FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

For more information, contact:

Elizabeth Maynard-Garrett, APR

(901) 448-4957.

 

UT Associate Professor Named Robert Wood Johnson Fellow

Memphis, Tennessee (July 20, 2004) – John C. Ring, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been named a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow for 2004-2005.

Established in 1973, The Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowships Program -- the second-oldest active program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) -- is designed to develop the capacities of outstanding mid-career health professionals in academic and community-based settings by providing them with an understanding of the health policy process. The program is administered by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Each year, fellows are selected on a competitive basis and leave their academic settings and practice responsibilities to spend a year in the nation's capital. A three-month orientation program is followed by a 9-month assignment in which fellows are accepted to work in a congressional office or the executive branch. Following the one-year experience, fellows return to their home institutions or practices to assume leadership roles in improving health policy and management.

Fellows begin the program in September, and undergo an intense three-month orientation, meeting top administrators of agencies responsible for health activities, congressional committee staff members, representatives of major health interest groups, officials of the Office of Management and Budget, and key White House advisors.

Toward the end of their orientation, the fellows interview for work assignments in legislative or executive branch offices with leading responsibilities for health legislation and programs. In order to continue their development as health policy leaders at their home institutions and in their local communities, fellows receive additional support for up to two years following the completion of their federal work assignments.

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