Milagros Pilla, formerly of Thundermist Health Center in West Warwick, RI and current Advanced Practice Provider Consortium National Conference Planning Committee member. In her 19 plus years at THC, she served as Program Manager for both the Primary Care and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Fellowships through four cohorts for each program. On assuming this role back in 2020, a program goal was to achieve national accreditation through the APP Consortium. In under 13 months both programs achieved this milestone through a lot of teamwork, persistence, and commitment. She is grateful for the experience and opportunity to contribute to this process in meeting accrediting national standards and program contractual obligations while balancing operational demands.

Back in 2004 during her time working with then Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy in his district office as Constituent Caseworker she met and worked closely with the team at THC. Their mission and dedication to their community members led her to start her long career at the agency. Her experience with case management and operations was a natural lead into her eventual role in Human Resources as a Recruitment, Credentialing and Privileging Specialist. The role allowed her passion toward the agency mission, and institutional knowledge, a natural setting of inclusion and support to incoming providers. “Being a part of the initial integration into our company, connecting on a human level with kindness and joy in what I do was just a natural way to get to meet anyone where they were and hopefully, helping them acclimate successfully.”

Milagros used her determination and knowledge to foster community relationships which included over 10 years as a board member at West Bay Community Action Agency and three years at MentorRI. Her time at THC included founding and co-leading the agencies first ERG (Employee Resource Group) for those who identified as Latin, were raising a Latin child, or were committed to the groups undertaking. She joined the National Conference Planning Committee back in the summer of 2021. “I am so proud to have been a part of this team especially during such a difficult time in our nation’s recent history. The COVID-19 pandemic had underscored the critical importance of the nursing profession in ensuring the health and well-being of our (Rhode Island) communities. Our programs’ two specialization tracks both met our fellow’s career goals and our health centers’ needs in Primary Care and Psychiatric-Mental Health. The accreditation furthered our efforts in developing our program’s ability to support outstanding clinical quality outcomes, address social determinants of health and health inequity amongst the populations we serve.”