We are delighted to announce this year’s recipient of the Margaret Comerford Freda Award for Editorial Leadership  –  Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). In addition to her role at the helm of AJN, Shawn has an amazing record of leadership and influence through multiple venues and formats. She has organized many grant-funded State of the Science symposia on emerging health issues; authored award-winning news reports and editorials that have increased nurses’ awareness of important issues; spearheaded an award-winning photo exhibit that toured nationwide; completed research on authorship ethics; and took the lead in nursing and medical publishing via online, digital and social media initiatives, with a daily blog that now has over 200,000 followers on Facebook and over 50,000 on Twitter.  Here are a few specific details:

• Shawn was the lead investigator for an international study on ethics around guest and ghost authorship in nursing publications. This was the first study to examine this issue in nursing. Findings indicated a higher rate of guest and ghost authors than found in medical journals. The study was published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship in 2014 and presented at INANE and ICN to foster changes in these practices.
• Shawn has been a leader within and outside of the nursing profession, as demonstrated by her active membership in the Association of Health Care Journalists and the International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication, both presenting and chairing panel sessions at their annual meetings.
• She has received numerous awards for excellence, such as from the Association of Women in Communications and the American Society Health Publication Editors for her outstanding leadership in publishing.
• She has mentored numerous nursing editors through participation in INANE as a speaker, member of the program planning and the awards committees.

We offer not only our congratulations, but deep appreciation to Shawn for her many notable contributions to nursing and to publishing in nursing!