Meet Our President

Veronica Vital, PhD, MSN, MLS, RN
President, National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN)

Dr. Veronica Vital has 26 years of nursing experience in academia, research, pediatrics, women’s health, and community health. She completed her Master of Legal Studies in 2021 and PhD in Nursing in 2013 from the University of Arizona. Dr. Vital received her BSN in 1998 and MSN in 2005 from Arizona State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Alverno College.

Dr. Vital has been a member of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) since 1997 and she is the current President of NAHN. Throughout her capacity as a NAHN national leader, she served on the Board of Directors for seven years as the Bylaws Committee Chair and the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee Chair. Additionally, she served a term as the Nominating Committee Chair. Locally, Dr. Vital served multiple terms as President and Vice President of the Phoenix Chapter. She successfully led NAHN national initiatives in Phoenix such as the MueveteUSA project; Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA); All of Us Research Program in Latino Communities; and Pfizer Vaccine Partnership. She also co-led the Mentorship Academy.

Dr. Vital is dedicated to advancing health equity and addressing health disparities. She is a nursing champion and serves on community advisory boards addressing health inequities locally and nationally. Dr. Vital serves as an Executive Committee member for the Nurses on Boards Coalition and is a Board of Director for the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Association (NCEMNA). Dr. Vital is also a member of the Steering Committee for the National Minority Health Alliance and she severed on the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services: Advisory Committee on Minority Health for the Office of Minority Health.

Dr. Vital was the recipient of the 2022 March of Dimes Arizona Distinguished Nurse of the Year Award, 2020 March of Dimes Arizona Nurse of the Year Award: Outpatient/Community and Public Health, the R.A.I.N. Beatrice Castigalia-Catullo Founders Award Honoring Women of Influence in 2017, and the Profiles of Success 2014 Latino Excellence in Health & Sciences Award.

Meet Our Immediate Past President (2021-2024)

Adrianna Nava, PhD, MPA, MSN, RN

Dr. Nava is an advocate for increasing access to care for underserved populations. As a registered nurse, she witnessed firsthand how access-related disparities led to poor health outcomes, especially for racial/ethnic minority groups. In serving her patients, she saw an opportunity to contribute to decreasing Latino health disparities by building the leadership capabilities of nurses. She currently serves as the President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and is focused on building the leadership capacity of nurses, specifically Latino nurses, who continue to be underrepresented in nursing and health care leadership positions across the country. 

Dr. Nava has a MPA’20 from Harvard University; PhD’19 in Nursing and Health Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston; a MSN’11 in Health Leadership and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania; and a BSN’09 from Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing. She is currently a Performance Measures Research Scientist at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) in Washington, DC and a 2023-2024 Visiting Scholar at Emory Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta, GA. Previously, she was in a nursing leadership role as the Chief of Quality at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL.
 
For her leadership within the domains of Veteran and Latino Health, Dr. Nava has been awarded: the Top 25 Emerging Leaders of 2023 by Modern Healthcare; the 2022 American Nurses Association President's Award; the 2021 Humanitarian Award from The Hispanic Star; the 2021 President’s Award from the Latina Style Magazine; the 2020 VA Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Nursing from VA Boston Healthcare System; the 2020 U.S. Latino Leadership Fellowship from Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership; the 2017 Outstanding Alumni-Excellence in Leadership Award from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing; the 2017 NAHN’s 40 under 40 Recognition Award; the 2016-2018 PhD Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar Award; the 2014 Community Education Service Award from AARP-IL; and the 2009 Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholar Award. 

Dr. Nava represented NAHN at The White House for a Nurses Appreciation Week roundtable discussion in May 2022 and at the signing of the Executive Order on Strengthening Access to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid in April 2022. 

Under Dr. Nava's leadership, NAHN grew in many important ways: