TONL Award Winners

Dr. Jane McCurley, Recipient of the Elizabeth Sjoberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership and Advocacy

Dr. Jane McCurley currently serves as the Chief Nurse Executive for Methodist Health System in San Antonio, Texas in partnership with HCA Healthcare. Within HCA Healthcare, Dr. McCurley has served in multiple CNO roles in the north Texas and San Antonio divisions and as the corporate vice president and assistant chief nurse executive. During her facility leadership roles, she led three hospitals to pathway to excellence designation, several medical surgical units to PRISM recognition, and the first NICU within HCA to achieve the BEACON award for excellence in neonatal care. Within her corporate role, she developed a CNO onboarding process for both internal promotions and external hires for the HCA enterprise. This important work supported HCA Healthcare in creating an industry-wide reputation for superior growth and development of their leaders.

Dr. McCurley has served the Texas Organization for Nursing Leadership as a former organization and chapter president, organizational officer, board member, committee member for the membership, communication, nominations and executive committees, among others, and is the 2014 recipient of the Excellence in Leadership Award. She has completed extensive work in policy and advocacy serving in various capacities within TONL, the Texas Hospital Association and the Texas Nursing Association. She has been published multiple times with work in building excellence in nursing teams, fall prevention, and patient safety, the emerging role of Advanced Practice RNs, executive leadership acumen and facilitating safe face-to-face handoffs to improve patient safety.

She is a sought-after presenter covering a wide range of impactful topics, and she has spoken within Gallup, TONL, HCA Healthcare’s CNO summit, Texas Teams, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services Quality Conference, the Texas Hospital Association, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the inaugural Pathway to Excellence National Conference. In addition, she has served in multiple board positions, committee appointments and task forces within these organizations and in her local community.

Dr. McCurley is known for developing leaders, supporting her teams in the pursuit of advanced education and professional certification and for driving participation and engagement in professional organizations to advance our nursing and healthcare advocacy.

Watching Dr. McCurley work, speak, solve problems, create solutions and generate innovative ideas is an awe-inspiring experience, and she serves as the bar we all strive to reach. She talks the talk, walks the walk and is as an example for all of us to follow. A former TONL president described our profession and our world being a better place because Dr. McCurley chose nursing as her career.

For her leadership, advocacy and the tremendously positive impact she has made on nursing and healthcare, Dr. McCurley is the 2024 recipient of the Elizabeth Sjoberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership and Advocacy. Please, join us in congratulating her for this well-deserved achievement.

Dr. Emily Weber, Recipient of the TONL Excellence Award in Leadership

Dr. Emily Weber serves as the Chief Nursing and Operations Officer for Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital with clinical and financial responsibility for comprehensive, high-acuity care including level IV NICU and maternity care, a level I trauma center and 4 specialties ranked in US News & World Report.

She is known for bridging the gap between the executive suite and front-line clinicians and colleagues through efforts such as the “Walk in Your Shoes” program in which a senior leader shadows a colleague to learn more about their role, eliminate barriers and create enhanced leadership understanding of direct challenges in providing patient care. This program has resulted in increased advocacy for patient needs and improved handling of medication and equipment.

Dr. Weber is an active member in the Texas Nursing Association, serving on the board of directors. She participates in policy and advocacy through direct engagement with legislators to support resolution of issues such as workplace violence and the improvement of nurse staffing resources in the state.  

She has been responsible for standardizing nursing practice across a network of hospitals where she established benchmarks for nursing clinical peer review by facilitating a multi-hospital workgroup and disseminating toolkits to fellow nursing executives across 16 hospitals in south Texas. In addition, she developed and implemented a resource-sharing initiative to foster knowledge exchange that laid the groundwork for a sustained culture of innovation in nursing care which has been sustained in the post-pandemic environment.

Dr. Weber has contributed to extensive community education on pediatric health, leading the “Stop the Bleed” program, the distribution of gun locks for firearm safety and raising awareness for congenital heart disease, among other health disparities. She has partnered with colleagues at the Memorial Hermann Nursing Institute to establish partnerships with schools of nursing to create entry level programs, making education more accessible and developing affordable school/work programs. She created the professional student nurse role, providing high-performing students the opportunity to gain experience in a hospital setting which has resulted in improved training outcomes and retention rates post-graduation.

Dr. Weber can be called a leader, an advocate, a mentor, a teacher, an innovator, a problem solver, and most importantly a nurse. Her many achievements and the significant contributions she has made to the profession of nursing and the healthcare industry make her exceptionally worthy of being this year’s recipient of the TONL Excellence in Leadership Award. Please, join us in congratulating Dr. Weber on this well-deserved achievement.