Brookside school nurse to receive national honor in June
April 14, 2026 | By Waterbury Roundabout
Brookside Primary School Nurse Sophia Boyle Hall was recently named as one of five nominees for a national professional honor this year.
The National Association of School Nurses announced that it will induct five new members into the National Academy of School Nursing in June. Boyle Hall is named along with nominees from California, South Carolina and Virginia.
The ceremony will take place on June 29 during the association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas.
The honor is the most prestigious recognition that members can receive from the professional association, recognizing superior achievement in school nursing contributions to the field.
“Their contributions have had a significant and enduring impact on the professional association and, more broadly, school health and student well-being,” the association’s announcement states.
Founded in 1997, the National Academy of School Nursing Fellows has recognized 139 school nursing fellows to date.
Sophia R. Boyle Hall, DNP, MEd, RN, NCSN, has been a nurse at Brookside Primary School for the past three years, coming to the Harwood Unified Union School District after working for 10 years in the Kingdom East School District and for five years in schools in Idaho.
Allison Conyers, head of school nursing in the Harwood district, noted that Boyle Hall is only the second Vermont school nurse to receive this national association honor. Sharonlee Trefry, former State School Nurse Consultant, received this recognition in 2023, Conyers said.
The recognition is well-deserved as Boyle Hall exemplifies dedication and involvement beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of her job, Conyers said. “Nurse Soph focuses on building relationships with students both in and out of the health office,” she said. “She has coached for Girls on the Run and supported Safe Routes to School. You can find her with a pair of googly-eye earrings and glasses as she invites you to laugh and create connections to support healing!”
Boyle Hall has demonstrated much involvement and leadership in the broader school nursing community. As the state emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, she was a member of the Vermont Governor’s Task Force on Reopening Schools, Safe and Healthy Schools Return to Learn. She’s a frequent presenter at state, regional and national conferences, and has advocated by providing testimony for legislation at the state and national levels.
She is a past president of the Vermont State School Nurses Association and has served as a Vermont representative to the board of the National Association of School Nurses and the National Board for Certification of School Nurses. In 2022, she was named the National Association of School Nurses Outstanding School Nurse Administrator.
In Vermont, she’s been named both the Vermont State School Nurses Association School Nurse Administrator of the Year in 2022 and the Vermont State School Nurses Association School Nurse of the Year in 2023.
She has written numerous articles published in the national association’s School Nurse Magazine and has traveled to both Cuba and the United Arab Emirates with cultural delegations from the national association.