Aaltonen receives lifetime achievement award
Pamela Aaltonen in 2015 became the first non-physician to receive the Tony & Mary Hulman Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service from the Indiana Public Health Foundation. The award is the highest honor the foundation bestows.
Aaltonen, associate professor and associate head of the School of Nursing, has served as chair of the Indiana Public Health Association twice and is a founding member of the Indiana Association of Local Boards of Health. She also has chaired the Great Lakes coalition of state public health associations. As president of the Tippecanoe County Board of Health, she helped lead its movement to become among the first accredited health departments in the state.
Aaltonen also served as the 2016 chair of the executive board of the American Public Health Association. (See Purdue Nurse, Summer 2015, “Aaltonen Elected Chair of National APHA Board.”)
She has participated in many significant projects during her decades of service. She led the completion of APHA’s strategic plan to focus on making the United States the healthiest nation, supported the initiation of a webinar series on racism and health, developed a comprehensive state public health workforce development plan, and completed an analysis of preparedness among Indiana local health departments for public health threats and crises. Aaltonen credits her collaboration with many other talented public health colleagues with the success of these projects.
Aaltonen says public health appeals to her because it involves people of all ages and walks of life. A moment during her junior year at St. Olaf College set her on her future career path.
“I had a home visit in a tough part of town with the pregnant girlfriend of the head of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang,” she says, but her fears melted amid a remarkable experience. “The couple was so eager to learn and hungry for good information. You never know what you will encounter in public health, but you must approach every opportunity with an open mind and interact with people where they are currently, not where you assume they are.”