Antonia M. Villarruel

Antonia M. Villarruel, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Director of the School’s WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership. As a bilingual and bicultural researcher, Dr. Villarruel has extensive research and practice experience with Latino populations, health promotion, and disparities. She currently co-leads the NIH-funded Philadelphia Community Engagement Alliance to address COVID-19 Inequities (CEAL), a coalition to optimize the rollout and real-time evaluation of interventions focused on COVID-19 disparities across diverse populations within the Philadelphia region. Dr. Villarruel is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; she serves as Chair of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Culture of Health Program Advisory Committee, Chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows Subcommittee for the Selection Review Process and Co-chair of the Strategic Advisory Council of the AARP/RWJ Future of Nursing Campaign for Action. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2021 Health Care Leader Award from the American Academy of Nursing and the Ohtli Award from the government of Mexico. Dr. Villarruel earned an M.S.N. from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Ph.D. in nursing from Wayne State University.