Prof. Dana Rodriguez · PhD · PNP-BC
Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD
Mulier Sapiens of the Schola Medica —
“she writes what she already practices at the bedside.”
Twenty-one years at the bedside. A Doctorate in Nursing. Board-certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Co-founder of the first school-based faith-and-health clinic in the United States. The working continuation of the women of the Schola Medica at Salerno.
Dana M. Rodriguez
PhD · PNP-BC · Founder & Clinical Lead, Vitae CatholicaPublished Research, Posters & Grants
Dana's research record from her time at Marquette — eight peer-reviewed papers, six poster presentations, two funded grants, and editorial work. Most of the NFP and fertility research was conducted at the Marquette Institute for Natural Family Planning under Prof. Richard Fehring. The Hispanic mothers / adolescent health work was Dana's own dissertation line.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Fehring RJ, Schneider M, Raviele K, Rodriguez D, Pruszynski J. “Efficacy of Cervical Mucus Observations Plus Electronic Hormonal Fertility Monitoring as a Method of Natural Family Planning.” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing (JOGNN) 36(2) (2007): 152–160. · Foundational Marquette Method effectiveness paper
- Rodriguez D, Topp R, Fehring R. “Psychometric evaluation of an instrument to measure Hispanic mothers' normative beliefs, intentions, past experience and past behavior related to the discussion of sex-related topics with their adolescent daughters.” Austin Journal of Nursing 1(2) (2014): 1–7. · First author
- Johnson N, Bekhet A, Robinson K, Rodriguez D. “Attributed Meanings and Strategies to Prevent Challenging Behaviors of Hospitalized Children with Autism: Two Perspectives.” Journal of Pediatric Health Care 28(5) (2014): 386–393.
- Johnson N, Rodriguez D. “Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder at a Pediatric Hospital: A Systematic Review of the Literature.” Pediatric Nursing, March/April 2013.
- Rodriguez D. “Female Fertility: A conceptual and dimensional analysis.” Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health 58(2) (2013): 182–188. · Sole author
- Fehring R, Schneider M, Bouchard T, Raviele K, Rodriguez D. “Randomized Comparison of Two Internet-Supported Fertility Awareness Based Methods of Family Planning.” Contraception 88 (2013): 24–30. · Marquette RCT
- Fehring R, Rodriguez D. “Spiritual care of couples practicing natural family planning.” The Linacre Quarterly 80(3) (2013): 225–238.
- Fehring R, Rodriguez D. “Family Planning, NFP, and Abortion Use among US Hispanic Women: Analysis of Data from Cycle 7 of the NSFG.” Linacre Quarterly (2012).
- Lasquety MG, Rodriguez D, Fehring R. “The Influence of BMI Levels on Phases of the Menstrual Cycle and Presumed Ovulation.” The Linacre Quarterly 79(4) (2012): 451–459.
Poster Presentations
- Rodriguez D, Topp R. “Hispanic Mothers' Normative Beliefs and Intentions Regarding the Discussion of Sex-Related Topics With Their Adolescent Daughters: An Analysis of the Rodriguez Normative Belief Instrument.” College of Nursing PhD Forum & College of Health Sciences Spring Research Symposium, Milwaukee, WI, April–May 2014.
- Rodriguez D. “Empowering women through monitoring the menstrual cycle.” Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS), 2012.
- Rodriguez D. “Empowering women through monitoring the menstrual cycle.” Building Bridges, Marquette University, 2012.
- Johnson N, Rodriguez D. “Challenging Behaviors: parent and hospital staff experience of children with autism spectrum disorder.” Building Bridges, Marquette University, 2012.
- Rodriguez D. “Characteristics of menstrual bleeding among women tracking fertility.” Building Bridges, Marquette University, 2011.
- Rodriguez D. “Trends in Family Planning and NFP Use among US Hispanic Women: 1995–2006.” Human Fertility Conference, Marquette University, 2010.
Forward Thinking Colloquies
- Fehring R, Schneider M, Polyak D, Rodriguez D. “Monitoring the Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign for Women's Health.” Forward Thinking Colloquy, Marquette University, 2011.
- Johnson N, Rodriguez D. “Challenging Behaviors: Parent and Hospital Staff Experience of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Forward Thinking Colloquy, Marquette University, 2010.
Grants
- $500,000 · U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA. Affordable Care Act Grants for School-Based Health Centers Capital Program. Awarded to St. Anthony School to develop the Padre Pio Clinic. Rodriguez D served as Program Director and co-author (2012–present).
- $5,000 · Sigma Theta Tau International. “Hispanic Mothers' Normative Beliefs and Intentions Regarding the Discussion of Sex-Related Topics With Their Adolescent Daughters.” Rodriguez D as Principal Investigator (2013–present).
Editorial & Peer Review
- Editorial Board Member, Austin Journal of Nursing & Health (2014–present).
- Manuscript reviewer, International Journal of Women's Health (2014).
Professional Memberships
- Sigma Theta Tau International Inc. — Member, Small Grant Recipient (2011–present).
- Metro Milwaukee Nurse Practitioners — Member (2013–2016).
- School-Based Healthcare Alliance — Member (2013–2016).
- Midwest Nursing Research Society — Member (2011–2013).
Committees, Service & Volunteer
- Secretary of the Board, Padre Pio Clinic (2013–present).
- Member, Advisory Committee, “Teleophthalmology to Improve Eye Health among Latinos” research project (2014–2016).
- Member, Wisconsin Oral Health Coalition (2013–2016).
- Member, Seton Dental Clinic Advisory Committee (2013–2016).
- Member, St. Anthony School Strategic Planning Committee (2013–2014).
- Member, Archdiocesan Health and Wellness Steering Committee (2011–2015).
- Panelist, First Annual Student Informational Forum, Mexican Fiesta (April 2014).
- Preceptor, Graduate & Undergraduate Nursing Students, Marquette University & St. Louis University (2009–2015).
- Organized and managed Health Screening booth at Mexican Fiesta (2012–2014).
In the eleventh century, the Schola Medica Salernitana was the first medical school in Christendom, and it taught men and women together. Trota of Salerno taught the Mulieres Salernitanae — the Salernitan women. In the twelfth, Hildegard of Bingen wrote Causae et Curae. Dana Rodriguez is the direct continuation of that line: a Christian woman, a working clinician, a teacher of medicine who writes what she practices.
Dana Rodriguez has held a child's hand in a clinic every working week for twenty-one years. Everything on this site, and everything in the Quintivium, comes from that room.
Beginnings
Dana trained as a registered nurse and moved into advanced practice by completing a Master of Science in Nursing and then a PhD in Nursing Science. She is double-board-certified: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP-BC). Her clinical focus from the beginning has been pediatric primary care, developmental assessment, chronic-condition management, and family-centered preventive medicine.
She met Zeus Rodriguez as a student and married him in 2005. They have two children, Benjamin and Eva, and they have split their family life between Arizona and Wisconsin for most of the last two decades.
Padre Pio Clinic
In Milwaukee, Dana co-founded the Padre Pio Clinic at St. Anthony School — the first school-based faith-and-health center in the United States. The premise was unusual at the time and is still unusual now: that the clinic and the classroom should sit under one roof, that children should not have to choose between a physician who knows them and a school that knows them, and that Catholic moral teaching belongs inside the exam room rather than outside of it.
Padre Pio remains the working model for Vitae Catholica. Vitae is Padre Pio at national scale and in telemedicine form.
“Children cannot be formed in fragments. The same body that sits in the classroom is the body that arrives in the clinic. A Christian school that sends its children to a secular clinic for medical questions and a Christian clinic that refuses to teach anything are each half of a broken argument.”
The Doctorate
Dana's PhD in Nursing Science allowed her to do the work few practicing clinicians have time to do: to think carefully about what she was already doing. Her doctoral work integrated evidence-based pediatric practice with Catholic moral theology and the classical tradition of regimen sanitatis — the medieval Christian framework for daily health as a rule of life.
The dissertation led directly to the Quintivium series. Twelve volumes, one per grade, five arts of the person — Body, Mind, Ethics, Theology, Politics — coauthored with Zeus. It is the curriculum Dana wished existed when she was a new mother asking her own children's pediatrician questions no textbook answered.
Clinical Voice
Dana's voice in practice is pastoral and plain. She does not lecture families. She does not hedge. She speaks to parents as equal adults who carry the primary responsibility for their child's formation, and she frames medical options inside the frame of what a Catholic family is actually trying to do. Families recognize the difference immediately, and they tend to bring their friends.
She keeps a notebook of the questions parents repeat — the ones the standard intake form never asks. Many of those questions become entries in the Quintivium.
Why Vitae
When Dana and Zeus founded Vitae Catholica in 2025, they chose the word Vitae — “of life” — because the Latin runs together in two ways: it names a curriculum vitae, the record of a life's work, and it names vita itself, the life the work is for. Vitae is the curriculum of a life; Vitae is a life's curriculum. Dana wrote it because she is living it.
Curriculum Vitae, Summarized
Marriage & Family
Marries Zeus Rodriguez. The two will raise Benjamin and Eva together across Arizona and Wisconsin over the next two decades.
Entry into Pediatric Practice
Begins consecutive full-time clinical practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner.
Co-Founds Padre Pio Clinic
Co-founds the first school-based faith-and-health center in the United States, at St. Anthony School (Milwaukee). Zeus serves as president of the school.
Doctoral Work
Completes Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science. Her dissertation integrates evidence-based pediatric care with Catholic moral theology and classical regimen sanitatis.
Quintivium Authorship Begins
Begins coauthoring the twelve-volume Quintivium series with Zeus. Drafts proceed volume by volume.
Vitae Catholica, Founded
Vitae Catholica is incorporated as an Arizona nonprofit. IRS 501(c)(3) approval received June 17, 2025, effective April 11, 2025.
The Present Work
Leads the Vitae Catholica telemedicine practice and the ongoing authorship of the Quintivium. The two halves of one project.
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed.”Proverbs 31:26–28 · RSV-CE
The Rodriguez Household
Dana's vocation is not only to patients and readers. She is, first, wife and mother. The work of Vitae is offered out of that household, not in spite of it.
Dana and Zeus Rodriguez married in 2005 and have split their life between San Diego, Arizona, and Wisconsin ever since. Their children, Benjamin and Eva, have grown up inside the work. Benjamin is a developer and built the systems that now run Vitae's content; Eva is finishing her own school years. Zeus is Dana's co-author and her steadiest reader.
Nothing about Vitae is presented as the work of one person. It is, like every Christian thing, the work of a household offered to another Household.