VIA Times Filipino American Lifestyle and Culture in the Greater Chicago Area
Dr. Clarita Go Miraflor, PhD, RN, CHCQM is the Founding President of the Philippine Nurses Association of America, an organization established 35 years ago that “Provides a strong unified voice to support and advocate for all Filipino nurses in their quest to promote positive professional nursing image and provide quality and compassionate health care in the United States.”
Dr. Miraflor hails from Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, graduating Salutatorian from Agusan High School. She received her BSN, magna cum laude from Manila Central University; M.Ed. and Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago; and Certificate on Organizational Leadership from Harvard University.
Dr. Miraflor completed her Exchange Visitors Program at Cook County Medical Center, taught at Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing and Wesley Passavant School of Nursing all in Chicago, Illinois. The family moved to Southern California where Dr. Miraflor was tendered Director of Faculty Development at LAC/USC College of Nursing.
In 1987, Dr. Miraflor recognized that healthcare organizations needed quality comprehensive managed care services. With her husband/entrepreneur Manny Miraflor, they established Miraflor and Associates, a consulting company, California BRN CEU provider and professional supplemental staffing agency providing case/quality/risk management, medical/legal reviewers and bill auditors.
As Adjunct Professor, she taught leadership and management, legal implications and economics in health care at Cal State University – Los Angeles, University of La Verne, Chapman University, West Coast University; and a summer program on Global Health at Oxford University, United Kingdom. She has been a speaker in the local, national, international circuit, and through her company provided CEUs for nurses and doctors with travel studies to Western and Eastern Europe, Holy Land, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico and the Philippines, with most CEU offerings held in local and select US cities.
Dr. Miraflor is the recipient of numerous awards, honors and commendations from Filipino organizations and mainstream groups. In addition, she was reference in several articles, doctoral dissertations, and an award-winning book. In 2009 Minority Nurse article “Directing Our Destiny” Dr. Miraflor was quoted: “The price of silence is high,” says Miraflor. “We couldn’t turn our heads the other way. We had to direct our own destiny.” This positive attitude gave birth to the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA) in 1979!
In the book, Empire of Care, Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy mentioned the June 1974 American Nurses Association Convention where a resolution would have “Removed the preferential status of foreign nurses.” Dr. Miraflor as President of the PNA of Chicago characterized the resolution as nativist and racist: “The implicit racism and know-nothing attitude that permeates this resolution has no place in our profession which prides itself upon its dedication to the service of mankind.” This resolution was overwhelmingly defeated.
On January 16, 2014 at Manila Hotel, Philippines, Dr. Miraflor’s dream of unifying Filipino nurses around the world through educational conferences (articulated in a videography at the 32nd annual PNAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas in June 2012) was realize with the First Global Summit of Filipino nurses around the world, representing 12 countries from the five continents. The visionary nursing leaders from PNAA, PNA Inc., ADCPN, ANSAP Inc. and the Philippine Commission on Filipino Overseas sponsored this significantly historic and inspirational event!
Dr. Miraflor is enjoying her retirement years with her husband of 55 years, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They provide Ministry Services at St. Theresa’s Church in Palm Springs, California. As one of the Distinguished Awardees of the “Twenty Most Outstanding Nurses of Greater Los Angeles,” Philippine Heritage Founder Naomi Armada stated, “Dr. Clarita Miraflor has so much to give not only within the world of Nursing, but to the whole world made richer by people like her.”
