Author, entrepreneur, nurse, and WSU Doctor of Nursing Practice student Ebony Blackmon Humphrey was honored recently by the Lois Price Spratlen Foundation in Seattle with a $2,000 scholarship.
Blackmon Humphrey will graduate from the WSU College of Nursing Vancouver in May with a DNP degree in psychiatric mental health, with the goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. She works at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in the psychiatric services department.
“I felt that advancing my education would better position me to care for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness,” Blackmon Humphrey said recently.
The Lois Price Spratlen scholarship is awarded to “psychiatric ARNPs who demonstrate the character, energy, and courage exemplified” by Spratlen, a celebrated nurse who spent most of her career at the University of Washington. Spratlen, who died in 2013, was the first woman, African American and nurse to serve as UW’s university ombudsman, a position she held from 1988 to 2009. Spratlen was a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was inducted into the Washington State Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
The scholarships in her name are awarded in collaboration with the Association of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses (AAPPN).
Spratlen “was very instrumental in moving nurses forward in the state of Washington,” and her foundation seeks to honor students with the same forward-thinking mentality, said Blackmon Humphrey.
Blackmon Humphrey, 34, is a published author and entrepreneur. She and her husband, former NFL football player Tory Humphrey Sr., have six children.
