It might sound cliché, but Harriet Hawkins, RN, CCRN, CPN, CPEN, FAEN, didn’t know what to expect when she began her nursing career.
Although she experienced it all firsthand over the last 56 years – teaching pediatric trauma courses internationally, medical mission trips to far corners of the world and four decades with Chicago’s pre-eminent pediatric hospital – Hawkins acknowledges she never expected any of it. Needless to say, an award recognizing a lifetime of committed work was also never on her radar.
On Wednesday, ENA announced Hawkins as the recipient of the 2025 Judith C. Kelleher Award, the association’s most prestigious honor bearing the name of its co-founder.
For Hawkins, of Oak Park, Illinois, her global travels are juxtaposed with 42 years at Anne & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in a wide variety of roles, including her current work as a resuscitation education nursing professional development specialist. Through it all, she never lost sight of her love for pediatric emergency care and its family-centered care approach. She gives back through charitable work in her own community, while continuing to support ENA as a member of the Illinois ENA Council Board of Directors.
“If I had to do it over, I would do it again. I would totally do it again,” Hawkins said of her career “I’m so honored that these amazing people think of me like that. I’m just so happy and excited.”
ENA President Ryan Oglesby, PhD, MHA, RN, CEN, CFRN, NEA-BC, marveled at Hawkins’ contributions within the emergency nursing specialty and beyond it.
“Harriet’s career journey represents the essence of what emergency nurses do. Over the course of five decades, she humbly sought new opportunities and, at each turn, she ended up making an immeasurable difference in the lives of countless people – her patients, her peers and communities around the world,” Oglesby said.