This interview is with Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, Professor Emerita of Nursing.  After serving as Assistant Dean for Diversity and Cultural Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, she came to Davis in 2011 and retired in 2019. 

Mary Lou is nationally and internationally known for her research on farmworkers, which has focused on the impact of migration on the health and development of Hispanic migrant and immigrant children and families.

She was recruited to UC Davis as a founding faculty member of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.  She also served as Associate Director of The Latino Aging Research Resource Center’s Mentorship Core.

In 2013, she was appointed UC Davis Founding Director of the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS), established to promote women in STEM science, starting with Latinas.

She has received numerous awards and honors including the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Fellowship in Bioethics at Georgetown University, a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship, and recognition as a Top Latina in Health and Science by Hispanic magazine.

She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a fellow of the Western Academy of Nursing. She is a founding member and former president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and co-founder of the Mental Health Nurse Scientist Network of the Americas.

Mary Lou is interviewed by her colleague and cousin, Olivia Campa, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine.