Nilda (Nena) Peragallo, RN, DrPH, FAAN, recently joined the IntraHealth International Board of Directors. Peragallo is one of the nation’s foremost researchers in HIV/AIDS risk reduction and prevention in Latinos, and recognized internationally for her leadership in the areas of health disparities, cultural competency, and the recruitment and retention of minorities in nursing.

Peragalla is originally from Valparaíso on the coast of Chile, and studied nursing and worked as a nurse in Chile and in Germany before she came to the U­nited States, eventually meeting a patient in Orlando, who would change the course of her career. In an interview and blog she shares this pivotal moment and her thoughts on the importance of recruiting diversity into the health workforce.

How HIV Changed Her Career: An Interview with Nilda Peragallo
“It was around 1984, and I was teaching at the University of Central Florida. I had been watching the HIV statistics from CDC. The number of Latino women with HIV was small, but it kept climbing and climbing and climbing. One day, I was at the hospital with the students who were in their senior year, and we were doing clinical rounds . . .  Read More »

How Can We Do Better by American Patients and Health Workers?
For the United States to really meet patients’ needs and continue to offer high-quality care, many things have to change. One of these is education. We need to open the doors in the educational system to, and our institutions need to reflect, the diversity of the population that we live in . . . Read More »

Nilda Peragallo Joins IntraHealth International Board
Nilda (Nena) Peragallo, RN, DrPH, FAAN, has joined the IntraHealth International Board of Directors. Peragallo is dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Miami and . . .Read More »