Theresa Agnew, BA, RN, BScN, PHCNP, has had a distinguished nursing career over the past three decades and has contributed significantly to the nursing profession and the health of Ontarians. As a primary health care nurse practitioner, Theresa has worked in a variety of health-care settings including community health centres, northern nursing stations, and student health centres. She was instrumental in developing the nurse practitioner (NP) role in Ontario by assisting in the initial grandfathering process for NPs. Theresa’s expertise and contribution to the NP role were also recognized by her ministerial appointment to the nurse practitioner implementation task team in 2004. Highly regarded for her ability to work with stakeholders to achieve consensus, Theresa was appointed by the Hon. Tony Clement to the board of the Ontario Family Health Network and then to the Family Health Team Action Group by the Hon. George Smitherman. She also served on the board of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario as the sociopolitical member-at-large. She has been involved with the College of Nurses of Ontario as a peer assessor for the quality assurance program. Having served as the past president of Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO), and then as the member relations coordinator, Theresa has recently been appointed NPAO’s executive director.
Theresa has made a sustained and exemplary contribution to the development of the NP role in Ontario, as an expert clinician, advocate, educator, researcher and policy-maker.