Beverly Malone
PhD, RN, FAAN
Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National League for Nursing (NLN), which represents nearly 45,000 individual members and over 1,000 institutional members from nursing schools throughout the United States.
Under Dr. Malone’s leadership, NLN has advanced the science of nursing education by promoting greater collaboration among stakeholders, increasing diversity in nursing and nursing education, and advancing excellence in care for patients. Dr. Malone contributed to the ground-breaking National Academy of Medicine (then the Institute of Medicine) report, "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," and served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Minority Health Federal Advisory Committee.
With over 20 honorary degrees and numerous accolades, Dr Malone’s distinguished career has blended policy, education, administration, and clinical practice. Notably, she held the position of Federal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health under President Bill Clinton. In addition to her role as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Malone was also a member of his Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. She is frequently called on by congressional leaders and policymakers to offer her expert perspective and public testimony on increasing support for nursing education and workforce development to address the persistent shortage of nurses, which threatens health care delivery across the United States, from inner cities to suburbs to rural communities.
Dr. Malone has worked as a surgical staff nurse, clinical nurse specialist, director of nursing, and assistant administrator of nursing. Dr. Malone served as Dean of the School of Nursing at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She served two terms as President of the American Nurses Association (ANA), representing 180,000 nurses in the US.
Dr. Malone serves as Vice Chair at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Board of Directors, co-Leads the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Health Professional Education and Communication Working Group, and serves on NAM’s Steering Committee. She is a member of ecoAmerica’s Leadership Circle Executive Committee.
The ANA named Dr. Malone as their 2024 Hall of Fame Award recipient. Modern Healthcare, a leading publication in the health care field, has honored her as one of the nation’s leading health care executives by naming her to the 2023 list of the Top 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives in Healthcare and as one of their 100 Most Influential People in Health Care for the fourth consecutive year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).
The American Nurses Credentialing Center presented Dr. Malone with the prestigious 2023 HRH Princess Muna Al Hussein Award for her commitment to advancing the nursing profession and excellence in nursing professional practice across international borders. A global health leader, Dr. Malone is internationally recognized as the first African American General Secretary of the United Kingdom (UK) Royal College of Nursing representing 400,000 nurses and served as a member of the UK delegation to the World Health Assembly. During that time, Dr. Malone was also vice chair of the Brussels-based European Federation of Nurses Association.
Dr. Malone received her BSN and PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Cincinnati and her M.S. in Adult Psychiatric Nursing from Rutgers University. Dr. Malone was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (Academy) in 1988 and named an Academy Living Legend, the organization’s highest honor, in 2020.