Posted: 3/27/2003
Ellen-Marie Whelan, PhD, RN, CRNP, assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, is one of seven recipients of the 2003 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship. The fellowship program gives health professionals and behavioral and social scientists with an interest in health the opportunity to participate in health policy processes at the federal level.
After an intensive three-month orientation, fellows receive full-time work assignments in either the legislative or the executive branch of the federal government in Washington, DC. After the Washington work experience, fellows return to their respective institutions and are supported for two years to complete their continued development as health policy leaders.
“I am thrilled to be named an RWJ fellow,” says Dr. Whelan. “Through my years of work in urban health, I have come to believe that important changes in health care delivery must be implemented at the policy level. Now, I have a wonderful opportunity to participate in that process.”
Whelan has been at Johns Hopkins since 2000 and now holds a joint appointment with the School of Nursing and the university’s Urban Health Institute. In 1993, Whelan started a nurse-run primary care clinic in Philadelphia. Her most recent project involves studying the efficacy of the primary care delivery system provided by the Johns Hopkins Health System in East Baltimore.
“The fellowship is a prestigious and honorable award, not just for Ellen-Marie, but for the entire School of Nursing,” says Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN, dean of the School of Nursing.
“Ellen-Marie possesses a unique blend of discipline, clinical expertise, quantitative knowledge, and practical experience” says Christopher B. Forrest, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions who worked with Dr. Whelan when she was a post-doctoral fellow in Primary Care Policy. “She is a terrific find and will make the RWJ fellowship program proud of her accomplishments.”