Dr. Cortes is the Executive Director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing and a Professor in Geriatric Nursing at the New York University College of Nursing. The consistent theme across her work is the essential role of advanced practice nurses in improving the quality of life in specific patient populations, and the interdisciplinary nature of health care. Dr. Cortes is a leader in developing, evaluating, and implementing advanced nursing practice and collaborative practice. Her work has contributed to advancing interdisciplinary models across the continuum of care to reduce disparities in access to care, and to assure healthy aging in place. She has helped change policy and practice in geriatric care and in low-vision and blindness care by developing roles for advanced practice nurses to provide care to those with poor access to resources due to lack of knowledge or functional disabilities.

Dr. Cortes spent the initial phase of her career in nursing education at Hunter College, and then as the Head of Nursing Research and Information Systems at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She was the Chief Nursing Officer at Rockefeller University Hospital and continued her career in nursing and hospital administration at Mount Sinai Medical Center and at Bridgeport Hospital, before assuming the senior leadership role at Lighthouse International, a leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting vision loss and helping people prevent vision impairment. This was followed by her current appointment at the Hartford Institute.

Dr. Cortes is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. She is a Past Fellow of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program. She has been appointed as a 2013-2014 Health and Aging Policy Fellow. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from New York University, where she completed her PhD and Masters degrees. Her BSN is from Villanova University, where she served on the Board of Trustees for 10 years. In 2011 she was awarded the Medallion for Outstanding Contributions to the Profession from the Villanova University College of Nursing. She was named one of the New York Women’s Agenda 2011 STARS for exemplifying the qualities embodied in NYWA’s mission to advocate and collaborate for the interests of New York women in public policy decisions.