Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations

01/01/2026

Wishing you a new year filled with happiness, health, and wealth.

12/22/2025

Happy holidays to all of you! We'll see you again in 2026!

11/27/2025

10/15/2025

Ruby Groves is an undergraduate student at Williams College. Her active participation in the Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations Society for Medical Humanities led to her becoming a Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations Research Intern at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, working with Professor Glyn Elwyn on qualitative research on Shared Decision Making.

10/04/2025

This is a very special ‼️

It is a privilege and an honor to announce the names of the Dartmouth College seniors awarded The Eric Eichler '57 Fellowship for Healthcare Leaders for 2025-26.

Congratulations to all of these future leaders in healthcare!

09/19/2025

Building life-long relationships is one of the best things about participating in Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations’s programs. We have just heard from Liesbeth Verheijen, a member of the Dartmouth class of 2024, who joined us in 2023 as a DHF Society for Medical Humanities member and completed the Eichler Fellowship in 2024. It seems that some things she learned with us are sticking and having a positive impact on how she approaches her work in medicine.

“My experience as an Eichler ‘57 Fellow opened my eyes to the importance of the intersections of medicine and the humanities in healthcare. These lessons inspire how I interact with the healthcare field now and throughout my gap year. I was lucky enough to spend the past year working as a Clinical Support Aide at Family Health Center of Worcester, MA, a federally qualified community health center. There, I worked alongside patients and their families to address their unique medical and social needs. To do this, I translated the concepts of collaborative patient interactions, comprehensive health care, and cultural humility that were introduced to me as a Fellow into action by listening to patients, forming connections, learning their stories, and working together toward solutions. These experiences helped solidify the idea that caring for a person humanistically and holistically is equally important as treating the illness at hand. I am eager to continue building upon these experiences as a first-year student at Washington University School of Medicine and beyond, as I pursue a career as a future physician!”

is lucky to have you, Liesbeth—congratulations!

09/05/2025

It's gratifying to build connections with the DHF Society members and to celebrate with them when exciting things happen in their lives. Zara Kiger, Dartmouth class of 2025 and Eichler Fellow, shared with us that she was awarded a Fulbright Grant. Congratulations Zara!

"Through the Fulbright Grant, I will be working as an English Teaching Assistant in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain, in a secondary school and a primary school. I am excited to build relationships with the students and community, grow in cross-cultural understanding, and to continue to improve as a teacher! I am also excited to find a band there to join and play music with. I hope to attend medical school next year. I am grateful to have learned valuable skills from Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations and the Eric Eichler ’57 Fellowship for Healthcare Leaders. I learned how to lead with compassion, stay attuned to individuals, and think from both a systems and community-based perspective. It has also encouraged me to bring my passions (teaching, music, and meditation) into my medical career, and I can't wait to see what this looks like!"

09/01/2025

Happy Labor Day to everyone out there working to make ends meet or working to make the world a better place and everything in between. This is your day. Enjoy it.

offices are closed today in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

08/29/2025

DHF alumnus Katy Axel completed her Master of Public Health at the Geisel School of Medicine in June and will begin medical school at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School this fall. We were lucky enough to catch up with her between endeavors. Here is what we found out about this amazing thriver and striver:

During the MPH graduation celebration, she was inducted into the Delta Omega public health honor society. She also received recognition for her year-long independent research project, which focused on value-based pharmacy benefit design for self-insured employers. Building on her professional experience in the healthcare industry, her work explored data infrastructure and learning system strategies to help large payer groups make more clinically informed coverage decisions.

Katy first joined Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations as a fellow during the 2020–2021 academic year—a time when all programming was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Returning to campus in person during her MPH year was especially meaningful. She greatly enjoyed reconnecting with the DHF community, attending seminars in person, and engaging with current fellows. She credits the program with helping to shape her systems-level thinking and reinforcing the importance of ethical and empathetic innovation in health care.

During medical school, she plans to integrate her background in health policy and population health into her clinical training, with a focus on improving how primary care is delivered and experienced across diverse care settings.

Go get 'em Katy. We are all honored to have been part of your journey and to see how you are applying the knowledge you acquired while participating in Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations and the Eichler Fellowship.

08/22/2025

We recently asked former Eichler Fellow and DHF Society member, recent Dartmouth College graduate, Mia Balestra what she's been up to since graduation in May. She isn't wasting time, that's for sure. Here what she has to say:

"I was awarded the Dickey Center Postgraduate Fellowship in International Affairs for my research aimed at understanding how the Harpswell Foundation has worked to empower Cambodian female university students over the past 20 years. This foundation has the only existing model of providing housing, supplemental education, and a lifelong support network to university women in Southeast Asia, tackling the main obstacles preventing women in rural provinces from attending university. Harpswell fosters a confident and supportive environment where the women work to become leaders and changemakers in their communities. My research focuses on understanding and improving this existing model to better suit the needs of the women in this evolving time. I am working and conducting research in Phnom Penh, where the foundation is based, and the rural provinces around the country where the women are from. Although this work is reflective of my Anthropology major, Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations helped me develop my ability to support and understand people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, each with perspectives different from my own. I am learning a lot about Khmer culture, picking up some Khmer words, and loving getting to know all of these amazing women. When I return to the United States, I plan to work in healthcare, and this experience will help me daily when I am tasked with supporting and caring for others who are different from me. I thank Dartmouth Healthcare Foundations and my experience in the Eichler ’57 Fellowship for Healthcare Leaders for giving me the confidence to do this project."

07/11/2025

Congratulations to Meredith Thomas, D'25, for completing the Eichler Fellowship for Healthcare Leaders requirements! She is proud to share her capstone project with all of you, a poem entitled "Shadow Work."

07/04/2025

Happy Independence Day! Commonly known as the Fourth of July, it is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

Our offices are closed today in observation of the holiday. Please celebrate safely this weekend!
Manish, Elizabeth, and Lisa