Associate Professor
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL
Rosina Cianelli, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (UM SONHS). Dr. Cianelli is a nationally and internationally recognized expert with an impressive research funding record in her area of expertise: improving women’s health among vulnerable populations in the U.S., Chile and Haiti. Her findings have advanced knowledge and effected policy changes with regard to HIV prevention among underserved Hispanic women. Dr. Cianelli has led studies to decrease maternal/newborn mortality in Haiti funded by WK Kellogg Foundation and Pan American Health and Education Foundation. As part of her international work, she also led a study, funded by the NIH/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, to provide mental health services to Haiti’s disenfranchised populations after the 2010 earthquake. She has developed an innovative online evidence-based breastfeeding training program based on the UNICEF/WHO breastfeeding curriculum to promote maternal and child health and decrease child nutrition health disparities, with a focus on minority mothers and children. Dr. Cianelli is currently an investigator at the NIH/NIMHD-funded UM SONHS Center of Excellence for Health Disparities Research: El Centro, which advances the scientific development of culturally-tailored interventions to improve the health of groups who experience health disparities. In addition to her current mentorship of SONHS nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, Dr. Cianelli is President of Sigma Theta Tau International’s Beta Tau chapter and has served as a faculty mentor for STTI’s and Johnson and Johnson’s Maternal-Child Health Nurse Leadership Academy. For her leadership in nursing science and nursing education, Dr. Cianelli was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2008 and in 2012, was recognized as Nurse of the Year in the category of Clinical and Academic Education by the March of Dimes, South Florida Chapter. She has co-authored 40+ professional English and Spanish-language publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals as well as books, book chapters and monographs. She is an active member of multiple local, national and international committees that serve the interests of disparity groups and advance the health of minority populations. Dr. Cianelli earned her undergraduate degree in Nursing and Midwifery from the Universidad Católica de Chile (BS, 1979), a master’s in Public Health degree from the Universidad de Chile (MPH, 1986), and received a PhD in nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago (PhD, 2003).