Former Wareham resident Elizabeth Jean Donahue was named the 2017 recipient of the “Distinguished Nurse Practitioner Award” by the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners.

The award was given at the coalition’s Annual Conference on May 4, at the Marriot Hotel in Newton.

Donahue is the daughter of Jane and John Donahue of Wareham, and is a graduate of Wareham High School Class of 2001and Boston College Class of 2005. She currently resides in the North End of Boston.

Each year, the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners recognizes a member who has made significant contributions in the field.

Donahue was recognized for her contributions in leadership and advocacy through professional association activities, public image, excellence in care delivery and nurse practitioner education. She currently practices as a primary care provider at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital Ambulatory Division. She also teaches clinical nursing part-time at Boston College where Donna Cullinan, the nursing professor who nominated Donahue for the award, described her as a leader, teacher, preceptor and role model. She has led and mentored students on seven humanitarian trips to Haiti since her graduation from Boston College in 2008.

Donahue also demonstrated leadership while advocating for patients and professional practice through her reflections and writing in IN Practice, a blog for the New England Journal of Medicine.

She has served on the coalition’s executive board for the past three years as treasurer and has been an active participant in advancing the group’s agenda as an active lobbyist for legislation in Massachusetts that would allow nurse practitioner’s to practice independently of physicians for primary care.