Sonia Rich-Mazzeo, DNP, APN,

Family Nurse Practitioner
Sonia spearheaded the creation of Coastal Volunteers in Medicine. She began her career in health volunteering at the public hospital, Hospital General Parmenio Piñero, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She lived in Argentina through its, hopefully last, seven-year-long military dictatorship. After graduating from high school, she moved back to the United States to go to college. She graduated summa cum laude with honors in the humanities, a major in history, and a minor in political science from William Paterson University. As an intern at the International Women’s Tribune Center, she learned to “think globally and act locally.” She realized she could not save the world, but she could help some of the people she met. She focused on health. First, she became an Emergency Medical Technician, and eventually a Family Nurse Practitioner, always with an eye out for the vulnerable sectors of the population from where she herself came.  Before moving to Reno, Nevada in 2016, she worked full-time at Southern Ocean Medical Center’s Emergency Dept, and volunteered the rest of her time, to Coastal Volunteers in Medicine.  She greatly misses interacting daily with Coastal VIM’s outstanding volunteers and cherishes the opportunity to continue serving on its Board of Trustees.