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CON Home Our Stories Alumni Stories Eugenia Millender

Eugenia Millender, Ph.D., RN, PMHNP-BC, CDE, FAAN

Eugenia Millender

Eugenia Millender, Ph.D., RN, PMHNP-BC, CDE, FAAN is currently the Co-Founding Director and Associate Director of the Center for Population Sciences and Health Equity at Florida State University. She is also an Associate Professor at the College of Nursing, Florida State University. In 2014, she founded the Florida Atlantic University Christine E. College of Nursing Nurse-led community health center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The center is grounded on caring philosophy and dedicated to increasing access to quality and culturally sensitive integrated care for underserved populations while serving as a vibrant laboratory for current and future practitioners and scientists.

Eugenia was inducted into the 2021 Class of Fellows in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). Induction into the academy is a significant milestone in a nurse leader’s career in which their accomplishments are honored by their colleagues within the profession.

Her research program investigates ways to reduce mental health disparities related to stress and trauma among indigenous and vulnerable populations. She works with grassroots organizations and interdisciplinary teams to understand how depression, anxiety, stress and trauma are expressed through gene-environment interaction.

Born in Panama, Eugenia immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 12. They moved first to New York and then on to South Florida. After graduating from high school in West Palm Beach, she enlisted in the Army and spent the next six years stationed around the globe. While in the Army, she took classes wherever she was stationed and eventually earned an Associate of Arts degree from the College of Lake County in Illinois. After her enlistment, Eugenia returned to Florida and enrolled at FAU, completing two degrees in nine years.