When Trudy Perry returned to school for a nursing degree in her early 40s, she knew whatever work she did as a nurse would need to feed her soul. She already had spent two years in West Africa with the Peace Corps, had lived in Puerto Rico and the Central African Republic, built a home in the Tennessee woods and gone through a divorce.

Almost 25 years later, as Perry moves toward retirement, she looks back on a career that more than satisfied her yearning, as she puts it, "to do something that might make a difference in someone's life."

Others in the nursing field have taken note of her career and decided she's made a difference as well.

Perry was honored by the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence as the state's 2009 Distinguished Nurse of the Year.

The award recognizes her contributions with the New Mexico Department of Health, where for the past 10 years she has served as school health advocate for Public Health Region 2. The region includes nine counties and 24 school districts in the northeast part of the state, from Dulce to the Texas border.

Among her accomplishments, Perry was praised for developing and updating the New Mexico School Health Manual, including an online version that received more than a quarter-million hits in 2008.

She also was acknowledged for helping pass rules allowing students with asthma and diabetes to carry medications and manage their own care at school, and for helping ensure access to eyeglasses for students from families with limited resources.

"Trudy has a keen understanding of what it takes to move policy forward ... Her persistence, sense of humor and ability to navigate the system are characteristics that contribute to her success," noted public health physician Mary Ramos in making the nomination.

Perry, who will retire in March, was nudged in the direction of nursing and public health as a young woman through her Peace Corps experience in Togo, West Africa. There she worked in health education as part of a smallpox immunization program.

The experience made a deep impression as she was immersed in the region's age-old cultural traditions, despite widespread poverty and the lack of access to health care for most of the population.

After returning to the United States and getting married, Perry lived for a time in Puerto Rico, where she volunteered as a fisheries research assistant at the university where her husband taught. Later, she did similar volunteer research work for almost five years in the Central African Republic.

Perry's first job after obtaining her nursing degree in 1986 was on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. It was her introduction to the Southwest, where her heart found a permanent home. She has lived here ever since, working with such agencies as Urban Indian Health and Human Services in Albuquerque and coordinating the Lovelace International Travel Health Clinic before joining the state.

In 2005, Perry took a three-month leave of absence to volunteer with the World Health Organization's polio eradication program in the North African country of Niger. Poverty and health care conditions were as dire as they had been in Togo 30 years earlier. Yet, as in Togo, the experience offered once-in-a-lifetime rewards.

"We went into extremely isolated places that were astounding with their rich cultural base," she recalls. "We went where nomads were. The first time I saw camels in the (Saharan) desert, it took my breath away."

Perry also was overwhelmed by the resilience and determination of the people she met, including local health care workers. Both men and women traveled for days over dirt roads on motorcycles with coolers strapped to the back, carrying children's stool samples to the capital city to be sent overseas for polio testing.

In New Mexico, Perry, now 65, has volunteered in the past with such organizations as the Food Depot. But for the most part, she's saving her volunteer energies for retirement. She hopes to sign up for another stint with the World Health Organization, possibly in Madagascar this time.

Perry's most recent award has given her a chance to reflect on her career before she retires, she says. "I really get pleasure in bringing public health and school nurse staff together to build relationships and build capacity to do things they couldn't do without each other. I love that kind of work. I wish I could make sure that this honor goes to all those people who have made my work successful."

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