A Bowling Green woman has been honored with a statewide award for her work on behalf of sexual assault victims.

Melissa Gilpin received the 2020 Visionary Voice Award for Kentucky from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center on Thursday at The Medical Center at Bowling Green.

Gilpin was nominated by the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, which is the state coalition for the 13 designated rape crisis centers in the state.

Hope Harbor Executive Director Melissa Whitley presented the award on the behalf of KASAP and NSRVC.

“This is such an honor,” Gilpin said. “For me, It is just the culmination of years of working and being a part of a team that is doing something so much bigger than what one person ever could. I am so honored that out of all the people doing such great work here in Kentucky that they chose to honor me with this.”

Whitley said: “This is really special to me because I have known Melissa since I began to work for Hope Harbor. I’ve known that her heart is in this job and working with sexual assault survivors.”

Gilpin was supposed to receive the award in March, but the event was moved because of the coronavirus outbreak.

She has been a sexual assault nurse examiner for 19 years.

In that time, she has trained registered nurses, law enforcement officers, prison personnel and hospital staff regarding victim response services.

“Melissa has a way of bonding with everyone that she meets,” Whitley said. “She has seen those experiences for so many years that she is able to articulate what that looks like and what the other possibilities might be when talking with people during training. She is just very giving and caring for making sure that we improve those services for survivors in our community.”

One of her achievements for which she was presented the award was her work urging state law revisions to allow pediatric sexual assault nurse examiners to provide services.

In 2019, Gilpin joined The Medical Center to work as the emergency department’s clinical educator. She continues to work as a sexual assault nurse examiner in the emergency department.

“Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs is so pleased our national partners recognize, as we do, that Melissa is a leader among health care professionals in fighting for the rights of sexual assault victims to receive the justice they deserve and the healing starts with the sexual assault nurse examiner in the emergency department,” Eileen Recktenwald, KASAP executive director, said in a news release. “We are so proud of her and her important work in Kentucky.”

Gilpin said the attributes of compassion and a basic understanding of how our bodies process trauma are essential to her role.

“We cannot as health care professionals meet the needs of everyone who walks through that door, but you have to know how to help them reach out to agencies that may be important in their future and their healing,” Gilpin said. “You have to collaborate with your community partners in a way that you are all working for the good of that patient.”