College of Nursing

Lynda Tanner has been selected as the 2020 Idaho State University Professional Achievement Award recipient for the College of Nursing. Tanner is twice a graduate of ISU, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1980 and a Master’s of Science in Nursing Administration in 1999.

Tanner is President and CEO of VNA Health, an organization of more than 370 employees providing hospice, home health and palliative and personal care services to more than 12,000 people across Santa Barbara County in California. She has more than 30 years’ experience working in homecare, including working as a consultant and a surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and as Chief Clinical Executive at Sutter VNA and Hospice. In 2017, the Pacific Coast Business Times named Tanner the "Grand Champion of Healthcare." Through her diligent work VNA Health achieved the prestigious and difficult to attain, Level 4 of the We Honor Veterans, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Ms. Tanner is active in many professional, service, business and community organizations and currently serves as: Chair of the PAPA Committee on the Board of Directors for California Association for Health Services at Home (CAHSAH); Finance Officer on the Board of Directors for CenCal Health; Member of the Council of Leaders for the Alliance for Living and Dying Well; and Chair of the Audit/Compliance Committee for the Board of Directors for Casa Dorinda.

Her daughter, Shawna Thomas, would have been in the same graduation receiving her doctorate degree for NP. Lynda says: "The whole idea that we would have been in the same graduation exactly 40 years following my graduation was a dream come true."