By Amanda E.H. Pritchard
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing alumna Lindsey Harris, DNP, FNP-BC, (MSN 2011, DNP 2016), is one of six selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows Program.
Harris will spend a year in Washington, D.C. immersed in health-related legislative and regulatory issues with members of Congress and the executive branch.
“I am so honored to have this opportunity,” Harris said. “I’m looking forward to learning all I can.”
The program begins in September. For the first few months, Harris will attend daily classes in an intensive orientation followed by a nine-month assignment in a congressional office or the executive branch, where she, along with the other Fellows, will be involved in health-related legislation and policy development.
Harris attributes the guidance from her mentors, time at UAB Hospital, the UAB School of Nursing and serving in several nursing organizations as key elements to her being named one of a few nurses chosen for this prestigious Fellowship program.
“I am very humbled by this opportunity. This is such a prestigious program, of the more than 300 Fellows there have been very few nurses,” Harris said. “The mentorship I’ve received throughout my career and everything I’ve learned as the president of both the Birmingham Black Nurses Association, the Alabama State Nurses Association and serving as secretary of the Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Alabama has really helped me prepare for this opportunity. Without any of these life experiences I would not have attained this Fellows Program. I’m hoping to gain a broader view of health care from this experience and bring back some things to move Alabama toward a healthier state.”
