Tides project director to study policy and health equity in Maori and Pacific communities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Lloyd Nadal

lnadal(at)canfit.org

PHONE: 510-644-1533

www.canfit.org

January 2010, Berkeley, CA—Arnell J. Hinkle, RD, MPH, executive director of CANFIT, has been awarded an Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy. Ms. Hinkle will be one of five Axford fellows based in Wellington, New Zealand from February – September 2010.

Ms. Hinkle’s project, Policy Implementation for Health Equity: Examining Healthy Eating-Healthy Action(HEHA) in Maori and Pacific Communities, will determine the level of engagement of local indigenous and immigrant communities, particularly low-income communities, in the implementation of the government’s HEHA campaign, and assess the food systems and built environment of Maori and Pacific Islander communities.  The resulting policy report and community case study will be disseminated in New Zealand and the United States.

“I am very honored to receive this award and look forward to working with the Ministries of Pacific Island Affairs and Maori Health in New Zealand” states Ms. Hinkle. “I will build upon my experiences working with communities of color in the U.S., and take the lessons learned from New Zealand to help develop policy strategies to eliminate health disparities in both countries.”

Established in 1995, the Axford Fellowship, administered by the Fulbright Office, New Zealand, gives outstanding American professionals the opportunity to study, travel, and gain practical experience in public policy in New Zealand. It gives the recipient fellows first-hand knowledge of economic, social and political reforms, and management of the government sector.

The goals of the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy are:

• To reinforce New Zealand/United States links by enabling Americans of high intellectual ability and leadership potential to spend time in New Zealand to gain experience and build contacts in the field of public policy development;
• To help improve the practice of public policy in the United States and New Zealand by the cross-fertilization of ideas and experience in the two countries; and
• To build a network of public policy experts on both sides of the Pacific, and encourage ongoing policy exchange between New Zealand and the United States.

As founding executive director of CANFIT, Hinkle has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including a Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader Award (2003), and an American Public Health Association’s Mary C. Egan award (2007).  She recently served as a Food and Society Policy Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

For more information on the Axford Fellowship:  http://www.fulbright.org.nz/awards/am-ian-axford.html.

To learn more about Tides project CANFIT, see www.canfit.org.