Lourdes Fernandez

I was born and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico. My father was a family practice physician and general surgeon. Since my childhood, I was exposed to hospitals and medicine and worked for several years in a private family hospital as nursing supervisor where I learned nursing skills and supervisory skills. I came to United States in 1981. In 1990 I decided to return to work, and because I had obtained nursing skills while working in a hospital in Mexico, I wanted to work in healthcare. I became a Certified Nursing Assistant at Cochise College and started working as nurse’s aide at the Douglas Hospital. Months later, I attended trainings to be a Labor and Delivery/Maternity Tech and Emergency Room Tech. In 1997, I started working as a Public Health Aide with Cochise County Health Department of Health where I was providing education and home visits for pregnant women. Since 1999 to this day, I have been working with the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health (Arizona Prevention Research Center) as an outreach worker and supervisor of Community Based Participatory Research Projects that were carried out in Cochise County. Working in the hospital and as an outreach health worker has taught me a great deal about the health needs of the community of Douglas and I felt the need inform members of this community about the health services available to prevent major health problems in the future. My passion is to help members of my community and inform them what is available for them in health, social, education and other services. I am always thinking that a healthy community is a prosperous community.