Biography
My career has consistently focused on promoting diversity and equity within marginalized communities. Prior to my career in medicine, holding a Master's in Intercultural Relations with a background in cultural competemility training, I collaborated with Dr. Alex Green and Dr. Joseph Betancourt at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop online cultural training programs for healthcare providers, focusing on understanding and demystifying cultural beliefs and norms. This work highlighted the underrepresentation of Latine professionals in healthcare and inspired my NP career.
As a doctorally prepared Nurse Practitioner (NP), I have dedicated the past 13 years to serving marginalized patients facing barriers such as food and housing insecurity, inadequate transportation, lack of dependent care, and low health literacy. I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of these barriers on health disparities. Early in my NP career at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, I leveraged my shared cultural background to create a patient-informed, multilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic) exercise and dietary wellness program providing hands-on diabetes self-management education. The program was well-received, and patients reported increased confidence in managing their diabetes through diet and exercise efforts.
At Boston University/Boston Medical Center (BMC), in the Pulmonary Department, I've witnessed how these disparities manifest as advanced lung disease, including COPD and poorly controlled asthma, often stemming from limited access to preventive care, social determinants of health, low health literacy, and challenges navigating the healthcare system. With mentorship from Dr. Hasmeena Kathuria and Dr. Fred Little, and in collaboration with community health worker (CHW) Jinesa Howard, MPH, I developed a COPD readmission reduction program that successfully decreased hospital-wide COPD readmissions to 17.9% by addressing patients' social determinants of health. Dr. Kathuria's subsequent study validated this innovative NP/CHW model, which included increased patient touchpoints and resources to reduce barriers to care. This led to mentorship requests from other hospitals, educational presentations on addressing COPD patient needs (including nicotine dependence), and secured funding for educational resources. With this funding, we created accessible (English and Spanish) educational videos and handouts on inhaler techniques and nicotine replacement therapy, which are now used to educate patients, providers, and staff.
As a member of the Pulmonary Sleep team, I expanded my work beyond COPD to treat patients with Chronic Respiratory Failure across various etiologies, including restrictive lung diseases, neuromuscular conditions, and sleep-disordered breathing. With the mentorship of Dr. Eric Heckman, together we Co-Direct the Chronic Respiratory Failure clinic and provide inpatient consultations to optimize patient care and ensure smooth transitions to post-discharge follow-up.
As a Trained Tobacco Cessation Specialist, recently appointed Co-Director of BMC's Tobacco Dependence Treatment program, I work alongside fellow NP Cornelia Wakeman, Dr. Lauren Kearney, Dr. Zack Rich, Parixit Kathwadia, MPH, and Jennifer Margolis, MPH to provide smoking cessation education and therapy to the more than 400 patients admitted monthly with a history of tobacco use and those needing follow-up care. We provide counseling via telehealth and in-person visits, with referrals from within BMC and community health centers. Recognizing that our BMC patient population is disproportionately screened for lung cancer due to inaccurate data on tobacco use and screening criteria, we have teamed up with Dr. Katrina Steiling’s Lung Cancer Screening team to address gaps in knowledge through various community events where we engage with patients and answer questions using our “piggy lungs” to promote education and vape and smoking cessation. Our goal for the new year is to offer nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) training to colleagues across the health system to increase provider comfort with prescribing NRT.
Dr. Gallardo Foreman recently obtained her Doctorate in Nursing with her scholarly practice project focused on creating a culturally sensitive survey to assess a patient with long COVID and their interest in participating in an in-person or online Pulmonary Rehabilitation program. She received her Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate Nursing degrees from Regis College. She also holds a Master's in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University and has a background in writing training programs to promote cultural awareness among healthcare providers. She is a member of the Boston University Medical Group and Pulmonary Department’s Diversity and Inclusion committees and an active member of the Advanced Practice Providers Department of Medicine workgroup. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and a member of the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners.