Honoring Garwick’s vital role in center leadership

The Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs celebrated the contributions of Ann Garwick, who recently retired after 30 years of service at the University of Minnesota. Garwick’s work has always included a strong participatory action approach, with an aim to listen to and understand the needs of those we serve in the community.

In 1998, Garwick and colleagues published a now-highly cited paper titled, Families’ Recommendations for Improving Services for Children with Chronic Conditions, where they reported the results of in-home interviews with 63 families of children with chronic conditions. A core recommendation from families was to improve the training that health care professionals, families and the public receive about chronic conditions and their management. These findings and Garwick’s other community-engaged studies have informed the ongoing efforts of the center over the past 27 years. Initially funded in 1993 by a Maternal and Child Health Bureau nursing training grant, the center focuses on training future nurse leaders to provide culturally-sensitive, family-centered care.

As core faculty for that training grant and as director of the center from 2007-2019, Garwick had a vital role in supporting the specialized preparation of over 250 graduate students for leadership roles in the care of children and youth with special health care needs and their families. We are so grateful for her deep expertise, her unrelenting commitment to families and children, and her compassionate leadership of the center.