The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) will honor Mary Kay Bader, MSN, RN, CCNS, CNRN, CCRN, SCRN, FNCS, FAHA, FCCM, with an AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.
One of AACN’s Visionary Leadership awards, the AACN Pioneering Spirit Award recognizes significant contributions that influence progressive and critical care nursing and relate to the association’s mission, vision and values. The official presentation will occur during the 2026 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, in San Diego, May 17-20.
With over 47 years of nursing experience, Bader is a leading nursing expert in neuroscience and critical care. As a neuroscience critical care clinical nurse specialist, she partners with interprofessional teams to develop clinical protocols and integrate technology into the care of critically ill patients with neurologic disorders and stroke at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California.
Her leadership has resulted in Providence Mission Hospital receiving two Ernest A. Codman Awards from The Joint Commission, which recognizes excellence in the use of data-driven performance measures to improve healthcare quality and safety. She led the successful development and implementation of hospital-based brain injury guidelines from the Brain Trauma Foundation and implemented the hospital’s rapid response program, for which she remains the current clinical lead.
Bader has lectured nationally and internationally on brain/spine injury, cerebral multimodality monitoring, stroke, post-cardiac arrest care and seizures. She has over 70 publications, including four books. She was a member of the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) 2014 Multimodality Monitoring guideline group and the American Heart Association/NCS 2023 “Critical Care Management of Patients After Cardiac Arrest” scientific statement.
She is a past president of NCS and the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, and serves as secretary on the board of directors of the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses.
Bader earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and a master’s in nursing from Loyola University of Chicago.
