Cindy Sickora is currently the Vice Dean of Practice and Engagement at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio School of Nursing. Dr. Sickora has held nursing leadership positions for more than 35 years. Much of her career has focused on healthcare delivery in underserved communities in Newark, NJ, and most recently, South-Central Texas. As an educator she has focused on the social determinants of health, health equity, racial inequity in health, marginalized populations, community engagement and interprofessional education in community-based settings. As a nursing leader she has influenced public policy on childcare and was responsible for establishing the first nurse managed federally qualified health center in New Jersey.

In South Central Texas, Dr. Sickora developed a seven-million-dollar self-sustaining academic nursing clinical practice that serves a population of more than 100,000 college students in Bexar County Texas, more than 1,000 foster children in eight rural counties in South Central Texas and a practice that serves as an academic site for nursing education. Dr. Sickora provided nursing leadership for the UT Health COVID response for which she received the President’s Award for Clinical Excellence. Her team delivered 154,000 vaccines, over 100,000 COVID tests and fielded over 30,000 calls.