Each year during Homecoming Weekend, the University of South Carolina Alumni Association celebrates the best and brightest alumni and friends of the university with six awards. These awards are the university’s highest honors reflecting the values that define the Gamecock community: service, integrity, character and leadership. College of Nursing alumna Stephanie Burgess, PhD, APRN, FAAN, FAANP is the USC Alumni Association’s 2025 Distinguished Alumni recipient.

I get paid to have a good time and make a difference. I love being a nurse but being a Gamecock Nurse is even better! - Dr. Burgess

Burgess is a certified family nurse practitioner and distinguished clinical professor emeritus at USC Nursing. She is a three-time alumna of USC, having received her BSN in 1975, MSN in 1983 and PhD in 2003. With over 100 peer-reviewed publications, she has also held leadership roles, including as chair of the Richland Two School Board, past president of the South Carolina Nurses Association, and current VP for the Coalition for Access to Health Care.

Burgess has received numerous honors including the SC Nurse Practitioner of the Year, SC Nurse Advocate of the Year, Palmetto Gold Award, ANA President’s Outstanding Leadership Award, USC College of Nursing Outstanding Alumni Award, USC College of Nursing Legacy Award and Sigma Theta Tau Lucy Marion Award.

During her career, Burgess made positive impacts to health policy that drove major reforms, including over ten legislative changes in APRN practice, the establishment of 20 nurse-led practices, and 19 payer policy changes—saving SC taxpayer dollars and enhancing access to primary care. Her model of health policy reform has earned national and state recognition from organizations like the American Nurses Association and AARP.

Burgess currently practices as an NP serving vulnerable populations and volunteers with GriefShare.