Nani Cuadrado

Nani Cuadrado, MSPAS, PA-C, is the Director of Education for HEAL Trafficking. She began working as an emergency medicine physician assistant (PA) for Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) 20 years ago and began to realize the prevalence of homelessness and its close relationship to human trafficking within her own community. She has been a proud member and supporter of VAST (Valley Against Sex Trafficking) for eight years and served on the organization’s Board for four years. Seven years ago, she established a physician assistant team at a local refugee resettlement site to provide health care for unaccompanied minors primarily from Central America, many of whom were victims of human trafficking or exploitation. As an assistant professor, she taught graduate physician assistant students how to care for the community’s most vulnerable and spearheaded efforts to provide free health care to a local residential home for sex-trafficked women. In 2019, she was asked to serve on an expert work group for the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and the Office of Population Affairs to review the intersection of human trafficking and family planning services. In 2020, she was the first physician assistant to be selected for the Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz Humanism in Healthcare Award as a leader and change agent in Street Medicine and prevention of human trafficking. In 2021 she was awarded American Academy of Physician Assistants’ (AAPA) Physician Assistant of the Year for demonstrating exemplary service to the community. For years, with the help of HEAL Trafficking, Nani has been developing a Human Trafficking Response Protocol for LVHN (a non-profit organization of over 20,000 employees). The protocol went live April 2023 in all of LVHN Emergency Departments and will be expected to roll out to inpatient and outpatient departments over the next year with Nani’s support. In August 2023, Nani will be featured in Lehigh Valley Style magazine as one of the Lehigh Valley’s most influential women.