Faculty commended as exemplars in their fields
Published on Monday, July 21, 2025
By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu
Medical Center faculty and staff often are recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for their academic or medical achievements. These accolades place UMMC among health science centers worldwide.
Fletcher lauded as Living Legend
Dr. Audwin B. Fletcher, professor of nursing, assistant dean for graduate and post-graduate programs in the UMMC School of Nursing, has accepted the Living Legend Award from the Association of Black Nursing Faculty.
Fletcher, who is also director of the adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner track, received the honor at the ABNF’s recent 38th annual Scientific Meeting and Conference in New Orleans.
The Living Legend Award is reserved for those who offer extraordinary contributions to the nursing profession.
Fletcher was cited as a leader, trailblazer and champion for excellence in nursing education and continues to improve health care for Mississippians. He is also an advanced practice registered nurse, a board-certified family nurse practitioner and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing program of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Fletcher was the first and only African American student to receive Student of the Year honors for undergraduate (BSN, 1992) and graduate (MSN, 1998) degrees at UMMC. He was the first African American man to receive an MSN from the School of Nursing and, in 1998, the first African American man to be hired as a full-time faculty member.
In 2003, he became the first African American to earn a PhD from the UMMC School of Health Related Professions. In 2004, he became the first African American man to achieve tenure at his rank in the School of Nursing.
From 2005 to 2007, Fletcher was the first man to serve as president of the Eliza Pillars Registered Nurses of Mississippi, and he was the first African American man elected president of the UMMC Nursing Alumni Association. In 2011, he became the first African American man and third African American from Mississippi to be inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.
The first man to serve as president of the Association of Black Nursing Faculty, from 2018 to 2020, Fletcher was the first African American to be appointed graduate clinical coordinator at the School of Nursing, in 2012. He was the first African American to be appointed director of the family nurse practitioner/adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner program at the School of Nursing, in 2014, and director of the adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner program, in 2021. He was the first managing editor of the peer-reviewed ABNFF Journal, a position he has held since 2018.
Fletcher was also the youngest president of the Alpha Epsilon Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, serving from 2005 to 2007.
A 2011 inductee as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the highest honor bestowed in the nursing profession, Fletcher emerged as an influential national leader dedicated to improving the health of the underserved and underrepresented through contributions to organizational excellence.
His impact is a culmination of decades of leadership excellence in academia, clinical practice, mentorship and scholarship initiatives. His work and leadership roles have also included the National Black Nurses Obesity national weight initiative, funded by the Coca Cola Foundation, and the Jackson Chapter of the 100 Black Men of America mentoring program.
Because of his contributions to nursing scholarship through his work with these entities, he was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research of the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health.
Fletcher has dedicated his entire career to providing optimal health care to underserved and disadvantaged populations while continuing to positively influence nursing with his lifelong, sustained, exceptional commitment and achievements in nursing education, practice and scholarship, said Dr. Kaye Edwards, ABNF scholarship and awards chair and ABNF Foundation chair.
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Street Beam achieves gold standard acclaim
Dr. Asher Street Beam, professor of radiologic sciences and director for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging program in the UMMC School of Health Related Professions, has been recognized as a gold standard instructor for 2025 by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.
The ARRT’s Gold Standard Award is given annually as part of the organization’s I Am the Gold Standard program. Honors go to registered technologists who meet professional development goals of improving quality and safety, patient experience that either exceeded expectations or led to improvements and advocating for the profession outside of work responsibilities.
A recipient of numerous professional tributes and awards, Beam was honored by the organization for exemplifying the highest standards of excellence in medical imaging and for being instrumental in creating the first and only programmatically accredited master’s level MRI degree in the country.
The MRI program’s focus is on preparing the next generation of technologists to perform at the highest levels of quality and safety, the organization remarked in its announcement of this year’s awards.