What do the following people have in common?

  • MacArthur Foundation Fellow
  • Governor Rendell-appointed chair of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Senior Care and Services Study Commission
  • Executive Editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
  • President-elect of the American Academy of Home Care Physicians
  • Member of the Chicago Wellbeing Task Force and the Legislative Task Force
  • Chair-Elect of the Aging and Public Health Section of the American Public Health Association

They are all Hartford grantees and represent six of the nine-person 2010-2011 cohort of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows program, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. Congratulations to each of them, listed (and pictured) in order of the accolade above:

  • Mary E. Tinetti, MD
  • Eileen M. Sullivan-Marx, PhD, CRNP, FAAN
  • Joseph G. Ouslander, MD
  • Bruce Leff, MD
  • XinQi Dong, MD, MPH
  • Lené Levy-Storms, PhD, MPH

The Health and Aging Policy Fellowship is a 9-12 month program that provides a structured opportunity for professionals in health and aging to gain the experience and skills necessary to make a positive contribution to the development and implementation of health policies that affect older Americans. Core program components focus on career development and professional enrichment. Many fellows get to work directly with a U.S. Congress member, in federal or state agencies, or in “think tank” organizations to get real-world policy experience.

Moreover, partnerships with the John Heinz Senate Fellowship in Issues of the Aging and the Healthy Aging Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have expanded the scope of the program and the opportunities for participants.

We at the Hartford Foundation know that leadership is vital to the success of our projects. We also know that in order to make and sustain change, we have to support leaders who can improve health policies for older Americans. This fellowship is a terrific opportunity for experienced health professionals to gain leadership skills they can use to influence public health policy.

Many of the Fellows noted above have long been affiliated with Hartford efforts. We applaud this next step in their professional development as they work on the legislative front to ensure quality health care for our aging population. According to Dr. Ouslander, “After almost 28 years of caring for elderly patients, teaching geriatric medicine, carrying out numerous research and quality improvement projects, and serving as a medical administrator for a variety of geriatric care institutions, I find myself poorly prepared to deal with the crisis in the care of older Americans. I need to learn more about health policy so that I can fully utilize the last phase of my career to help solve this crisis. The Health and Aging Policy will help me achieve this goal.”

We at Hartford are not surprised (but are honored) that so many familiar friends have been selected for this competitive and prestigious fellowship. As Dr. Sullivan-Marx said, "The future of health in this country and around the world will be focused on care of those who are aging and those with chronic disease. For the next five years, it is critical that we in the U.S. keenly evaluate and refine our health policies to meet the need of a large aging group. Key areas to focus on are care of older adults in communities, particularly with the use of interprofessional teams." We couldn’t agree more.