Excellence in Education Award: Benita "Bunny" Hagen

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gretchenlschuldt
October 16, 2009

From the September Board blue book:

Bunny Hagen is a true champion for children, for healthcare, and for the place wherethey both meet — the classroom. Bunny has a long history serving the Milwaukee community, focusing her brand of special attention on the needs of children and families. Her interest in children and public health started in nursing school, and it has guided the rest of her career.

She began providing nursing care in Milwaukee Public Schools as a public health nurse in 1981. She developed a special interest in school-age children and the health services embedded in schools that help all students become healthy, resilient learners. She provided daily nursing service to Lincoln Avenue Elementary School, among others, and was the nurse you may remember ministering with tender hands and tender heart to an individual student, but always with an eye to the bigger picture and the population based needs of an entire community of children.

Bunny was instrumental in the development of school nurse practice guidelines for the Health Department and played a pivotal role in ensuring that staff development practices for her colleagues included a strong emphasis on school nursing and school health. Her loyalty to the profession became a loyalty to school children and their health needs, and she set the standard for science-based, education-focused caring and compassionate school nursing.

In 1992, she brought that focus to MPS as its first direct board-hired nurse. The increasing number of students with special health care needs had ushered in a new era in school nursing. Bunny led the way in educating district leaders about the health care challenges faced by special needs children; developing a school nurse program to meet those needs; implementing standards, policies, and procedures that allowed students to remain at school in a safe environment; and always acting as a health care advocate for the childrenshe served by ensuring access and service.

As the MPS special services nursing staff grew, new health challenges for children emerged: asthma, diabetes, allergies, to name just a few. These conditions demanded new strategies and new resources to meet student health needs, and Bunny was an active participant as MPS school nursing expanded to meet these and other needs.

Although Bunny is no doubt exceedingly uncomfortable to hear this read aloud, she is universally loved and respected by her school nurse colleagues, teachers, school leaders, children, and families. She is a relentless problem solver, innovator, and advocate. Quite simply, she brings the best of nursing to any table she is at, and there is not a child in this district that has not benefitted directly or indirectly from her extraordinary dedication, energy, and expertise. She is committed to school nursing and the children it serves —we are indeed fortunate to have her in our midst.

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors recognizes and honors Bunny Hagen for her dedication, outstanding leadership, and commitment to excellence on behalf of the students of the Milwaukee Public Schools.

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Excellence in Education Award: Benita "Bunny" Hagen

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