The 2026 NLN Centers of Excellence, State by State

Plenty of nursing schools call themselves excellent. Far fewer can point to a designation that survived external peer review. On September 25, 2026, 19 nursing programs received the NLN Center of Excellence at the NLN Education Summit in Washington, D.C.

Their names matter by state because fewer than 100 programs nationwide hold this distinction in at least one of five categories. For nurse educators, the 2026 list separates first-time awards from renewals, each with different evidence requirements and deadlines. The UT San Antonio School of Nursing, for example, added a second active designation in Student Learning and Professional Development. That scarcity is what gives the state-by-state list practical weight.

What Is the NLN Center of Excellence Designation?

The National League for Nursing (NLN) Center of Excellence designation is a national recognition for nursing schools, academic systems, and healthcare organizations that can document sustained, evidence-based innovation in a defined area of nursing education or practice. The NLN, founded in 1893 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., awards the distinction to programs that demonstrate high standards and a commitment to continuous quality improvement.

Five Areas of Recognized Excellence

Programs apply for recognition in one of five primary focus areas: academic integrity, caring and compassion, diversity, equity, and inclusion, excellence in faculty practice, and courage, creativity, and innovation. A newer environmental hazards category has appeared in recent cycles, so applicants should confirm the current list in the 2026 NLN handbook. The designation is not a ranking of overall prestige, but evidence that the institution has met a specific bar within the chosen area.

What Makes the Designation Selective

The bar is intentionally high. Fewer than 100 of the thousands of institutions with nursing programs hold a Center of Excellence in at least one area. The NLN expects more than a single initiative: applicants must demonstrate ongoing research to document effectiveness, sustained innovation, and continuous quality improvement. The designation is awarded to the school of nursing as a whole, not to an individual program or department.

Who Can Apply

Eligibility varies by applicant type. Nursing schools must be NLN members and accredited by the CNEA, ACEN, or CCNE. Healthcare organizations may qualify through accreditation from the Joint Commission, NCQA, or AOA, and must document a partnership with an academic institution. Schools, systems, and healthcare organizations all maintain their membership and accreditation throughout the five-year designation cycle. The designation is valid for five years and can be re-awarded, which is why some schools hold more than one active Center of Excellence.

Complete 2026 NLN Centers of Excellence by State

The following state-by-state table consolidates the 2026 NLN Center of Excellence designees with available category and institution details. States with multiple designees in this list include Connecticut (three), as well as North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas (two each).

First-Time Vs. Renewal Designations in 2026: What’s Different

In 2026, 20 nursing programs received NLN Center of Excellence designations, but not every award follows the same timeline.¹ A first-time designation runs four years, from August 1 of the award year through July 31 four years later. A renewal designation runs five years. Both first-time and renewal awards can be re-awarded after the same rigorous review process.²

How First-Time and Renewal Paths Differ

A first-time Center of Excellence award recognizes a program's demonstrated excellence in one of five designated areas, such as student learning and professional development or promoting the pedagogical expertise of faculty. Renewal is not a shortcut. Programs complete the same application and review as first-time applicants, but they pay different fees. The NLN recommends that programs begin the renewal process during the last year of their current designation. There is a one-year grace period after expiration. If more than two years have passed since expiration, the application is treated as a new designation.²

What the 2026 Cohort Shows

The National League for Nursing's 2026 Honors Convocation list includes 20 institutions, but the announcement does not label each as first-time or renewal.¹³ Because of that, a clean national split is not available from the published cohort. What is clear is that some schools carry more than one active designation at once. UT San Antonio School of Nursing added a second Center of Excellence in Student Learning and Professional Development in August 2026, building on its existing designation in Promoting the Pedagogical Expertise of Faculty. With fewer than 100 programs holding any nursing program of distinction, that dual status is especially rare. The school is the only one in Texas with two active NLN Center of Excellence designations.¹

What the COE Designation Means for Nursing Programs, Students, and Faculty

The NLN Center of Excellence designation is not a ceremonial title. It is an external validation that a nursing program's teaching, student learning, and professional development practices meet a rigorous national standard. For schools that earn it, the designation creates immediate visibility with prospective students, employers, and peer institutions, and it gives administrators a concrete framework for continuous improvement.

For Nursing Programs: A Recruitment and Quality Benchmark

For the 2026 cohort, UT San Antonio's School of Nursing illustrates the visibility benefit. It was one of 19 nursing programs nationwide and one of two in Texas to receive a designation at the 2026 NLN Education Summit in Washington, D.C. It is also the only school in Texas holding two active COE designations. That dual recognition functions as a recruiting signal for both prospective students and faculty, while also giving current leadership an external benchmark for evidence-based teaching, faculty development, and student outcomes. Schools without the designation can use the COE criteria as a roadmap, and schools that hold it can use it to improve nursing faculty retention strategies and attract clinical partners.

For Faculty: Recognition of Pedagogical Expertise

Faculty benefit most directly when their school earns a designation in a category such as promoting the pedagogical expertise of faculty. The review process validates professional development efforts, scholarship in teaching, and the time educators invest in innovative teaching strategies in nursing education to improve classroom and clinical instruction. At UT San Antonio, the existing designation in that category, and the new designation in student learning and professional development, together tell nurse educators that the institution values teaching as seriously as research and clinical practice.

For Students: A Demonstrated Learning and Support Environment

Students can use the designation as a quality signal. It means the program has undergone external review of how it supports learning, professional development, and transitions into practice. For a school like UT San Antonio, where first-generation college students represent one-third of the student body, that external validation is especially meaningful. It assures learners that the program is not just delivering content, but actively building supports, including nursing student work-life balance, that students need to persist and enter the workforce. That kind of assurance is increasingly important as students weigh program quality, cost, and post-graduation support. It also reflects the program's demonstrated commitment to producing practice-ready nurses.

How the COE Landscape Has Shifted: Cohort Sizes and Designation Windows

It is easy to read “the 2026 list” as a single incoming class, but the COE landscape works more like overlapping waves than a one-year cohort. The more useful view tracks when nurse educator recognition periods open, how long they run, and which categories are currently recognized.

Cohort size remains small and selective

NLN reported 21 designated programs for 2025¹ and 20 for 2026.² Those numbers are not a single graduating class; the public roster shows many overlapping designation spans, such as 2020-2029, 2021-2029, and 2021-2025.³ Because the roster is live, exact year-by-year counts for 2020-2024 are not always easy to isolate, but the visible trend is a tight annual cohort in the low 20s.

Designation windows differ by status

First-time COE designations run four years, from August 1 of the designation year through July 31 four years later.⁴ Continuing designations are valid for five years.⁴ That means a program can stack a new area onto an existing recognition and extend its active window. That overlapping structure explains why a school like the University of Texas at San Antonio School of Nursing can hold two active designations at once, one for faculty pedagogical expertise and one for student learning and professional development.

The newest category reshapes the 2026 list

The program originally recognized schools of nursing beginning in 2004 and later expanded to health care organizations in 2012.³ Today it recognizes schools, systems, and health care organizations in one of four areas.⁵ The clearest recent shift is the addition of a category focused on environmental hazards, framed in 2025 language as creating learning environments that impact climate change and planetary health.⁶⁷ For readers scanning the 2026 list, that addition means a school may now appear for work explicitly tied to environmental and planetary health, alongside the traditional nursing education topics, faculty, and student success areas.

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How Nursing Programs Can Pursue NLN Center of Excellence Status

Pursuing NLN Center of Excellence status is not a one-and-done submission; it is a multi-month, peer-reviewed commitment with real fees and staff time. The tradeoff is simple: programs pay upfront in application costs and documentation hours to earn a credential that signals program quality to faculty, students, and employers. For many nursing schools, that long-term credibility outweighs the near-term workload.

Choose the right designation category first

Before choosing a category, complete an internal self-assessment of faculty qualifications, student outcomes, and evidence of a curriculum designed to align nursing education with health system needs. This step is often the longest part of the process, so begin it before the October 31 intent deadline. Eligibility starts with an NLN member school that meets nursing program accreditation requirements through CNEA, ACEN, or CCNE, with membership and accreditation maintained throughout the cycle. Select the category that matches existing strengths, whether that is student learning and professional development, faculty pedagogical expertise, or another area where the school already documents outcomes. Community colleges, universities, and health system nursing education departments all use the same pathway.

Map the current timeline and budget

Because the NLN has published multiple dated versions, treat the current application page and latest handbook as controlling documents. Public pages still show 2025 cycle dates in some places, so do not rely on a previous year's version. In the current cycle, the online Intent to Apply is due October 31 with a $250 filing fee. The final application is due in April; the final application fee is $2,500. For a continuing designation in the same category, the intent form is free and the first continuing final fee is $1,500. Consultant costs for the adviser visit are arranged directly and vary. Required materials include the online intent form, filing fee, final application as a digital PDF, a cover sheet, and a checklist.

Know the review sequence

After submission, an NLN adviser visit occurs January through March, virtual under the current handbook. There is no separate external evaluator site visit. The COE Review Panel meets May through June, programs are notified June through July, and formal recognition is announced at the NLN Education Summit in September. For programs weighing the workload, the sequence gives multiple checkpoints to correct course before the final review.