We hope everyone who attended Periop Leader Week 2026 in Savannah, Ga., this month was a winner—learning about new ideas and strategies, making valuable new professional connections, visiting that one exhibitor booth that had exactly what you needed back home.
For certain perioperative leaders in attendance, the winning also included awards!
The three inaugural Periop Leader Awards finalists and winners were:
Periop Leader of the Year
- Bethany Bourcier, Director of Surgical Services, Dartmouth Health New London Hospital (Winner)
- Jaime Renfro, Director of Surgical Services, Orlando Health Horizon West (Finalist)
- Venetia Walker-Cowan, Director of Perioperative Services, Mount Sinai Brooklyn (Finalist)
Periop Team of the Year
- Salina Surgical Hospital (Winner)
- Guthrie Lourdes Hospital (Finalist)
- New Orleans East Hospital (Finalist)
ASC Leader of the Year
- Susan Duffy, Nurse Manager, Newton Wellesley Hospital Outpatient Surgery Center (Winner)
- Nancy Towne, Director of Surgical Services, Guthrie Cortland Medical Center
Additionally, there were our Poster Awards!
- First prize: Utilizing Microsoft Teams for Perioperative Incident Management, by Sara Beland, Associate Vice President of Perioperative Services, UNC Medical Center
- Second prize: Enhancing Perioperative Emergency Readiness Through Simulation, ICS, and After-Action Review, by Rebecca Rayburn, RN, MS, CAPA, ABLS, Perianesthesia Senior Nurse Manager Pre/Post, and Meghan Rider, MS, RN, Instructor of Clinical Nursing, both with University of Rochester Medicine’s Sawgrass Surgery Center
- Third prize: Reducing Pediatric Preoperative Sedation: Interdisciplinary Teamwork Improves the Surgical Experience, by Darlene Merriam, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Enterprise Peri-Anesthesia Director, UK HealthCare
We’ll be speaking with our winners and finalists from the Periop Leader Awards and our Poster Awards over the coming weeks. Stay tuned to Periop Leader Network for their stories!
