ICN Elects New President
Geneva, Switzerland, 3 June 2005 - Hiroko Minami, outstanding nursing leader in Japan and internationally, has been elected as the 25th President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). The election took place in the context of ICN's governing body meeting-the Council of National Representatives (CNR)-during the 23rd ICN Quadrennial Congress. Four thousand nurses from more than 148 countries gathered at the Congress, to share knowledge and discuss global healthcare priorities.
Dr Minami, Vice President of the University of Hyogo, will serve as ICN President for the next 4 years. She is immediate past president of the Japanese Nursing Association and Director of the Japanese Academy of Nursing Science. She has worked extensively in psychiatric nursing, education, research, and administration.
Dr Minami played an active leadership role in developing a nursing network system at the time of Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. From this experience, she established the Japan Society of Disaster Nursing to promote disaster nursing in Japan. She also assumed leadership in the JNA activities of supporting disaster victims in Taiwan, Turkey, India, Iran, and countries hit by the recent tsunami disaster.
Nationally, Hiroko Minami is the founder of the first doctoral programme and mental health nursing specialist programme in Japan and has contributed extensively to the development of the nurse specialist systems in Japan. She has received many awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of California, San Francisco, and the Women Helping Women Award from the Soroptimist International of the Americas.
ICN Board of Directors
A new ICN Board was also elected at the Council of National Representatives meeting. The 14-member board will serve for 4 years and includes the following: First Vice-President, Franz Wagner (Germany); Second Vice-President, Rosemary Bryant (Australia); Third Vice-President, Philda Nzimande (South Africa). Members include Edith Allwood Anderson (Jamaica), Dulce Dirclair Huf Bais (Brazil), Beatriz Carvallo Suarez (Colombia), Rudolph Cini (Malta), Anna Karin Eklund (Sweden), William Holzemer (USA), Euisook Kim (Korea), Yves Mengal (Belgium), Julita Sansoni (Italy), Teresa J. C. Yin (Taiwan), Veronika Pretnar Kunstek (Slovenia).