29 Facts About Wieke Paulusma

Wieke Paulusma was born on 5 December 1978 and is a Dutch health professional and politician for the social liberal party Democrats 66, who has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election.

Wieke Paulusma started her career as a nurse and worked as a health care manager.

Besides, Paulusma served on the Groningen municipal council between 2014 and 2021.

Wieke Paulusma was born in 1978 in Emmen, a city in the province of Drenthe, and grew up in the nearby village of Odoorn.

Wieke Paulusma's parents were teachers, and they raised her in the West Frisian language.

Wieke Paulusma has two younger brothers, and the family attended a Reformed Protestant church.

Wieke Paulusma attended the secondary school Hondrus College in Emmen at vwo level and subsequently studied at the School of Nursing, part of the Groningen Hanze University of Applied Sciences.

Wieke Paulusma was trained in nursing at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht.

Wieke Paulusma started her career as a district nurse for Thuiszorg Groningen, working there between 2003 and 2007.

Wieke Paulusma then served as a partner at MAD Multimedia and a senior account manager at Storm Marketing Consultants.

Wieke Paulusma returned to health care in 2011, working as manager at Thuiszorg Icare, and became a manager at the University Medical Center Groningen in 2013.

Wieke Paulusma worked as a manager and project leader at Treant Zorggroep in 2017 before becoming a district nurse again the following year at TSN Thuiszorg.

Besides her job, Wieke Paulusma has been serving as the chair of the board of directors of the International Film Festival Assen since 2019 and as the secretary of the three-person board of directors of Stichting Lutje Geluk, which makes it possible for financially strained families to go on trips, since its formation in 2018.

Wieke Paulusma was inspired to go into politics by Els Borst, D66 leader and Ministers of Health, Welfare, and Sport, and joined D66 in 2012.

Wieke Paulusma was elected to the Groningen municipal council in the 2014 municipal elections as D66's eighth candidate.

Wieke Paulusma had decided to run for office because municipalities had been given more health care responsibilities, and she therefore deemed it necessary for people with experience in that field to be in the municipal council.

Wieke Paulusma was one of the organizers of a G1000 conference, which was held in Groningen in June 2015.

Wieke Paulusma was one of the initiators of a cooperative district council with members chosen through a lottery in her own district, the Oosterparkwijk.

Wieke Paulusma had been inspired by a similar council in the London Borough of Lambeth.

Wieke Paulusma advocated banning smoking in places such as playgrounds and schools.

Wieke Paulusma was re-elected in November 2018 as D66's second candidate.

Wieke Paulusma helped organize the campaign Raad zoekt Vrouw to get more women elected to the Groningen council, for which she received the 2017 inspiration award from D66's Els Borst Netwerk.

Wieke Paulusma won the European Innovation in Politics Award for Democracy in 2019 for her work on the cooperative district council.

Wieke Paulusma left the municipal council in April 2021 after her election to the House of Representatives.

Wieke Paulusma ran for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed fifteenth on D66's party list.

Wieke Paulusma became her party's spokesperson for curative care, mental health care, assisted living for people with psychological and psychosocial issues, caregivers, medicine, and war victims.

Wieke Paulusma defended her party's position to keep open the option of instating a 2G policy, under which only vaccinated or recovered people are allowed to enter certain places, to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wieke Paulusma led D66's campaign during the May 2024 European Parliament election.

Wieke Paulusma has a husband, and they have a son and a daughter.