A Notable Honor during Hispanic Heritage Month
Dr. Ruben Parra-Cardona, the CSW Roger and Carol Nooe Endowed Chair, was recently awarded the 2024 National Hispanic Science Network (NHSN) award, which recognizes an established scholar with a research trajectory that integrates science and practice. This award is reserved for scholars with a long-term research trajectory aimed at serving Latinx populations.
As a doctoral student in 2004, Parra-Cardona did not even know what the NIH meant and never imagined himself embracing a career as an academic in the U.S. Twenty years later, he was able to experience the “surreal feeling of holding the NSHN award in his hands” and recognizing the reality of it.
His reflections on the events that led up to this are as follows:
I just experienced the great honor of being awarded by the National Hispanic Science Network. This award is truly special for me at multiple levels. First, NHSN is one of the most prestigious scientific organizations in the world committed to advancing the well-being of Latinx populations through rigorous science. As such, this conference has consistently been sponsored by leading funding institutes within the National Institutes of Health (e.g., NIDA, NIMH), among many others.
Additionally, in one month, I will exercise for the second time in my life the unique privilege of voting in a U.S. federal election. Today, I also feel assured that my daughters’ future is protected, and I only see with true excitement the present and future of my personal and professional lives.
The award ceremony was truly special because Drs. Mary Held and Douglas Coatsworth were by my side when my name was announced. When I reflect on that moment and the incredible honor of being the first Roger and Carol Nooe Endowed Chair at the College of Social Work (CSW), my mind and heart connect with the very honest conversations I had with these friends and colleagues about contemplating a big change in my life by moving from the University of Texas at Austin to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), particularly because I had a well-established trajectory at UT Austin serving in two leadership positions at my school and the university.
Thus, the NSHN award ceremony was a reminder that “Si Se Puede!” (Yes, it is possible). Si Se Puede for an immigrant from Mexico to escalate through the challenging structures of U.S. academics and hold leadership positions. But the most important part is that our achievements as immigrants are not for us but for others. Through my research, I strive to bring culturally adapted parenting interventions to low-income Latinx populations. Those populations work hard every day in construction and many other jobs that U.S. citizens do not want to take. And the hard work of these Latinxs plays a huge part in the quality of life that we, as permanent residents and citizens, enjoy in this country.
As an immigrant, I can do this because I belong to a beautiful academic home at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee that has welcomed me as a family. Work is important at our school, but people and families are always first, and I have experienced that through the amazing and visionary leadership that we have at our school, the incredibly compassionate faculty colleagues who share their dreams with me, our extraordinary staff who are always ready to serve, and our bright students who are embracing the dream of making our world a better place for all. At the end of the day, I am thankful because “Si Se Puede!”
In this month that we celebrate Hispanic heritage, I celebrate the love, solidarity, and inspiration that I experience because of the deep inspiration that my children bring into my life and the ways in which my academic home at Tennessee is supporting me at the college and university levels in truly inspiring ways so I can offer a contribution to my people, but doing so alongside extraordinary friends and colleagues. This is what Hispanic Heritage Month should be all about. Not only about the individual accomplishments of Latinxs, but, most importantly, about the accomplishments that we achieve because we are a close-knit “familia and comunidad” (family and community). Thank you CSW and UTK for being my familia and comunidad. Un abrazo fuerte to everyone!