A new dean of the UNC School of Nursing took over last Thursday. Among the many things she hopes to accomplish – reducing the shortage of nurses in the state.

After more than 13 years serving as a dean at the University of Miami, Nilda Peragallo Montano has joined UNC as its new dean of the School of Nursing. It’s an opportunity that she says she’s excited to take on.

“It’s a different environment, but very welcoming,” the new dean said in an interview just before Thursday’s ceremony. “There’s a lot of things to do and to move forward and the talent that we have here with the faculty and the students are incredible.”

She says she’s got a long list of to-do’s – she wants to get acclimated to the state and figure out what its needs are. But she says her number one priority is to reduce the shortage of nurses.

“We have to do something to educate more nurses. To be able to do that, we have to meet the need for faculty. Which, there’s a shortage of faculty in nursing.”

Peragallo Montano has worked on this goal in a variety of capacities throughout her career. She has served as president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. She has been a professor of nursing at universities all over the country. She even co-founded a publication dedicated to international Hispanic health care.

But she says there’s still more to do.

“We have to leverage resources. And we have to figure out new ways of producing revenue and making a case for people to assist us in getting there.”

Peragallo Montano succeeds Donna S. Havens, who has served as interim dean since 2014.

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