Zandra Perez: Nursing Latinos to Health

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Although she wasn’t allowed to speak Spanish growing up, Zandra Perez’s grandmother made sure she knew her roots by helping her become bilingual.

Perez also draws on her faith and believes in the value of all lives.

As such, Perez is working hard as a nurse to provide quality care for underserved Latinos.

She earned her nursing degree from the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and is currently one of two educators working to recruit rural area clinics to participate in eradicating tuberculosis by screening and treating for latent tuberculosis.

Perez hopes to educate her patients on the importance of health screenings and preventative care.

So she applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program, which recruits 25 master’s-level students and professionals for a five-day Summer Institute to promote doctoral degrees and careers studying Latino cancer. Éxito! is led by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez at UT Health San Antonio, with support from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

“[Éxito!] sparked the interest again of wanting to pursue my PhD,” Perez said.

Editor’s Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2016 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply now.