AANA Foundation to Honor Eric Kramer with 2026 Janice Drake CRNA Humanitarian Award

Rosemont, Ill. — The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) Foundation will present the Janice Drake CRNA Humanitarian Award to Eric Kramer, DNAP, CRNA, FNP-C, during the AANA 2026 Annual Congress, August 21-25, in Boston.

The Janice Drake CRNA Humanitarian Award is presented to a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), also known as nurse anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist, who volunteers and provides anesthesia, education, and training in areas of need in the United States and overseas. This recognition raises awareness and aims to increase CRNA volunteerism in the United States and across the globe.

“I am greatly honored to be named the Janice Drake Humanitarian of the Year,” Kramer said. “I have led many annual international mission trips with residents, giving them exposure to anesthesia in austere and culturally diverse environments and consider it my greatest mission to provide anesthesia services to those underserved communities.”

Kramer’s international work spans long-term service in Mexico and multiple shorter deployments worldwide. He worked in Mosul, Iraq, during the campaign against ISIS; treated patients during the 2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and served with Frontline Medics in Ukraine in 2025, providing Role 1 trauma stabilization on the Donbas front lines. Additional missions have taken him to countries including Ghana, the Dominican Republic, Kenya and Guatemala.

Kramer earned his MSN and CRNA designation from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 2010. Shortly after passing the National Certification Examination, he traveled to Mexico to provide his first solo anesthetics, initiating a decades-long interest and commitment to austere mission medicine.

Returning to Ohio in 2019, Kramer completed his Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) degree at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. In 2020 he was hired as faculty at National University’s DNAP program, where he teaches doctoral nurse anesthesia residents.

To learn more about AANA Member Recognition awards, visit https://www.aana.com/membership/recognition/aana-awards/.