Anna Phearman
Graduate Degree Expected
MPH, Public Health Policy and Administration
Hometown
Watertown, MN
Education
Luther College, Decorah IA, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
Why you are interested in the Kruse Scholar Program and how does this align with your academic and professional goals?
In the Zoom call where Mr. Kruse provided additional information about the Kruse Scholar Program, I was drawn to his comments about the transformative power of partnerships. I, too, have long believed that coalition building can be a profoundly powerful way to create change.
In fact, this belief first took root in me somewhere around the summer of 2005. I was a young kid, marshaling the other kids in my neighborhood around our common goal of acquiring some ice cream. Since none of us had enough money individually, I came up with the idea for us to pool our resources together and collectively purchase a tub of ice cream. I remember the feeling of accomplishment that came with organizing my peers around a shared cause (no matter how trivial that cause may seem now). Currently, the shared goal I’m working towards looks just a little different (improving the health care experiences of people with disabilities), but the skill of leveraging relationships around shared values remains pivotal to the success of my work.
It is my hope that the Kruse Scholar Program would help me to expand on what I feel I already do well, as well as bolster the other skills I will need in order to make impactful and sustainable changes to our health care systems. My goal, both professionally and academically, is, quite simply, to build systems that improve lives. Naturally, I’d like to broaden my impact by doing so in a systemic way. I am drawn to the Baldridge Performance Excellence Model because of its potential to do just that.
