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Honoree, Non-physician
Gloria Rivera
Nurse Home Visitor, Nurse-Family Partnership
Gloria Rivera has spent nearly two decades as a nurse home visitor, working with new mothers and babies to ensure they’re getting care.
Since April 2015, she’s worked for the Nurse-Family Partnership, a Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana program.
The program, which was an IBJ Health Care Heroes honoree in 2018, pairs Medicaid-eligible, first-time mothers-to-be with registered nurses who coach them through pregnancy and beyond via home visits through the child’s second birthday.
Rivera serves Spanish-speaking women and their families, providing them with counsel, support and guidance on achieving a healthy pregnancy and birth, and keeping babies safe as well as helping them reach critical developmental milestones.
She primarily serves families from Central and South America, including those seeking asylum and refuge from violence, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises.
“She is a tenacious caregiver and works tirelessly to assist clients by connecting them with resources to give them the tools they need to work toward self-sufficiency,” Goodwill said in its nomination for her. “Gloria provides a safe haven for her clients. She has such a positive, calming presence that makes her clients feel as if she is wrapping her arms around them and that they can face any potential barrier placed in their way.”
She’s also a good co-worker, primarily when it comes to helping Goodwill serve Hispanic communities.
She recently delivered a presentation to the Goodwill network called “Connecting Across Culture,” at which she gave attendees information and tools to help them provide culturally proficient care to Hispanic Hoosiers.
Rivera told IBJ she loves working with families—her current caseload is 26. Before Goodwill, she worked in health departments helping families and babies from birth to age 3.
She said new mothers face many insecurities. She remembers calling her own mother to ask for help with her baby’s first bath.
“I find that this program is the super program that supports these parents when they need the most help and support in order to thrive and be the best parents they can be for their children.”
She told IBJ she loves watching her families reach the goals they have for themselves and their children.
As a bilingual nurse, she’s able to help her Hispanic families through language and cultural barriers and to connect them with outside services they might need.
“My vision in the future is to be able to see more bilingual, bicultural providers within Indianapolis in the different agencies so that we could better serve them,” she said.•
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