Gustavus Adolphus College

Barbara Zust, assistant professor of nursing at Gustavus Adolphus College, was presented with the 2006 Award for Excellence in Education by the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International at their conference held April 6 in Portland, Ore.

The Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International is a multinational organization of nurses and other professionals who advocate the elimination of relationship violence through nursing education, practice, research, and public policy, with members in approximately 20 countries.

The award recognizes Zust’s ongoing contributions in raising awareness of violence against women and children through nursing education. These efforts include a January Interim Experience class that partnered with the Committee Against Domestic Abuse shelter, a temporary emergency shelter in Mankato, Minn., for victims of domestic violence; independent research with nursing students on the role of the church in domestic violence; and a first-term seminar class in which students researched the frequency of relationship violence for college students and the resources available for victims.

Zust teaches in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Nursing Consortium, the nursing program at Gustavus in cooperation with St. Olaf College. The program allows students to take courses from professors at the two colleges and have clinical learning experiences in a wide variety of rural and Twin Cities health-care and community facilities.