississippi Delta with the help of her research partner Sandra Davis, a nursing instructor at Northwest.

Under her leadership at Northwest, Williams was instrumental in establishing a partnership with UMMC for the RN-MSN program. Williams helped implement the LPN to RN Transition program and coordinated the Shoot for the Heart fundraiser for the Nursing Division. She was instrumental in the planning and design of the college’s new state-of-the-art nursing facility, and helped secure a grant for the nursing simulation laboratory.

“It was under Dr. Williams’ tenure as dean of the Nursing Division that the immensely successful fundraiser, Shoot for the Heart, was initiated in partnership with Keith Wilson of Olive Branch and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. Thus, it is most appropriate that the nursing faculty, under the leadership of Dr. Denise Bynum, director, made the decision to endow this scholarship with funds from this event. Dr. Williams continued the standards of excellence that were begun by former director, Vicki Hale, and she built on those standards to create a nursing program that is second to none, “ said Sybil Canon, associate vice president of Development and Special Projects.

While specific criteria have not been established, the scholarship will be awarded to a student enrolled in the Nursing Program. For more information on Northwest’s Nursing Division or the Northwest Foundation, visit the college’s website.