The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing and The Nebraska Medical Center will host Nilda Peragallo, Ph.D., as its 18th Visiting Nurse Scholar April 17 and 18.
During her visit, Dr. Peragallo will consult with and make presentations to medical center faculty, staff and students, as well as to members of the health care community following a community reception in her honor.
She will present a lecture, “Thinking Big: Building Your Career Trajectory,” on April 17 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the College of Nursing, room 1010. It also will be broadcast live to: CON Lincoln Division, room 205; CON Kearney Division, room 144W; and the CON West Nebraska Division in Scottsbluff, room 205.
Dr. Peragallo is one of the nation’s foremost researchers in HIV/AIDS risk reduction and prevention in Latinos. Since 2003, she has served as professor and dean of the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies.
While growing up in Puerto Rico, Dr. Peragallo dreamed of becoming a doctor. At a community meeting, Dr. Peragallo’s mother was proud to tell the only doctor in town that her daughter also wanted to be a doctor. The doctor looked down at the child and said, “That little girl will never be a doctor.”
Those words changed her life.
Ironically, many years later the same doctor who told her she would not succeed was rushed to a hospital in San Juan after suffering a heart attack. Dr. Peragallo was the doctor on duty that night and saved his life.
Dr. Peragallo also is recognized internationally for her leadership in the areas of health disparities, cultural competency, and the recruitment and retention of minorities in nursing. She is the immediate past president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and co-editor of Hispanic Healthcare International.
Dr. Peragallo was recently appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve on the National Advisory Council to the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Dr. Peragallo holds a joint appointment in the department of epidemiology and public health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.