After Pete Conrad Died the preventable death of a systems failure in emergency care, Nancy Conrad, his widow set out on a quest to help save lives of patients and victims of similar scenarios.  She co-founded the Community Emergency Healthcare Initiative and spoke at many global meetings to enlist the help of patient safety experts around the world. The Pete Conrad National Patient Safety Award was established by Nancy Conrad, which is awarded to extraordinary health care leaders and institutions that bring lifesaving solutions into frontline healthcare use.  The award is only made for extraordinary contributions to patient safety and as such is not an annual award.  Nancy Conrad makes the final decision on awardees with input from expert advisors from healthcare, aerospace, and the innovation community.

She is published author in peer reviewed medical literature and has served as an editorial review board member of global journals and as a patient safety advisor to national measure setting organizations. In sharing in Pete’s passion for innovation, in 2008, Nancy Conrad founded the Conrad Foundation to engage high school students across the globe to use STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), innovation and entrepreneurship to develop technologies and solutions to real-world needs.  The organization’s flagship program, the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge, is a competition challenging students to combine education, innovation, and entrepreneurship to create commercially viable products that address issues in sustainability.