Santa Maria receives FNINR President’s Award Dean honored for her work with youth experiencing homelessness
Diane Santa Maria, dean of Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, received the 2026 President’s Award from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research on Oct. 7. She was among those honored during the organization’s NightinGala at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
This year, the President’s Award recognized sustained contributions to nursing research and significant impact on the improvement of the health of marginalized populations.
Since 2019, Santa Maria has served as principal investigator on more than $10 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health for research into HIV prevention, substance use, and improving the lives of homeless and unstably housed youth. She is currently leading studies funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. (Learn more about her research.)
“I am honored and thankful to receive this award, but more importantly, I am grateful to the Friends of the NINR for their support and advocacy of the important research being done by nurse scientists all across the nation,” said Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, ACRN, PHNA-BC, FSAHM, FAAN.
Santa Maria serves on the Science Advisory Council of the American Academy of Nursing, the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the NIH, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine’s board of directors, and as director of the Developmental Core of the Texas Center for AIDS Research. She is The Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair and the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership.
