What inspired you to join Project ECHO? 

I was completing my master’s degree in community health nursing and pursuing my diabetes educator certification. I was invited to participate in a diabetes-focused ECHO training for community health workers, and I was immediately drawn by the opportunity to scale impact. 

Usually, community health nurses work with individuals and small groups, but we rarely have the opportunity to build capacity and to bring increased knowledge and skills to all of the people that they connect with.  

That exponential impact is what drew me to Project ECHO. I wanted to do work that benefitted the greatest number of people. ECHO seemed like the perfect opportunity to go large. 

How does your background prepare you for this role? 

One of my most valuable contributions at ECHO is bringing a multidisciplinary perspective. As a master’s-trained community health nurse and diabetes educator, I understand how to support the design of community-based interventions—that has been really valuable.  

I love having the opportunity to support our partners in designing their programs; and thinking about how the ECHO Model can amplify the impact of what they’re already doing—or what they’re aiming to do. I really love that kind of collaborative thought process. 

What’s one moment at ECHO you’re especially proud of? 

I’m really proud of a project we just completed: adapting and translating the community health worker training into Spanish, specifically for promotoras (community health workers) in the border region of New Mexico. That was the first time that we delivered the training in Spanish.

We graduated 42 promotoras and they’re now positioned to be certified as diabetes specialists with the New Mexico Department of Health. I’m really pleased with that collaboration and with the replication of the program for cultural context. 

What excites you most about the future of ECHO? 

I’m most excited about the idea of continuing to grow as a global organization. I’ve been involved in supporting our growth in Latin America. These salt-of-the-earth people are doing ECHO all over the world. It makes me really excited to think about what we can co-create because we have some of the most talented, warm-hearted people at the table. It’s just beautiful to think about what we could do together. 

During COVID, I came back to Project ECHO, after time away, to be part of the global response. I just feel like ECHO is such a valuable tool because it can be applied to whatever challenge is most urgent at the time. Any situation where expertise is focused on a small number of people and we need to make that more broadly available: that’s an ECHO. That’s a lot of opportunity, right? It’s never-ending. 

What do you enjoy outside of work? 

I enjoy New Mexico. I’m definitely an outdoor person; I love skiing, hiking, walking my dogs, growing my garden, spending time with my kids and my family outside. I feel really blessed to live in a state as beautiful as New Mexico.  

To connect with Andrea Zurawski, find her on LinkedIn. To learn more about Project ECHO in Latin America, read our stories.

Featured Image: Zurawski enjoys the mountains of northern New Mexico. Photo Credit: Jeremy Lewis, September 2024.