May 14, 2008

Contact:
Ken Ma
NSU Office of Public Affairs
954-262-5354 Office
954-830-4177 Cell
kennma@nova.edu

Florida Department of Health Secretary Ana Viamonte Ros to speak at Nova Southeastern University’s Health Professions Division Commencement

FT. LAUDERDALE-DAVIE Fla. -- Florida Department of Health Secretary Ana M. Viamonte Ros, M.D., M.P.H., will serve as commencement speaker at NSU’s Health Professions Division’s graduation on Sunday, May 25.

The ceremony, where 674 students will receive their degrees, will be held at 1 p.m. at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise. Graduating students come from the colleges of dental medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy and medicine sciences.

Viamonte Ros is the first woman and Cuban American to serve as secretary of the Florida Department of Health and Florida’s first surgeon general. She was named to those positions by Gov. Charlie Crist in January 2007.

During her career, Viamonte Ros was affiliated with Armor Correctional Health Services, where she organized and monitored health care delivery services at Florida’s prisons and oversaw the development of medical discharge programs. She has traveled with a team of medical professionals to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to help prevent the spread of HIV among inmates.

Viamonte Ros earned her medical degree from the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and her master of public health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

She has also volunteered her time with programs such as the Camillus House Homeless Initiative in Miami, the Health Through Walls International Health Outreach and the Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain, Mass.