Tim, RPT & Mary Nielsen, MSN, RN
Tim completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Psychology in Iowa in 1976. He then attended Physical Therapy School at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. Mary attended college in Minnesota earning a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing. They met during school in Rochester, marring and moving to Montana right after graduation in 1978.
Tim has spent most of his career owning a PT practice that specialized in orthopedic and musculoskeletal patients. After 40 years, he just retired in September 2017. Mary has worked in direct patient care, management, and over the past 25 years, in academia as faculty and then Nursing Program Director at Missoula College. She will finish up her 40 year nursing career March 2018 after completing her work with the HealthCARE Montana TAACCCT 4 grant. They will then see where life takes them knowing Africa will continue to be a big part of this new adventure.
Since 2009, Tim and Mary have made six medical mission trips to Sakila, Tanzania, leading the teams since 2011. They just completed a trip in May - June of 2017. The focus of the visits has changed from providing care and assistance in the Sakila Clinic setting, to becoming a mobile clinic where each morning they travel to outlying villages of northern Tanzania. These experiences have touched every emotion from being enlightening, spiritual, sad, joyful, humbling, and educational. It never fails that they return having gained so much more than they gave. The culture, the love of the people, the needs and the lack of even some of the basics of nutritional food and good water are experiences beyond words. Mary presently serves as the president and Tim as the treasurer of the New Hope International Hospital Board, which is the supporting organization for the Sakila Clinic. Their plans are to continue and possible increase their time and relationships in Sakila, and the surrounding communities long term