The American Board of Nursing Specialties (ABNS) is proud to announce that Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CPHQ, CENP, CCP-ICE, FABC, CEO of the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing, is the recipient of its prestigious Janel Parker President’s Award for the 2024-2025 year. The Janel Parker President’s Award recognizes an individual or organization within the ABNS membership that has made significant contributions to specialty nursing certification and to the association. The award was presented on April 4, 2025 at the annual ABNS Spring Conference.

Janie stepped into the role of President of the Board of Directors for ABNS in 2018 having not previously served on their board to ensure continued operations and success. She did an outstanding job bringing a new vision for ABNS to the organization and did a significant amount of work improving the internal operations and oversight of the work of the association. Janie was an ex-officio board member of ABSNC as President of ABNS and provided insightful and valuable insight on the revision to the accreditation standards.

Janie implemented rigor and expectations with ABNS's management company to ensure they were meeting obligations to member organizations. Much of the work she did in this regard was behind the scenes and not visible to members but contributed to the value of ABNS for member organizations and the public, nonetheless. Further, as president during the COVID pandemic, she held weekly townhalls with member organizations to allow for information sharing and community. Janie was also instrumental in working with ANCC to bring Certified Nurses Day into ABNS. Janie also led a research initiative with Morning Consult to understand the public perception and understanding of nursing certification, which led to the collection of actionable data that ABNS shared with member organizations to inform their marketing and communication efforts. She improved the member survey, oversaw the update of the certification bibliography and contributed to the organization's financial stability.

"We are so incredibly fortunate to have had Janie's leadership at a time of great change for the organization and the industry," said Terri Hinkley, EdD, MBA, BScN, RN, CAE, Past President of ABNS.

Please join us in celebrating 2025 Janel Parker President’s Award recipient Janie Schumaker for her tireless promotion of the value of nursing certification!

For more information about ABNS, please visit https://nursingcertification.org/.