Ascension Saint Thomas has announced that Colleen Fultz, a Saint Thomas Medical Partners (STMP) nurse in Murfreesboro, has been recognized as Tennessee's Childhood Immunization Champion of 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) present this award annually to one exceptional honoree from each state. With more than 45 years of service as a nurse and 25 years in pediatric care, Colleen leads the Vaccines for Children program at STMP's Saint Louise Clinic. She is also a regular volunteer with the clinic's mobile health unit, which travels directly to children in underserved areas.

"We are privileged to have Colleen's servant leadership, which has contributed to preventing the spread of diseases in Middle Tennessee," said Gordon Ferguson, President and CEO of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. "Colleen's work in the immunization education space has challenged misconceptions about vaccines and saved countless lives."

"Today, people are susceptible to misinformation about vaccines because they are forgetting our history," said Colleen Fultz, nurse at Saint Thomas Medical Partners' Saint Louise Clinic. "I remember crying with parents who lost their children to diseases that have since been eradicated because of vaccines."