59th MDW civilian named AFA's Outstanding Civilian Program Specialist of the Year

by Staff Sgt. Christopher Carwile
59th Medical Wing Public Affairs

11/6/2014 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas  -- Each year the Air Force Association selects one Air Force civilian to receive the Outstanding Civilian Program Specialist of the Year Award. This year that award went to Nancy Hansen from the 59th Medical Wing at the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center.

Hansen is a restoration technician and certified clinical anaplastologist assigned to the 59th Dental Training Squadron.

According to the AFA website, the nominees are judged based on the "nature of their achievement, development of techniques or procedures that significantly increased mission effectiveness and breadth of impact."

Among her laundry list of accomplishments, Hansen and her team, have improved the lives of more than 1,400 patients (to include wounded warriors and trauma patients) through creating custom prosthetics. She has also provided world-class health care valued at more than $1.1 million dollars making her an instrumental part of the medical wing's prosthetics program.

"Our mission and goal is to help give those service members and wounded warriors a little bit of what they lost," said Hansen. "Hopefully, our work can help restore their self-image and give them some confidence."

In addition to her work providing direct patient care in the clinic, Hansen also helps educate and train future providers and technicians.

Hansen has lectured Air Force and University of Texas Health Science Center residents on maxillofacial and dental prosthetics. She is also credited with creating the first-ever facial prosthetic hands-on training used in the Medical Education Training Campus and joint dental laboratory technician training.

Although she's received awards at the squadron, group and wing levels; and has been featured in publications such as Airman Magazine and Air Force Times; the true honor for Hansen is being able to care for the patients.

"It is an honor to treat our patients, especially our wounded warriors," Hansen said. "I consider it a privilege to be able to help them in their recovery."