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Nurse and professor Dr. Brenda Baker says nurses should have a “bigger footprint” in the health policy arena—the RWJF Health Policy Fellows program helped her see how big a difference she could make By Jamie Durana Four-year-old Brenda Baker stood on her tiptoes and peered through the window into the hospital nursery. Baker’s mother was…

Before joining the program, Wilmoth navigated dual careers as a professor and a Brigadier General in the Army Reserve. She also wanted hands-on experience in the policy world that would be helpful in both careers. This led her to apply for the RWJF Health Policy Fellows Program, where she landed a placement in the office of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, during the time when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Read on to find out about Wilmoth’s takeaways from the program and why she calls the fellowship “a privilege” and “transformational.”

By Marisa Coulton Health economist Carrie Colla had been teaching at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice for seven years when she decided it was time for a change. She loved the work but wanted to make sure her research was getting into the hands of policymakers. “In the beginning of your…