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Dr. Carmen Eribes

Associate Clinical Professor/Director of Cultural

In the end, she found success. Yet it’s a career path Eribes recommends to no one.

While attending the University of Arizona, Eribes spent most of her time in class, studying and working to put food on the table for her children. There was little room for error and even less time to spend at home. Then she was a single parent while earning her doctorate at the University of California at San Francisco.

“I always say you cannot serve two masters well. If you work, your employer demands 100 percent. If you are going to school, professors demand 120 percent,” she says. “I would be up at 2 in the morning doing homework, because I wanted my children to get an education.”

A native of Douglas, Eribes received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Arizona College of Nursing. She does not remember a time when she did not want to be a nurse and liked the idea that the profession would provide flexibility and stability.

“If I moved anywhere or had a family, I could incorporate my working hours into the lifestyle I had in whatever city I was living,” she says.

With more than 30 years in the field, Eribes values her experiences in a hospital environment, and enjoys the university setting, where she can provide a positive influence on the next generation of professionals.

“I never had any role models, so I am very lucky to have the opportunity to talk to students about what nursing is all about. I can put students of color at ease,” says Eribes, who also visits students in middle- or high-school.

Her advice to anyone college-bound?

“Plan your education. I didn’t and that’s why I had to do what I did,” says Eribes, whose children, having memories of her working many hours, did not enter the nursing profession. “Think about the challenges you’ll have, whether it is in a working role or married role or having children.”