Dr. Norma Martinez Rogers, Ph.D., RN, FAAN is a clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Systems, where she has developed mentoring programs to enhance the success of nursing students and bring diversity into the ranks of the nursing profession.
In 2022, Dr. Martinez Rogers was selected as one of six extraordinary nurse leaders designated as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing. The Living Legends are regarded as remarkable luminaries who have leveraged innovation, science, and leadership to take nursing to new heights.
She was selected in 2011 by the National Diversity Council as one of 20 “Most Powerful and Influential Woman of Texas.”
In 2000, Dr. Rogers began a mentoring program called Juntos Podemos (Together We Can) with 20 students and a $5,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In 10 years, the program has served nearly 2,400 students, including more than 200 each semester.
In fall 2010 she received a $900,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand the mentoring program to encourage nursing students to extend their education into graduate school, ultimately to enter nursing education, research and leadership.
The same year she also received a $500,000 grant through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to initiate a mentorship program based on Juntos Podemos in nursing schools in three states through the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, an organization she led as president from 2008 to 2010.
In addition to her past leadership of the NAHN, Dr. Rogers is serving in numerous local, national and international leadership roles:
- Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (commissioner)
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health’s Movilizandonos per Nuestro Future (steering committee)
- Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (steering committee)
- Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments (steering committee)
- Congressional Hispanic Caucus (member)
- Committee on Jail Population and Mental Health Issues (member)
- National Association of Hispanic Nurses (president, San Antonio Chapter)
- William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College (visiting professor)
- Pfizer Inc. (advisory board member)
- Diversity Advisory Board (member)
- Gannett Healthcare Group (advisory board member)
- American Hospital Association’s Commission to End Health Disparities (board member)
- National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurses Association (executive board member)
- Hispanic Health Care International (reviewer)
- National Institutes of Health/Child and Family Research, Building Sustainable Community-Linked Infrastructure to Enable Health Science (external reviewer)