During the event, Peragallo Montano and the SONHS faculty paid tribute to President Shalala’s contributions to the flourishing of both the school and the nursing profession during her tenure as UM’s fifth president. Peragallo referred to Shalala’s leadership as transformational not only for the University of Miami and for the SONHS, but for the nursing field. “President Shalala has been my mentor of the last 12 years, as well as our school’s strongest supporter and biggest fan,” said Peragallo.
President Shalala, in turn, praised the school’s leadership team for the remarkable gains achieved during the last decade. “Dean Peragallo and her dedicated team of faculty showed us how you can take a good school and make it great,” said Shalala. “The SONHS is a model of growth and achievement for the University and the educational community as a whole.”
Among its many accomplishments during the “Shalala years”, the school grew from 431 students in 2004 to more than 850 students today, added a host of new degree programs in nursing and related fields, and in 2014 was ranked first in Florida and 18th nationwide for NIH funding among nursing schools. Meanwhile, President Shalala ‘s Momentum fundraising campaign, the most successful in institutional history, raised funds to build the state-of-the-art M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies, which became the school’s new home in 2006. It was also during this historic era that President Shalala chaired the seminal Robert Wood Johnson Foundation committee that produced the groundbreaking Future of Nursing report which transformed the nursing profession.
