Caroline E. Ortiz, MS, MPH, RN, NC-BC, Associate Professor – Holistic Nursing Program, Pacific College of Health and Science

Growing up bicultural and bilingual along the U. S.-Mexico border in the Texas Rio Grande Valley, Caroline encountered a myriad of perspectives on health. As the daughter of a nurse, she took her medicine and followed the doctor’s orders. As the granddaughter of a Mexican woman, she drank her herbal teas, submitted to body sweepings with an egg, and followed the recommendations of the local curandera. Now with over 25 years of nursing experience, Caroline’s work, which has been shared locally, nationally, and internationally, centers on promoting individual and community health through holistic approaches. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in Holistic Nursing at Pacific College of Health and Science and a doctoral student at Villanova University. Caroline is apprenticing in curanderismo, the traditional Mesoamerican medicine from Mexico, and researching the use of traditional medicine by Mexican American women living in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. This path has brought her back to where she started… navigating life with a foot in two worlds.