Maria Saldiva, DNP,MSN,BSN,RN

A profession in nursing that spans over 20 years, with a focus on the health needs of underserved populations in domestic and global settings. While attending UTEP, working in Las Colonias, I realized that community health would eventually be my life’s work. After a move to San Antonio, TX upon graduation, my career began as an RN in a community hospital. Following a move to Austin, TX, I was employed in occupational health, providing nursing care in progressively expanding health and safety leadership positions.  For the last 15 years, I have been working in community health, providing care to vulnerable populations, such as HIV/AIDS care, refugee/immigrant care, and working with patients experiencing homelessness, in leadership, nursing and advanced practice nursing positions. I completed an MSN program in FNP at UTMB Galveston in 2012 and the DNP program at UT Austin in 2018.  The main objective of my DNP project was to deliver a 2-week public health immersion program for graduate students in Costa Rica, that continues today.  Since 2019, I’ve been an Assistant Clinical Professor, teaching in the graduate nursing program and as an FNP in the Wellness 360 Clinic at UT Health SA.  I chose the School of Nursing, due to its dedicated focus on addressing health disparities, making health care culturally, geographically, and financially accessible to under representative populations of Texas.  As a DNP-prepared educator, my leadership vision is a focus on the integration of evidence-based health care in the improvement of patient health care outcomes; lifting barriers to care by addressing health disparities; and educating future advanced-practice nurses. I am in a unique position of positively affecting the journey through the health continuum of individuals, communities, and populations due to our professionally established comprehensive, holistic approach to health care.