NCNA honors UNC Nursing faculty with Hall of Fame and Nurse of the Year awards 

Three UNC School of Nursing faculty members received awards at the North Carolina Nurses Association’s 2026 conference. Margaret “Peggy” Chamberlain Wilmoth, PhD, MSS, RN, FAAN, and Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FISPN, FAANP, FAAN, were inducted into the NCNA Hall of Fame, and Ya-Ke “Grace” Wu, PhD, MSN, RN was named Nurse of the Year in Research. 

The Hall of Fame Award is the association’s highest recognition for a registered nurse with an extensive history of nursing leadership and achievements in North Carolina. The Nurse of the Year awards recognize nurses who exemplify the association’s Nursing Forward® approach in administration, education, health systems, practice and research. G. Rumay Alexander is a 2025 NCNA Hall of Fame recipient and Soltis-Jarrett and Wilmoth join this esteemed honor.  

Victoria Soltis-Jarrett 

Soltis-Jarrett, the inaugural Carol Morde Ross Distinguished Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing at UNC-Chapel Hill, has spent more than 35 years advancing rural mental health care through practice, teaching and partnerships with health care organizations and employers. Her work has helped shape psychiatric and mental health nursing care across the country.

“To be inducted into the NCNA Hall of Fame is both humbling and deeply meaningful to me,” Soltis-Jarrett said. “Nursing has given me the opportunity to serve patients and communities, to educate generations of nurses and nurse practitioners, and to work toward better access to mental health care for people who might otherwise go without it.”

She has secured more than $18 million in grant funding to transform nursing curricula and provide tuition assistance for nurse practitioner students in North Carolina. 

A past president of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses, Soltis-Jarrett has received the National League for Nursing’s Isabel Hampton Robb Award and NCNA’s Practice Nurse of the Year Award. 

“I share this honor with the remarkable students, colleagues, patients and communities who have taught me throughout my career, and I hope it inspires the nurses who come after us to imagine what is possible and to continue advancing our profession,” she said. 

Margaret “Peggy” Chamberlain Wilmoth 

Wilmoth, a tenured professor at the UNC School of Nursing and a retired U.S. Army major general, has a career spanning nursing scholarship and military leadership. 

“NCNA is the professional organization for North Carolina nurses and one in which I have been engaged in and supported for 30+ years,” Wilmoth said. “That makes it an incredible honor for me to join other North Carolina leaders in the Hall of Fame.”

She served more than 35 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, becoming the first nurse and first woman to command a medical brigade and to serve as deputy surgeon general for the Army Reserve. Her research helped establish the study of how cancer and other chronic illnesses affect intimacy and sexuality within psychosocial oncology nursing. 

A former NCNA board member, Wilmoth has held leadership roles at the state and national levels. She serves as co-chair of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s Task Force on Military and Veteran Health. She previously served as president of the Reserve Organization of America and as Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence for the National Academy of Medicine. 

At the UNC School of Nursing, she has served as executive vice dean, associate dean of academic affairs and interim dean.

Ya-Ke “Grace” Wu, PhD, MSN, RN 

Wu, an assistant professor at the UNC School of Nursing and director of the UNC Biobehavioral Laboratory, was named Nurse of the Year in Research for her contributions to research and the advancement of nursing knowledge. 

She was recognized for leading multidisciplinary research collaborations and conducting large-scale, community-based research with populations that traditional research and health care systems often have difficulty reaching. 

Wu has built a nurse-led, interdisciplinary research program focused on disordered eating behaviors and their consequences, including obesity, cardiometabolic risk and mental health. Her research combines biological, psychological and social perspectives with community-centered approaches to address health challenges among populations that have historically been understudied. 

As director of the UNC Biobehavioral Laboratory, Wu brings together investigators from nursing, psychiatry, genetics, epidemiology, cardiology, nutrition and public health. Her collaborations include the UNC School of Nursing, UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center, UNC Nutrition Research Institute, UNC Mountain Area Health Education Center, NC Rural Health Research Program, East Carolina University and Duke University School of Medicine. 

Within these collaborations, Wu emphasizes nursing science’s contribution to understanding health in the context of people’s lives, environments, behaviors and communities. 

“Being a nurse scientist is not only about conducting research; it is also about creating opportunities for others to see themselves as leaders in science,” Wu said. “I hope the next generation of nurses can see that there is a place for them in research and leadership—that you belong here, and you can lead. I am honored to help build pathways for nurses to bring their perspectives, experiences, and voices to the research that shapes the future of health care.” 

The award recognizes Wu’s contributions to nursing science and her work to expand opportunities for nurse-led, interdisciplinary research and strengthen partnerships between researchers and the communities nurses serve. 

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