Neuroscience Nursing Expert Receives AACN Award

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. – May 5, 2026 – The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) will honor Mary Kay Bader, MSN, RN, CCNS, CNRN, CCRN, SCRN, FNCS, FAHA, FCCM, with an AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.

One of AACN’s Visionary Leadership awards, the AACN Pioneering Spirit Award recognizes significant contributions that influence progressive and critical care nursing and relate to the association’s mission, vision and values. The official presentation will occur during the 2026 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, in San Diego, May 17-20.

With over 47 years of nursing experience, Bader is a leading nursing expert in neuroscience and critical care. As a neuroscience critical care clinical nurse specialist, she partners with interprofessional teams to develop clinical protocols and integrate technology into the care of critically ill patients with neurologic disorders and stroke at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California.

Her leadership has resulted in Providence Mission Hospital receiving two Ernest A. Codman Awards from The Joint Commission, which recognizes excellence in the use of data-driven performance measures to improve healthcare quality and safety. She led the successful development and implementation of hospital-based brain injury guidelines from the Brain Trauma Foundation and implemented the hospital’s rapid response program, for which she remains the current clinical lead.

Bader has lectured nationally and internationally on brain/spine injury, cerebral multimodality monitoring, stroke, post-cardiac arrest care and seizures. She has over 70 publications, including four books. She was a member of the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) 2014 Multimodality Monitoring guideline group and the American Heart Association/NCS 2023 “Critical Care Management of Patients After Cardiac Arrest” scientific statement.

She is a past president of NCS and the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, and serves as secretary on the board of directors of the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses.

Bader earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and a master’s in nursing from Loyola University of Chicago.

About the AACN Pioneering Spirit Award: The annual AACN Pioneering Spirit Award recognizes significant contributions that influence progressive and critical care nursing regionally and nationally, and relate to AACN’s mission, vision and values. Recipients of this Visionary Leadership Award come from business, academia and healthcare. Other Visionary Leadership awards, AACN’s highest honor, include the Lifetime Membership Award and the Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award for a Distinguished Career.

About the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition: Established in 1974, AACN’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (NTI) represents the world’s largest educational conference and trade show for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families. Bedside nurses, nurse educators, nurse managers, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners attend NTI.

About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: For more than 55 years, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has been dedicated to acute and critical care nursing excellence. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. AACN is the world’s largest specialty nursing organization, with more than 134,000 members and over 170 chapters in the United States.

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
27071 Aliso Creek Road, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656; 949-362-2000; www.aacn.org