Although Oak Park resident Harriet Hawkins is nothing but humble when asked about her accomplishments, her son and husband have no doubts why the longtime nurse, nurse educator and mission volunteer has been chosen for the 2025 Judith C. Kelleher Award by the Emergency Nurses Association.
“Look at the walls, and they’re covered with awards and trophies from all over the world. I think she received this award for lifetime love of her profession and colleagues,” said Warren Udelson, her husband. “I look at this as the ultimate lifetime achievement award.”
Her son, Matthew Udelson, is thrilled his mom is being recognized. “I did a little bit of research into it, and I guess you could say it’s bigger than a lifetime achievement award or in the same lane,” he said. “I’ve been watching her teach and do all this stuff – all the charity teaching – for my whole life. She’s taken us to Uganda, Vietnam, El Salvador, Bangladesh. She went to Pakistan and Dubai.”
There are so many places, he can’t recall them all, but he does remember playing a role in her lessons. “It’s been a trip for me because growing up, I was part of the show,” thanks to being a little accident-prone in the 1990s. Treating his injuries, “she’d do a little medical (work), take a picture for the teaching, do a little more medical, take another picture,” he said.
Although Hawkins said learning the news about the award was “pretty amazing,” it’s also hard for her to believe. “When I look at the other people who have won it, I feel like they’re so amazing and it’s strange to be part of that group. It’s a wonderful feeling, and I’m just so honored.”
“Harriet’s career journey represents the essence of what emergency nurses do,” ENA President Ryan Oglesby shared in a news release. “Over the course of five decades, she humbly sought new opportunities and, at each turn, she ended up making an immeasurable difference in the lives of countless people – her patients, her peers and communities around the world.”
Hawkins and other honorees will receive their awards during the Emergency Nursing 2025 conference Sept. 17 to 20 in New Orleans.
The oldest of five children, Hawkins began her career studying at the Illinois Masonic School of Nursing and then working as a psychiatric nurse in Des Plaines before moving on to other hospitals. Seven years later she switched to adult intensive cardiac care for several years.
She worked for an agency for a while, and it sent her to the NICU at Children’s Memorial (now known as Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago) and the rest is history. Hawkins “fell in love” with the hospital “and the family-centered care we provide to children,” she shared.
“I’ve been there for 43 years,” Hawkins said, adding that she started the child transport team in 1985. In 2001, she started an in-house resuscitation program with its own staff and equipment. “It’s been exciting to see that expand and all the different programs we have,” she said. “My whole career at Children’s has just been amazing.”
She currently works as a resuscitation education nursing professional development specialist, training both nurses and doctors in the hospital so they don’t need to leave the building to stay current. Sessions include CPR, basic life support and pediatric CPR, and advanced life support for adults, as well as an emergency nursing pediatric course and trauma nursing core class.
“I love being able to work with the new graduates and help them be new nurses. I love the dialogue that I have with physicians – I teach them too – and respiratory therapists. I love that we do multidisciplinary teaching because that’s how we practice,” Hawkins said. “We try to make it fun and make it a good time and not make it boring as we’re refining our skills.”
She’s also a member of the Illinois ENA Council Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Nursing. She has multiple certifications, including as a registered nurse, pediatric emergency nurse and critical care registered nurse.
Technically Hawkins has retired from full-time nursing, “but she teaches more now than she did. “She’ll take all the hours Lurie will give her,” said Warren Udelson, adding that she gets paid per diem instead of a salary.
“I think even the janitorial staff all have their CPR from her. And even in some areas of Northwestern (Medicine), which Lurie is a part of, people there know her name too,” he said.
Matthew Udelson knows that firsthand. “I walk over to the hospital where she works and say ‘I’m here to see Harriet,’ and peoples’ heads turn,” he shared with a laugh. “‘Harriet Hawkins?’ they say. ‘We love Harriet.’”
“As long as they’ll have me at Children’s, I’ll stay,” Hawkins said. “I told my coworkers that when I don’t make sense, tell me. I like doing mission (work) and being in the hospital helps me stay on top of things in the medical work when I do missions.”
Working for charity is one of her passions. She has volunteered with the homeless shelter Housing Forward in Oak Park for 29 years. “I run a medical clinic on Monday nights. On Thursdays, I help a group called Guiding Light of Hope started by a young woman. I go to the Blue Line on Thursday and take donations. I keep out of trouble!” she joked.
But volunteering also takes her across the globe. “I have been going to Uganda every year for the last six years, and the last week of August I’m going to El Salvador for a week and then to Bangladesh for 10 days,” she said.
In Uganda, she focuses on clinic care, ambulatory care and education with families. “I work with different NGOs for each of those. Uganda is a group called Health Education Empowerment. In El Salvador, Glasswing International, and I’ll be doing education there with doctors and nurses.” In Bangladesh, Hawkins works with MedGlobal, teaching a course called essential newborn care 1 and 2.
Hawkins, who heard she’d won the award via a voicemail from the ENA president while at the airport, will have people cheering her on when she receives the honor this fall in front of her peers.
“My son and daughter-in-law (Dana) are planning to go to New Orleans. I received the award in September at our national conference, and my husband Warren asked if he could go, and I said he could if he wants,” Hawkins said. “A lot of my friends who don’t normally go (to the conference) are attending. … It will be exciting to see them there when I get this.”
But she won’t be resting on her laurels afterward. “I don’t know if she told you, but the day or two after she gets the award, my dad and mom are both on their way to Honduras to do medical teaching,” Matt Udelson shared.
That trip is with the organization Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International. “We’ll be doing a surgical mission, so I’ll be working with gynecologists,” Hawkins said. “I’ll be doing post-op care and my husband will go with me and do central processing sterilization. He sterilizes the instruments, which means he runs the autoclave.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
