UW Nursing School Honors Massie

Mike Massie, University of Wyoming director of government relations, is being honored by UW’s Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing for his efforts as a state legislator on behalf of advanced practice nursing.

Massie will receive the inaugural Peter K. Simpson Advanced Practice Nursing Fan award during the School of Nursing’s 10th Annual Willow Ceremony honoring nurse practitioner students May 30. The award’s namesake, Pete Simpson, will present the award to Massie.

“This honor was established by the Doctor of Nursing Practice faculty at the School of Nursing to honor Pete Simpson’s enthusiasm for advanced practice nursing and, henceforth, will be awarded to an individual who has gone above and beyond to support advanced practice nursing in Wyoming,” wrote Mary Burman, dean of the School of Nursing, and Anne Marie Hart, Doctor of Nursing Program coordinator.

Massie, who served as a state legislator from Albany County from 1995-2010, sponsored legislation to allow for independent practice by advanced practice registered nurses. That change “removed barriers to health care and has directly benefited the health of Wyoming’s residents,” Burman and Hart say.

In addition, Massie’s work to ensure the competence and education of advanced practice nurses and his support of the loan repayment program for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students at UW “has directly impacted the health and well-being of Wyoming’s residents.”

Massie joined the UW administration in 2011 as a special assistant to the president and became director of government relations in 2013.

Before that, he served eight years as executive director of Child Development Services of Wyoming, a private membership organization of Wyoming developmental preschools. He was director of the Community Services Division at UW's Wyoming Institute for Disabilities from 1999-2003, and was assistant director of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities from 1990-99. He earned an M.A. degree (1980) in American history at UW and, from 1991-2003, taught credit courses as an adjunct instructor in the UW Department of History.