El Centro College - Alumni Profiles

Sylvia Moreno, R.N., B.S.N.
Director of HIV Services, Parkland Hospital

"Community college gave me everything I needed to take and succeed in classes for an advanced degree." As a child, Sylvia Moreno spent a lot of time accompanying her beloved grandmother Luz, a diabetic, to the doctor. "I became interested in nursing when I saw there weren't many bilingual staff at the hospital," she says.

Intent on becoming a nurse, she began El Centro's program but found that weaknesses in math and science pushed her back into developmental classes. "I had to take some classes twice to pass," she says. But she persevered, earned her associate degree and transferred to UTA, where she earned a bachelor's degree in nursing while working full-time. "Community college gave me everything I needed to take and succeed in classes for an advanced degree," she says.

In 1986, she was named director of nursing and HIV services at Parkland, where today she supervises a staff of about 80. "I really have two jobs in one," she says. "As nursing director, I oversee the department, its budget, personnel, patient issues and performance improvement; as grants manager, I help bring in the more than $5 million annually it takes to fund it."

Passionately devoted to community service, Sylvia has chaired several local health organizations, including the AIDS Interfaith Network and the Dallas Concilio of Hispanic Service Organizations. Each year, she volunteers her skills to HELPS International as a member of its Guatemala Medical Relief Team. "My medical mission work goes right to the roots of my nursing career," she says. "The people there have no resources, no technology, and most have never seen a doctor in their lives." She also regularly makes presentations on AIDS-related topics to organizations around the globe, lecturing to professionals across the United States and in Brazil, Thailand, Spain, Mexico and Greece.

But to Sylvia, the source of her inspiration comes not only from within but from her grandmother, now gone but never forgotten. "Today, I would tell her 'I'm not finished,'" she says. 'I'm still looking for ways to make things better for the community and for people who are suffering and need help.'"

For Sylvia Moreno, it all began here.