Amparo Gonzalez, RN, CDE, FAADE, is the program director of the Emory University School of Medicine Multicultural Diabetes Education and Professional Diabetes Education programs in Atlanta, Ga. She is a published author and recognized speaker on the subject of diabetes care and education. She serves as an adjunct professor in the School of Nursing at Emory University and is completing a Master of Public Health degree at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.
Ms. Gonzalez is from Barranquilla, Colombia, where she completed her undergraduate studies in nursing at Universidad del Norte. After immigrating to Georgia in 1987, she furthered her nursing career and developed a passion for diabetes education, her area of specialty since 1992. She has practiced diabetes education in inpatient and outpatient settings, and now in the realms of academia and research, providing care for the underserved at the community level.
She developed Emory's Multicultural Diabetes Education Program, which is offered in both Spanish and English and incorporates a variety of models to address the needs of the clinics and practices that implement it. She also created the Emory Diabetes Education Training Academy, offering a variety of diabetes training programs for physicians, mid-level providers, nurses, dietitians, physical therapists, diabetes educators, and clinical support staff.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health appointed her as a member of its Region VI Health Equity Council. She also has served as a faculty member of the U.S. Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute since its inception in 2007. She is the founder and president of the Global Institute for Health Solutions, a strategic alliance with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research that offers a platform to share best practices and solutions to challenges faced by providers managing chronic conditions. Since 2007, she has been a member of the advisory board of Peers for Progress, a program of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation that addresses the global diabetes epidemic by promoting peer support programs around the world.
Ms. Gonzalez is chair of the Program Advisory Council for the second Congreso Internacional de Educación en Diabetes of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), to be held in Mexico City in 2012. She also serves as advisor to diabetes educator groups and associations in Latin America and lectures to groups such as the American Diabetes Association, AADE, the Mexican Association of Diabetes Educators, the Spanish Federation of Diabetes Education, the European Federation of Diabetes Nurses, Asociación Colombiana de Diabetes, the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the Healthcare Georgia Foundation.
Ms. Gonzalez, an AADE fellow, served as president of that organization in 2008 and was the 2010 recipient of its Allene Van Son Distinguished Service Award. The Atlanta Business Chronicle recognized her in 2002 as a Health Care Hero for her work with Latinos with diabetes.
Diabetes Spectrum deputy editor Alison B. Evert, MS, RD, CDE, coordinated this From Research to Practice section.
