A nurse who has served Stearns County’s Public Health for 27 years has be named to a nationally recognized program. Renee Frauendienst, who is the Public Health Division Director at Stearns County Human Services Department, is one of just 25 nurses from across the country to be selected as a Public Health Nurse Leader by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

She is participating in a two-year leadership development program designed to strengthen the capacity of senior public health nurses to improve population health, address social factors that affect health, respond to emerging trends in health and health care, influence policy and lead collaboration in their communities.

The program’s goal is to support nurses who are ready to lead public health departments in building a Culture of Health in their communities. As part of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, public health nurses will work closely with the Action Coalitions in their states to implement recommendations from the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report.

Frauendienst says she looks forward to strengthening her skills so she can do even more to improve the health of the community and help transform the nursing profession. She adds this experience will benefit her personally as a leader while also allowing her to leverage the contributions of public health nursing as a leader in Minnesota’s health reform.