Dr. Lisa Fiorentino Named New Director of Center for Rural Health Practice at Pitt-Bradford

Dr. Lisa Fiorentino, associate professor of nursing, has been named the director for the Center for Rural Health Practice at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, which will enable the center and the nursing program to collaborate on projects.

She succeeds Dr. Youmasa Siewe, who left the position for health reasons.

Fiorentino, who also serves as director of the nursing and radiological sciences programs at Pitt-Bradford, will continue in those roles and to teach nursing. Her dual roles in the nursing programs on campus and with the center will allow both programs to work more closely with each other. For example, this spring a nursing student will be assisting with research for the Northwest Pennsylvania Adolescent Alcohol Research Cooperative, which is conducting research into rural adolescent drinking patterns.

“There are so many opportunities here for collaboration,” Fiorentino said. “I really enjoy the challenge. This is a great model of interdisciplinary cooperation.”

Fiorentino has served on the Pitt-Bradford faculty since 1985. She most recently completed a Master of Arts degree in anthropology from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, where she also earned her doctorate and a Master of Science in Nursing.

In addition to her teaching duties, Fiorentino stays fit by ice skating and teaching ice skating as a physical education class at Pitt-Bradford.

The Center for Rural Health Practice is a collaboration of Pitt-Bradford and the University of Pittsburgh. Its current programs are the adolescent alcohol study and a program to bring Pitt medical students to Bradford for a family medicine rotation in a rural health setting.

Past projects for the center have included providing training for emergency responders throughout the state, performing community health assessments and coordinating a research site for the Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia.

Fiorentino said she and the staff are currently brainstorming ways to provide rural health education and identifying potential partners for those projects.

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