Buckhannon, WV—Dr. Susan Leight, professor of nursing and director of West Virginia Wesleyan College’s School of Nursing and the MSN and DNP programs, has been awarded a $15,000 Faculty Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association. The Fellowship is in support of Leight’s research, “An Exploration of Distress, Depression, and Diabetes in Honduran Adults: Perspectives on Health and Healing in an Under-Resourced Economy.”

Earlier this year, Leight was named one of the American Academy of Nursing’s 231 highly distinguished nurse leaders in its 2019 class of Academy Fellows. She was the only West Virginia nurse leader honored by the Academy in the ceremony at the annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. in October.

Leight, who is the founding director of Wesleyan’s MSN and DNP programs, has been a member of the College’s faculty since 2004. She received a B.S.N. from the University of New York at Buffalo, and MSN and Ed.D. in educational psychology from West Virginia University. She was a summer institute postdoctoral fellow and a postdoctoral fellow in psychosocial oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2008, Leight attended the Salzburg Global Seminar through the Mellon Foundation Fellowship and is licensed as a registered professional nurse in West Virginia. She also holds licensure and certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, a MammaCare Specialist through Mammatech Corporation, and Adult Nurse Practitioner through American Nurses’ Credentialing Center.

In 2016, Leight was honored with the Exemplary Teaching Award from Wesleyan and the General Board of Higher Education of The United Methodist Church. She has served as a presenter in conferences in the United States and internationally, and has been published in a number of nursing journals.