From left to right: Barbara H. Kalinowski, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Maxine Rose, Margarette Marcelin, Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, FAAN, and (front row) Cheri A. Blauwet, MD.

A crowd of smiling, proud well-wishers gathered in Bornstein Amphitheater on April 20 to salute this year’s recipients of the BWH Lotus Awards, sponsored by the Department of Nursing and Patient Care Services and its Diversity and Inclusivity Interprofessional Team. This annual award acknowledges and honors members of the BWH community who go above and beyond to create an environment in which employees, patients, and families of diverse cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religions, ages, sexual orientations, and physical abilities feel welcomed and cared for.

Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer, welcomed the honorees, their families, friends, and BWH colleagues. Ron Walls, MD, executive vice president and chief operating officer, extended greetings and congratulations on behalf of President Betsy Nabel, MD. In an eloquent and heartfelt tribute, guest speaker Dani Monroe, chief diversity and inclusion officer for Partners HealthCare, applauded this year’s recipients for being “stewards of our vision” as a healthcare organization. She encouraged them to continue being sources of transformational healing, hope and resilience for others. Alluding to the words of poet Maya Angelou, she noted, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This year’s recipients of the BWH Lotus Awards are Cheri A. Blauwet, MD, physician in the departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics, in the category of licensed clinician; Barbara H. Kalinowski, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, nurse director of Radiation Oncology, in the category of leader; Margarette Marcelin, patient care assistant in Hematology/Oncology unit 7C, in the category of clinical support staff; and Maxine Rose, staffing coordinator in Nursing and Patient Care Services, in the category of non-clinical support staff.