HIMSS State Policy Leader Award: Nurse-legislator Rep. Linda Upmeyer

[Published by Government Health IT | September 13, 2012 | Tom Sullivan, Editor]
 

When Linda Upmeyer, RN, was elected Iowa State Representative from the 12th District in 2002, she was the lone healthcare provider in the State House or Senate.

There was nary a doctor or nurse, not so much as a pharmacist, to be found.

“I was it," Upmeyer told Government Health IT. "So it’s easy to imagine some of the healthcare issues fell to me and I embraced them. It was a wonderful opportunity to draw on my background, what I knew, and try to work on some policy.”

Which is among the reasons that Upmeyer – the first woman to be named Iowa House Majority Leader – eventually became chair of the Hawkeye State’s Health and Human Resources Committee.

Her experience laid the bricks of a career that on Wednesday earned Upmeyer the 2012 HIMSS State Policy Leader Award, an annual award that HIMSS handed out during the National Health IT Week 2012 Networking Reception and Awards ceremony on Sept. 12 in Washington, D.C.

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