Shannon Zenk received the 2012 School of Nursing Distinguished Alumna Award. Zenk, who has dedicated her life’s work to researching obesity and the environmental and socioeconomic factors that contribute to this medical condition, has published more than 40 articles and has conducted multiple research projects.

In 2010 Zenk was elected to the Executive Board of the International Society for Urban Health, and in the following year, she was awarded the Midwest Nursing Research Society Harriett Werley New Investigator Award. Zenk is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar.