Chinese American Heroine: Jennie Chin Hansen
May 13, 2009
Name in English: Jennie Chin Hansen Name in Chinese: 陈祯娜 [陳禎娜]
Name in Pinyin: Chén Zhēn Nà
Gender: Female
Birth Year: 1948
Birth Place: New York
Profession (s): Elder Health Care Advocate, Health and Chronic Care Administrator, Nursing Faculty
Education: B.S., Boston College; M.S., Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
Award(s): 1997 League of Women Voters of San Francisco, “Women Who Could Be President”; 2002, Gerontological Society of America’s Maxwell Pollack Award for Productive Living; 2005, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator’s Award; Honorary Doctorate, Boston College, 2008
Contribution(s): Jennie Chin Hansen became the first boomer as well as the first Asian American to serve as President of the 40 million member AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) in May 2008.
She began her career in community and public health nursing then joined On Lok, a non-profit community services organization for the elderly based in San Francisco’s Chinatown as a research associate in 1980, later becoming its executive director, a position she held until 2005.
Hansen advanced the work of On Lok by helping it become the national example for the “Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly” or PACE, which has since become a Medicare and Medicaid alternative in place of institutionalizing the elderly. The program provides medical and social care in day and clinic settings as well as at-home services such as meal deliveries, transportation, and home care. Although initially based only in San Francisco Chinatown, this program has expanded to other populations of frail elders both in the Bay Area and nationally.
Hansen has taught nursing at a number of universities first at Humboldt State and San Diego State Universities in the 1970s and most recently at San Francisco State University. She is a Senior Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, Center for the Health Professions. Hansen also serves as a federal commissioner for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and serves on California and other national boards related to leadership, health quality, and health information technology.
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