Washington, D.C., November 7, 2004
- Louise A. Anderson, MSN, RN, Nursing Division director and director of operations for the Vigo County Health Department in Terre Haute, Ind., was honored today for her contributions to public health with the 2004 American Public Health Association Executive Director's Citation.
Anderson has 15 years of experience in public health at both the local and state health department levels. She also has more than 15 years' experience in hospital nursing at the educator, management and staff levels. Her practice areas have included general medical-surgical, emergency room, intensive coronary care, progressive coronary care and cardiac rehabilitation.
She has worked as an educator as a clinical instructor in beginning nursing skills for university nursing students and also as a continuing education teacher. Her nursing career began in 1970 when she worked as a staff nurse and an emergency room charge nurse for St. Joseph Hospital in Huntingburg, Ind. She also worked at Union Hospital in Terre Haute, at the Indiana University School of Nursing and the Indiana Department of Health.
Anderson's professional volunteer activities include working as a YMCA women's adult fitness camp nurse, assisting Hospice of the Wabash Valley and reviewing the Indiana State Nurses Association Continuing Education in Nursing Program for almost 20 years. She was the Union Hospital chaplain's assistant, a curriculum reviewer for the University of Minnesota School of Nursing's National Public Health Training Network satellite broadcast and a member of the Indiana State University's search team to hire a new director for the school of nursing.
Among her many awards, Anderson received the Indiana State University School of Nursing Outstanding Alumnae award, the Leadership Terre Haute Board of Directors Award and was included in the current United Who's Who directory.
Her professional affiliations include membership in Sigma Theta Tau International, the Indiana State Nurses Association and as president-elect of the Indiana Public Health Association. She chairs APHA's Committee on Affiliates and has served the Association in countless ways, including as chair of the Great Lakes Coalition, as Indiana Representative to the Governing Council, as a member of the Task Force on Association Reorganization and as coordinator for the Council of Affiliates' poster contest at the APHA Annual Meeting.
In addition to her professional contributions, Anderson's public health colleagues appreciate her contributions to her community. She serves on the board of directors for the United Way of the Wabash Valley, is a member and past officer of the League of Women Voters and offered her talents as a youth soccer coach and league commissioner.