Valued Voice

Christopher JohnsWith the first Eric Borgerding Health Care Advocacy Internship ending, the WHA Foundation Board met to evaluate the work of its inaugural intern, Christopher Johns.

The internship was set up after the retirement of former WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding as a legacy to his 27 years of service to Wisconsin hospitals. The scholarship was created by the WHA Foundation and funded by the generous donations of WHA members, individual health system and hospital leaders and WHA corporate partners listed here.

Johns was selected from a competitive pool of applicants for the 15-week internship which began in February and ended in May. During his time at WHA, Johns was able to help with various important activities at WHA, ranging from managing and scheduling Advocacy Day visits with WHA members and state legislators, researching complex federal health care policy and law, cleaning up WHA's grassroots database, joining WHA's Advocacy efforts on the "Next-of-Kin" legislation and meeting state and federal lawmakers.

His internship culminated with a presentation to the WHA foundation board covering the broad range of his work at WHA, after which, the members present unanimously recommended him for the full $5,000 scholarship.

"Christopher made valuable contributions to WHA and its members during his internship," said WHA Vice President of Federal Affairs and Advocacy Jon Hoelter. "He exemplified WHA's commitment to advocacy and was always willing to take on the tasks we asked of him. He set a high bar for future WHA government relations interns to follow."

Christopher graduated from UW-Madison in May and has already started another internship at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in New York; after which, he is considering attending law school, with an interest in health care policy and law.

"It was truly an honor to be part of the WHA team as the very first government relations intern. I am extremely grateful for the skills the WHA team helped me develop during my time here and am very thankful for the scholarship award. WHA has left a lasting impact on me and has only fueled my excitement to continue pursuing a career in health care law, and potentially advocacy," said Johns.

WHA is in the process of recruiting a new intern for the 2026 fall semester. Interested applicants may contact Jon Hoelter.