As a founder, president and chief executive officer of Familycare Health, Jeff Heatherington Ba’65 devoted his life to improving health results in Oregon. Now, thanks to a gift of $ 6 million in Familycare Health and Heatherington Foundation, he opens the way to the next generation of health professionals.
This gift with $ 6 million, made in 2020 in honor of Heatherington, supports Willamette undergraduate students by scholarships, internships, programming and a new staff position – allowing them to meet some of the biggest health and public health challenges today.
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“The resolution of our greatest health challenges begins by educating future leaders in this field,” says Heatherington, “and there is no better place to educate the type of Oregon leaders, the northwest of the Pacific and the need of the world in Willamette.”
Competitive scholarships: Improve life through public health
At the heart of the gift endowed is the Heatherington Scholars program, which awards competitive scholarships to 10 to 12 undergraduate students each year. Designed to attract and support students passionate about public and community health, each scholarship offers up to $ 11,500 per year.
Nardin Ishak Ba’27 is one of Heatherington’s current academics. The major public health and the Heathherington Scholars program are the reason why it applied to Willamette in the first place. In high school, she became a nursing assistant certified in a Portland hospital, and when she read the public health program, she could say that her approach to health care was “holistic and focused on people”.
Now a double major in public health and biology, Ishak continues to work at the hospital on weekends, and his career goal is to become a hospital doctor. So far, his favorite courses in Willamette have been the epidemiology of public health and the introduction to public health.
The Director of Pré-Santé: Improve career advice for students
The post of director of the pre-health of family care, occupied by Claire Hoffman Ba’12, revolutionized how Willamette supports students pursuing careers in health care and public health. In collaboration with professors sitting on the advisory committee of the health professions, Hoffman cultivated relations with potential employers, advised students of internship and higher education possibilities and supported the fields of areas ranging from clinical care to the administration of health care.
“At the heart of the motivation of many students to continue work in health care, the desire to apply their interest in science in a way that has a direct impact on others,” explains Hoffman.
With Hoffman leadership, the career development office has expanded its ability to help students explore and prepare for various career options in the health sector. Today, the career development office has identified more than 350 current Willamette students who are interested in the health professions – twice the number before the position of pre -health director.
Internships and programming: Real world experience
Heatherington’s pre-health internship and research fund and the Heatherington Public Health Programming Fund offer students transformative opportunities to apply their learning in real contexts. Recently, Hoffman used these funds to help Ishak and other students attending the Oregon public health conference, for example. There, in competition against students graduated from other universities, Willamette undergraduate students gained distinctions for their poster presentations.
Funding has also enabled Hoffman to conduct excursions in the field in osteopathic medicine schools and health professionals, as well as help students obtain EMT certification and prepare for the entrance exam to the Faculty of Medicine.
Each summer, the internship and the research fund contributes to covering the subsistence costs of students who make unpaid or underpaid internships or research. The recipients worked with a variety of organizations.
“These experiences eliminate financial obstacles and help students strengthen trust, gain mentors and increase professional networks,” says Hoffman.
Jeff Heatherington: a life of leadership and service
Heatherington’s own trip started in Willamette. Major in political science, he was also chief of class song and was Barney Bearcat, the original Mascot of Willamette.
After having founded Familycare Health in 1984, Heatherington spent more than three decades to revolutionize care centered on the patient in Oregon. Familycare Health was Oregon’s leading health plan to integrate physical and mental health models and the first coordinated care organization in the Tri-County region certified by Oregon Health Authority.
Oregonian has appointed Familycare Health as one of the main state workplaces from 2012 to 2017. In 2013, Heatherington led an initiative to pay primary care physicians at commercial prices, reduce overall costs and strengthen the importance of patient relations.
Familycare Health created the Heatherington Foundation for Innovation and Health Education in 2014.
Heatherington has sat on many advice, including the Willamette former board of directors, the Oregon Health Council, Oregon State Bar Disciplinary Board, Oregon Symphony, Western of Health Sciences University and American Osteopathic Foundation. He was executive director of osteopathic doctors and Oregon surgeons for 30 years and is founder of the Pacificathic-West Pacificathic College. He was also International President of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.
Heatherington holds an honorary diploma from Western University of Health Sciences, a distinguished service certificate from the American Osteopathic Association, a life production prize for the American Osteopathic Foundation, a distinguished quote from the old and a Sparks from Willamette.
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Today, his philanthropy reflects a desire to help prepare future leaders who are creative and curious to solve problems for the health sector.
“My political science teachers in Willamette taught me how systems work and how to ask good questions,” he said. “I hope that students today get their diploma with the same earth, so that they can become confident leaders who make a difference in the world.”