What matters to me

It is easy to say that citizens, residents, service users, patients or clients are at the centre. It appears in missions, visions, policy documents and strategic agendas. Precisely because of that, it can also become an empty phrase.

In practice, people’s lives do not fit neatly within the boundaries of a single service, scheme, organisation, municipality or system. Their questions and problems often cut across the structures we have created. And that is exactly where friction arises.

That is not always a matter of unwillingness. Organisations have tasks, responsibilities, boundaries and mandates. Professionals need room, clarity and the right conditions to do their work well. Sometimes the organisation, the team or the collaboration first needs to be strengthened before citizens, patients or clients notice the difference.

But in the end, the question must remain: who are we doing this for, what difference does it make to them, and does it still work in practice?

That is the question I want to keep working on.

What I can offer you

I care about the field I work in. About organisations where people are not only concerned with today and tomorrow, but also with what is needed in the longer term. Where innovation and creativity are not just words but lead to workable choices. And where people work together on something larger than their own department, organisation or system.

If that is what you are looking for too, I can be of value to your organisation.

I bring direction, structure and momentum to complex challenges in healthcare, public health, science and social policy. I do this as an interim change manager, senior programme manager, strategic adviser or executive director. I have experience in executive leadership, line management, programme management and collaboration at governance level. This means that I can not only advise or develop plans and strategies, but also (temporarily) take responsibility for people, organisation, decision-making, implementation and results.

My strength lies in connecting substance with progress. I am good at seeing new possibilities, but I also know that renewal only has value when it is credible at governance level, practically feasible and meaningful for citizens, patients, professionals and organisations. Change asks something of all parties involved: listening and speaking openly, giving space and taking responsibility, moving with others and sometimes setting boundaries.

That is what real collaboration asks for.

When friction arises, things become interesting

I am drawn to complex issues, but not to unnecessary complexity. When policy, practice, governance, research and people meet, it often becomes clear what is really going on. That is where challenges emerge that do not fit neatly within one department, one organisation, one municipality or one system.

I tend to look beyond the question first asked. Problems rarely stop at the organisational boundaries we have created. That is true for social issues, governance and collaboration, and organisational development, but also in public health, care, prevention and social vulnerability.

Sometimes the first step is simply to understand what is really going on. Who does what? Who is responsible for what? Where do expectations, interests and systems get in each other’s way? Only then can I see whether something needs to change, or whether what is needed is mainly clarity, alignment and workable agreements. And sometimes something that has been avoided for too long first needs to be put into words, so that collaboration can become professional, clear and workable again.

I am curious, creative and persistent when the purpose is clear. And yes, sometimes stubborn enough to keep asking what is needed to make it work. Good intentions only matter when they also hold up in practice.

Something extra: Euregional and European expertise

I have worked extensively in Euregional and European collaboration. For me, that experience is also a way of looking at concrete societal issues, including public health, care, prevention, data, the labour market, mobility and crisis response.

Working across borders has taught me to look beyond familiar frameworks. In border regions, it quickly becomes clear that policy, funding, responsibilities and practice do not always line up. What makes sense within one system does not necessarily make sense within another.

I also bring that perspective to national, regional and local issues. It helps me recognise system boundaries, make assumptions explicit and keep looking closely at how things work in practice, and where value is actually added.

That combination has become part of how I work. Not as a trick or technique, but as a perspective.

Looking with an enquiring mind

I have an enquiring mind. I want to understand how something really works. Why do we do it this way? For whom does it work? Where does it stall? And why does something continue to exist, even when everyone can see the friction?

My PhD research on cross-border public health reflects that same way of thinking. In it, I connect qualitative and quantitative research with policy, practical experience and governance. The central question is how public health issues can be made workable between different systems, for example in infectious disease control, municipal and European policy, citizen participation, dementia, late-life depression, risk behaviour and collaboration.

That is also how I approach projects and assignments. In areas such as digital pathology, homelessness and emergency accommodation, prevention, collaboration between organisations and European programmes, I look for the point where substance, people, structure and practice come together. Often, that is where it becomes clear why something works, stalls or needs to be organised differently.

Professional foundation

My professional foundation lies in nursing, health sciences, public health, research and collaboration at government level.

I studied Nursing at Hogeschool Enschede/Saxion, a university for applied sciences, and Health Sciences at Maastricht University, specialising in Health Policy, Economics and Management. I also completed Lean Black Belt certification, WHO Leadership Training and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and training in Theme-Centred Interaction, with a focus on leadership, group dynamics, group processes and collaboration.

As executive director of euPrevent, I was responsible for strategy, organisational development, staff, funding, programmes, partner relations, and reporting and accountability to boards, partners and funders. I also have extensive experience in programme management, European collaboration, strategic governance advice, research and knowledge infrastructures, and collaboration between policy, research and practice.

Roles and networks

My work often takes place between organisations, regions, sectors and systems. Over the years, I have therefore not only led programmes and carried out assignments but also invested substantially in professional networks and structures for collaboration.

I have done this at different levels: regional, Euregional, European, governance, programmatic and operational. For example, as a representative of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion in the WHO Regions for Health Network, as initiator of the WHO Collaborating Centre at Maastricht University, as a member of the management team for an Academic Collaborative Centre for Public Health, through networks such as EUREGHA and AEBR, and through my long-standing advisory work on European collaboration for Lower Austria.

Closer to practice, I have also worked for many years on collaboration and programme development, including for Huis voor de Zorg, now Burgerkracht Limburg. This combination suits me: moving between governance, policy, research, practice and wider society.

For me, networking is not about collecting contacts. It is about understanding who needs whom, where interests overlap or clash, and how collaboration can be organised so that it leads to something concrete.