U.Va. Nursing School to Host Carlos Cortés, Consultant to 'Dora the Explorer' and 'Go, Diego, Go!'

March 20, 2009 — On Wednesday, Carlos Cortés will come to the University of Virginia School of Nursing to offer a presentation, "A Frame for Looking at Diversity: Implications for Nursing and Healthcare," to be followed by a poster session and reception before he presents his one-man play on diversity, "A Conversation with Alana: One Boy's Multicultural Rite of Passage."

The events will be held in the McLeod Hall Auditorium. The first presentation will begin at 2:15 p.m. and the one-man play will begin at 4:15.

Cortés is known as a compelling speaker for audiences of all backgrounds. The public is invited to attend; RSVP to rcb9b@virginia.edu.

Cortés, professor emeritus of history at University of New Mexico, is widely recognized as an authority on diversity and its implications for education, government, mass media and the private sector. He is the author of "The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity" and "The Making – and Remaking – of a Multiculuralist," in addition to several film and television documentaries. He is the cultural and creative consultant behind the children's television series "Dora the Explorer" and "Go, Diego, Go!"

His one-man play was written for his daughter to explain his own growing up in Kansas City in the post-World War II era. Cortés' father was a Mexican Catholic whose wealthy family came to the United States when he was 11 to escape the Mexican Revolution. His mother was the daughter of working-class Jewish immigrants who came from Ukraine and Austria.

The presentations are sponsored by the U.Va. School of Nursing's Diversity Committee.

About the University of Virginia School of Nursing

The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5 percent in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report magazine; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the school has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. The newly opened Claude Moore Nursing Education Building and upcoming renovation of McLeod Hall allow for an enrollment increase and expansion of the Clinical Simulation Learning Center and the Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry. Dean and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing Dorrie Fontaine is the former associate dean for academic programs at the University of California San Francisco and a past president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. For information about the U.Va. School of Nursing and its programs, visit www.nursing.virginia.edu.

— By Jane Ford

Media Contact