Our Story

A strong foundation ensures our strong future.

An Innovative Initiative

The Lunder-Dineen Health Education Alliance of Maine (Lunder-Dineen) was founded in 2011. It is a collaboration between the Lunder family, the Lunder Foundation, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

This innovative initiative offers free education tailored to address Maine’s most critical health issues. Our vision is to improve the health of Maine residents by expanding their health knowledge and by advancing the skills and expertise of Maine health professionals.

Lunder-Dineen works with leadership at healthcare organizations across settings as well as the front line interprofessional health care teams. Then we work with experts from across Maine to create educational programs that bridge those gaps. All of our programs are offered at no cost to participants. And our team provides hands-on support to ensure the benefits of our education are sustainable. This offsets costs and time that practices and health systems often cannot afford to invest in during the current times.

Our programs demonstrate that health education and ongoing professional development are effective tools.

Health professionals who complete our education are better equipped to deliver enhanced care.

Practices and health systems that participate in our education can train, retain, and support a skilled workforce.

Experience & Leadership

Mass General offers its experience and leadership in clinical care, development, educational design, research, technology, and more. Lunder-Dineen is proud to bring Mass General’s resources and the expertise of its staff home to Maine.

A Visual History Of Lunder-Dineen

Take a look at some of the milestone moments that helped define our initiative over the last ten years. This visual history demonstrates how Lunder-Dineen worked to develop a program model, address specific public health needs, build relationships across Maine, and cultivate our three signature education programs.

2010
September
On September 14, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Lunder family, and the Lunder Foundation sign the agreement that created our initiative—the only one of its kind nationwide between a large academic medical center and a neighboring state.
October
The initiative takes its original, temporary name of the James J. Dineen, MD Maine Health Education Partnership.
2011
February
Our co-chairs create an internal task force at Mass General to build a planning and staffing model for the initiative.
June
The task force creates a governance structure, establishes our Operations Committee, and authorizes two full-time staff positions. Our first hire was our Senior Program Manager Denise O’Connell, MSW, LCSW, CCM, CCP.
September
We launch our website at www.lunderdineen.org to build toward our goal of providing accessible education for Maine.
October
Lunder-Dineen Co-Chair Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, DNP, NEA-BC, FAAN leads a presentation to OMNE Nursing Leaders of Maine, the largest professional nursing society in Maine, to demonstrate our commitment to nurses in the state.
2012
January
We establish our official name, logo, mission, and vision. Our name, the Lunder-Dineen Health Education Alliance of Maine in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, is chosen to honor our unique partnership model and honor longtime Mass General internist James J. Dineen, MD. The three united lines in the icon represent the Lunder Foundation, Mass General, and Maine.
May
We enlist the help of a market research firm to help conduct a formal statewide needs assessment on education gaps and learning preferences.
September
Lunder-Dineen holds its official launch event at the Paul S. Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation in Boston.
October
A picture from an October 8 meeting at Maine Medical Center is our first-ever social media post. It began our use of social media to engage the health care community in Maine.
2013
March
Lunder-Dineen releases the data from its statewide needs assessment in a report called The State of Health Care Education in Maine.
April
Lunder-Dineen hits its goal of meeting with leaders from every single hospital in Maine.
May
Lunder-Dineen sponsors a series of community events in Maine, titled Theater of War, to raise awareness of posttraumatic stress and its impact on veterans and their families. The events feature famous actors such as Zach Grenier and Mare Winningham.
June
Lunder-Dineen welcomes more than 100 philanthropists, business leaders, and health care experts to our first fundraising event, held at the Portland Museum of Art.
September
Lunder-Dineen works to have Nursing Grand Rounds from Mass General broadcast to hospitals in Maine at no cost.
October
In response to the bath salts epidemic, we work with experts in substance use disorders from Mass General and the Bangor, ME, bath salts response team to create and distribute a pocket guide for all first responders in Maine.
December
Our catalog of CME/CE-certified online courses grows to 50+, with topics across geriatrics, nursing, psychiatry, veterans’ health, and more.
2014
February
We identify three important topics of public health need in Maine where gaps in education exist and commit to creating education on these topics: nursing preceptorship, oral health in older adults, and unhealthy alcohol use.
April
Our work is well under way building interprofessional Advisory Teams to guide our education programs on our three important topics.
May
Lunder-Dineen sponsors Matter of Duty, a documentary from Maine Public that tells the stories of veterans who face struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after their deployments.
June
With input from our Advisory Team and other stakeholders, we choose a name for our oral health initiative – MOTIVATE: Maine’s Oral Team-Based Initiative: Vital Access to Education.
September
Building on prior work by the Maine Partners in Nursing Education and Practice, Lunder-Dineen finalizes plans for a 2015 launch of the Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program.
October
With input from our Advisory Team and other stakeholders, we choose a name for our unhealthy alcohol use initiative – Time to Ask.
2015
January
Lunder-Dineen receives a six-figure gift in support of our MOTIVATE program from The DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement.
March
With the help of Cliff Singer, MD, and Roger Renfrew, MD, Lunder-Dineen launches an area on our website with resources to help health care professionals in Maine provide care to individuals who suffer from dementia.
April
Experts from our MOTIVATE initiative lead a breakout session at Maine Quality Counts’ QC2015 conference as we seek to establish partnerships for the initiative.
October
The Lunder-Dineen team attends the DentaQuest Oral Health 2020 Network Meeting in New Orleans and presents a short session about its MOTIVATE initiative to oral health experts from across the country.
November
We launch an online educational tool for our Time to Ask initiative that offers content on the risks of unhealthy alcohol use. The videos feature John Kelly, PhD, associate director, Center for Addiction Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital.
2016
March
Lunder-Dineen Chief Learning Officer Gino Chisari, RN, NPD-BC, DNP, presents a session at York Hospital on Nurse Bullying: Enough is Enough.
April
Our Time to Ask initiative launches a new tool with content on the risks of unhealthy alcohol use. The videos features Mark Publicker, MD, FASAM, a Maine-based addictions expert.
August
Our MOTIVATE initiative launches at two pilot sites with Maine Veterans’ Homes in Augusta and Scarborough. Pictured is MOTIVATE Advisory Team member Nancy Foster, CDA, EFDA, RDH, EdM.
October
Experts from our MOTIVATE Advisory Team appear on Maine Calling to discuss how the initiative benefits Maine.
December
Our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program surpasses 300 total participants from more than 50 organizations in Maine.
2017
April
Lunder-Dineen and members of the Time to Ask Advisory Team write a column in the Bangor Daily News on the need for effective screening in Maine around alcohol use.
June
Experts from our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program Advisory Team appear on Maine Calling to discuss nursing workforce challenges in Maine.
July
The Lunder-Dineen team presents a podium presentation in New Orleans on multigenerational learning during the Association for Nursing Professional Development National Convention.
August
As part of our MOTIVATE program, Lunder-Dineen provides more than 1,700 oral health kits to residents in long-term care settings in Maine.
September
Time to Ask Pilot Advisory Team member Shawn Yardley, BSW, MBA, and Time to Ask advisor John Kelly, PhD, lead a segment on recovery for The Pulse Morning show on WZON AM 620.
2018
February
We redesign the curriculum for our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program to include clinical nurse educators.
April
Time to Ask Pilot Advisory Team member Noah Nesin, MD, FAAFP, and Lunder-Dineen Senior Program Manager Denise O’Connell, MSW, LCSW, CCM, CCP, appear on ABC-Fox 22 to discuss the impact of alcohol use in Maine.
June
Lunder-Dineen creates a pocket guide on alcohol use interventions and sends it to all primary care practices in Maine.
September
Members of our MOTIVATE Advisory Team, including Demi Kouzounas, DMD, appear on Maine Calling to discuss how to maintain good oral health in older adults.
November
Lunder-Dineen sponsors a free interprofessional event for the community in Machias on Chronic Disease and Oral Health: Relationships and Disease.
2019
April
Our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program expands to include school nurses and public health nurses.
June
The national newsletter for the American Dental Association highlights our MOTIVATE program and the work of Advisory Team member Leonard Brennan, DMD.
October
Our MOTIVATE program launches at The Cedars in Portland for more than 200 staff.
December
Our Time to Ask program launches at Katahdin Valley Health Center in Northern Maine for more than 200 staff.
December
Time to Ask Advisory Team member Mark Publicker, MD, FASAM, helps lead an excellent Maine Calling episode on binge drinking in Maine.
2020
February
Our MOTIVATE program exceeds 700 total staff trained in long-term care settings.
April
Our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program receives endorsements from American Nurses Association-MAINE (ANA-MAINE) and OMNE Nursing Leaders of Maine.
July
Our Time to Ask program exceeds 200 total staff trained at locations that serve 24,000 patients.
November
Our Maine Nursing Preceptor Education Program exceeds 900 total learners from more than 90 organizations. It also transforms into a fully virtual blended-learning program.
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  • 2020

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