Connell School of Nursing honors Adelene Egan

The 2018 graduate, whose photos of COVID health workers on the frontlines went viral, receives this year's Kelleher Award

Adelene (Addie) Egan 鈥�18, whose photographs of health care workers on the front lines during the COVID pandemic went viral, will receive the Connell School of Nursing鈥檚 2024 Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award. Named after the school鈥檚 first faculty member and former dean, the Kelleher Award recognizes a graduate of the Connell School who embodies the BC nurse: an accomplished nurse leader, an ethically aware scientist, and inquisitive clinician.

The award will be presented to Egan by Connell School Dean Katherine Gregory at a private event on April 22. That evening, Egan will join other BC graduates on a panel for a networking and mentoring event for CSON students, sponsored by The Council for Women of Boston College.

Since graduating from BC with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in nursing, Egan has worked at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, first as a registered nurse in the Emergency Department. She then shifted to Neonatal Intensive Care, where she is currently a senior staff nurse. She also became a sexual assault forensic nurse examiner. Egan has said that being a nurse during COVID was 鈥渉umbling, heartbreaking, and beautiful.鈥�

It was during her time as an ED nurse that Egan drew national attention for her photos of colleagues working at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Her photo collection, 鈥溾�� featured various hospital personnel, from transport staff, environmental services workers, and patient service representatives to nurses and doctors.

The photo project, Egan explained, was her way to 鈥渦plift my co-workers through photography and storytelling during a trying and unprecedented moment in history. Despite uncertainty about the virus and fear surrounding personal health, my co-workers show up day after day, completely prepared to give everything they can for their patients.鈥�

Her photos were featured in the book COVID-19: Inside the Global Epicenter: Personal Accounts from NYC Frontline Healthcare Providers by Krutika Raulkar, M.D.

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