NVAC Public Member | Term: 2/10/2022 – 2/9/2026
Winona is a former School Health Officer for the New Mexico Department of Health and acting Regional Health Officer for the South-East Region of Public Health, NM Department of Health. After attending medical school at the University of New Mexico, she also completed a pediatric residency there. As a physician she has worked in federally qualified health centers and public health. She worked in community and public health for over 35 years, including nineteen years as a nurse.
The awareness of the importance of vaccines started early in her life. At the age of seven, a cousin died from a disease for which there is now a vaccine. Additionally, her son had a serious hospital stay due to a vaccine preventable disease (although no vaccine was available when he became ill).
Immunizations have been a theme throughout her professional career, whether as a physician or a nurse. The last position she held as a nurse was the program director for a CDC Immunization Demonstration Project in Albuquerque, NM. In that capacity she presented a poster at the National Immunization conference in 1992. The training in pediatrics and her practice as a pediatrician in a low-income area of the largest metropolitan area in New Mexico reinforced the importance of immunization. As part of her work for the New Mexico Department of Health, she has been a member of the Immunization Practice Advisory Council (IPAC) and served on work groups for IPAC. IPAC is a group of public, academic, and private partners working to increase knowledge about immunizations and to improve access to vaccines in New Mexico. Her role as School Health Officer included being part of the Vaccine Advisory Committee (VAC) for the New Mexico Department of Health; the VAC determines the immunizations required for school entry in the state of New Mexico.
