Newly inducted AARP president Jennie Chin Hansen, RN, MS, FAAN, has never been one to accept the way things are, especially when it involves sub-par treatment of people. Her whole career has been focused on moving beyond conventional wisdom and advocating, in particular, for seniors.

Hansen, who was raised in Boston as a first-generation American of parents born in China, attended what is now the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. She entered just before the sweeping societal changes of the late 1960s, when women were encouraged to pursue either teaching or nursing. Fortunately, Hansen had an affinity for science, and was immediately drawn to the human side of nursing. She completed her bachelor's degree in nursing in 1970, and headed to UCSF for a graduate nursing program.

Foray Into Community Nursing

Hansen became a staff nurse in one of the first neighborhood health centers in San Francisco established under the federal Office of Economic Opportunity. She chose to venture into community nursing after exposure to hospital nursing in college. “It was about the culture of hospitals then, and how [poorly] nurses, nursing students, and other nonphysicians were treated,” Hansen says. “That's why I ended up going into the community so directly.”

Hansen's early career also involved rural nursing in farming and logging communities near Moscow, Idaho. “I cared for the whole age span, from prenatal to old people,” she says. “I was taken with the [older] side of the age continuum, with its fierce sense of both independence and dignity.”

Shaping Public Policy

Her evolution as a senior advocate and eventual policymaker continued when she joined On Lok, a nonprofit community health organization in San Francisco. She began as a research associate and eventually became CEO, spending nearly 25 years there until 2005.

Hansen, who has since taught nursing at San Francisco State University, gained invaluable experience when she and other colleagues took the On Lok model to the federal level as a prototype for PACE, the Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly. “We were able to literally change Medicare and Medicaid law [in 1997] so that this model became available in all 50 states,” Hansen says. “It was an effort that came from the community and changed public policy. So often, it happens in the reverse.”

Challenge and Triumph

Hansen faced personal challenges early on when her first husband died from malignant glioma. At the time, their son was just 14 months old. She later married a man who had been her son's second-grade teacher. They have been married for 16 years, and her son is now 32.

On May 6, in what is perhaps the culmination of her career so far in advocating for seniors, Hansen became the youngest and first Asian-American AARP president when she was inducted at age 59. She reflects the changing demographics of the 40-million member AARP, of which one-third are baby boomers. The new position perfectly suits her desire to enact change. “I always think about making a difference and having a social impact,” Hansen says.

Other than being the first blogging AARP president, Hansen will focus on three core themes: the role medications play in older people's health, fall prevention, and encouraging important conversations about such issues as end-of-life preferences.

Always the advocate and change maker, Hansen's message to nurses is to exercise courage and the use of tools in order to be effective care advocates. “Often we get moved around in healthcare systems by other people who make decisions. [But] we don't need to ask to be at the table,” Hansen advises. “We need to create our own tables to shape the way healthcare should be now and in the future.”