Von Best Whitaker, PhD, RN, FAAN, a research associate professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University School of Nursing, has been named the 2008 Research Nurse of the Year by the North Carolina Nurses Association (NCNA). She was recognized at the NCNA annual convention in Winston-Salem Oct 1-3.

In addition, a manuscript written by Whitaker and a South Carolina State University colleague, investigating the elimination of health care disparities won the manuscript of the year from the American Society of Ophthalmic Registered Nurses/American Academy of Ophthalmology.

In collaboration and partnership, Whitaker shared with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, a five-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create a Center on Health Disparities Research at N.C. A&T School of Nursing. She serves as primary investigator and co-director of the center.

Additionally, with their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Crystal Cody-Connor, Ph.D. GHP. RN and Whitaker published "African-American perceptions of health disparities: A qualitative analysis," July 2008, Vol. 19 No.1 in The Journal of the National Black Nurses Association.

Whitaker is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and serves on its Expert Panel on Cultural Competence. She has served as a grant reviewer for the Community Based Participatory Research Special Emphasis Review Panel for the National Institutes of Health, the Graduate Training in Family Medicine Review Committee, Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Services Division of Medicine and HRSA. She is a member of the Moses Cone-Wesley Long Community Health Foundation Advisory Board and also serves on the boards of several other community philanthropic organizations.

The North Carolina Nurses Association is the only professional nurses association that represents all registered nurses in the state.