Cristina Flores, PhD, has been a registered nurse for 19 years. She graduated with an Associate's Degree in Nursing from City College of San Francisco and a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing for California State University, Dominquez Hills. She has a Master's Degree in Gerontology with a Long Term Care Administration emphasis from San Francisco State University. Her nursing practice has included many aspects of the continuum of care - from skilled nursing homes, to the acute care hospital, and home health care. At present, she practices nursing as the owner of three small residential care homes for the elderly. Cristina has recently (2007) completed her PhD in Nursing Health Policy in the… Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco under the direction Drs. Robert Newcomer and Charlene Harrington. She is a fellow at UCSF's School of Medicine's Institute for Health Policy Studies where she has received further training and experiences in health policy and health services research. She is also the Associate Coordinator of the Long Term Care Administration program at SFSU where she teaches Gerontology and Long Term Care Administration.