Thelma Kuska, BSN, RN, CEN, TNS, FAEN, of Illinois

ENA Foundation Cornerstone Award

Recognizes an individual, corporation, non-profit partner, ENA councils or ENA chapters that made significant contributions to the Foundation.

Thelma Kuska has devoted countless hours and energy to the ENA Foundation. She served as secretary on the ENA Foundation Board of Trustees in 2013, its chairperson in 2015, and a trustee again in 2019. Over the years, she has been active with the fundraising and scholarship committees. During her tenure as chairperson, she wrote the Foundation’s operating manual and assisted in updating its bylaws. As a scholarship committee member, she updated the rubric used to evaluate scholarship applications.

A longtime active member of the Illinois ENA State Council, Kuska chairs its fundraising committee and spearheads a silent auction for the Foundation at the council’s annual spring symposium. She was instrumental in establishing the Illinois ENA endowment fund. She has donated personally and solicited many contributions from outside of ENA, while encouraging others to earmark their United Way donations for the ENA Foundation.

In her years as a highway safety specialist and regional program manager for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and as a volunteer, she has provided driver and passenger safety training to nurses, first responders and other community members.