Eisenhower Fellowships: Fellow Profiles

Profile: Tine Hansen-Turton, ’05, USA

October 2007

Any Fellow will tell you that the fellowship experience is an eventful time – but often it only marks the beginning of the whirlwind.

Take Tine Hansen-Turton, for example. The 2005 USA Fellow who traveled to New Zealand to study public health returned from her fellowship to receive a promotion to vice president of healthcare access and policy at the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation. Then she became the first executive director of the Convenient Care Association, a trade organization supporting retail-based convenient care clinics that provide accessible, affordable healthcare to all Americans. And somewhere in that mix, she also found time to graduate from law school.

But the bonds forged during her time in New Zealand have not been forgotten. If anything, they have only spurred her activity since returning to the United States, she says. “Since completing my fellowship, I have kept in close contact with so many wonderful New Zealand colleagues I met during my five-week visit,” she explains. “For the past two years, 20 nursing and healthcare leaders from New Zealand have visited the U.S. and attended annual best practices conferences hosted by one of the organizations I lead, the National Nursing Centers Consortium.”

The close contact she keeps with her New Zealand counterparts has not only been personally fulfilling, but also professionally productive. “In August 2007, I had the distinct honor of being invited back to New Zealand to visit with my New Zealand friends and colleagues. [They] invited me back to support them in their continuous efforts to promote and expand the new role of nurse practitioners, primary care nurse-led services, and to plan an exciting international healthcare conference to be held in Auckland in January 2008 – a direct outcome of my Eisenhower fellowship!”

The Global Healthcare Solutions to Vulnerable Populations Conference will address the organizers’ common belief that access to quality, affordable healthcare is a global problem and a global responsibility, Tine explains. Organized by representatives of the Auckland University of Technology, the Community Service and Development Trust of New Zealand, and the National Nursing Centers Consortium, the conference is steaming ahead with support from Fulbright New Zealand and Eisenhower Fellowships. It will provide an opportunity for healthcare professionals from around the world to share innovative healthcare models and services and to discuss best practices.

“I look forward in particular to the contributions of Fulbright, Eisenhower, and Harkness alumni who are leaders in these fields. Together we share a responsibility to continue to network and share our knowledge to meet these exchange programs' common aims.” Tine adds a special message to all EF alumni: “We invite all of you to come and present! It is going to be a magical time!”

While Tine has been unable yet to participate in any of EF’s overseas events because of her busy schedule and previous law school commitments, she is looking forward to using her future spare time to attend upcoming international gatherings with her husband Brian and 6-year-old son Nikolaj. In addition, she says she always uses the network when she is in a new city or traveling abroad. “The EF network is amazing,” Tine says. “I feel very connected to all of them – we share a common bond that can be felt throughout the world.”

When reflecting on what the overall experience of being a Fellow means to her, Tine concludes that “President Eisenhower had the right vision for world peace -- he recognized that peace can only happen when we learn to understand each other’s cultures and beliefs. We may never agree, but through education we can learn to accept one another,” she explains. “Thus, the Eisenhower Fellowships mission rings true: as leaders, whether young or old, we the Eisenhower Fellows have a responsibility to network with our colleagues around the world, share our knowledge, learn from others, be tolerant of one another, and work toward our common aims of achieving a more prosperous, just, and peaceful world.”

To learn more about the Global Healthcare Solutions to Vulnerable Populations Conference, visit www.globalhealthcareconferene.com.