The Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions and Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society (Zeta Lambda Chapter at IUP) will host a presentation by retired Brigadier General Peggy J. Hengeveld on “Health Care Issues of Soldiers Returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The program will be October 20, 2010, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Hadley Union Building's Ohio Room. Light refreshments will be served. Reservations for the event are requested by Oct. 4 to edie.west@iup.edu.
Hengeveld has been employed in the safety and occupational health field since 1978. She is a member-at-large of the Pennsylvania State Veterans Commission and is a member of the National Safety Council, Alumni Association of the United States Army War College, and the American Heart Association.
Since 1997, she has served as a safety and occupational health manager for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard at Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville. In this position, she is responsible for a multifaceted ground safety and occupational health program, which includes everything from explosive and radiation safety and respiratory protection to federal workers' compensation case management and Army safety and health compliance training for the more than fifteen thousand Army guardsmen and women who are stationed there.
Hengeveld served as an Army Nurse Corps officer with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard from 1978 until 2007, when she retired as a brigadier general.
She graduated from Cornwall High School and the Reading Hospital School of Nursing. She received her bachelor's degree in health services management from Lebanon Valley College and her master's degree in health services administration from the University of Saint Francis.
In 2002, she was the first female officer from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard to graduate from the United States Army War College in Carlisle, receiving her second master's degree in strategic studies. She is currently completing her dissertation at the University of Phoenix.
Hengeveld is featured in the book New Careers in Nursing because of her prominence in the field of occupational health and safety. She also was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for nurses.
She is an invited lecturer to many civilian organizations, often addressing the topic of better serving employees who are veterans.