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Linda Mendonca has been a registered nurse for 43 years and a practicing school nurse for 25 years overseas and in five states as a military spouse. Most of her school nursing experience was in urban communities, spending the last several years in the Pawtucket, RI school district. The last ten years focused on adolescent health at the secondary level. With the practice of school nursing in the arena of community health, Linda networked and collaborated with numerous community partners in Rhode Island. She has served on school nursing organization boards on the state and national levels. Nationally, Linda’s influence in child health and child health systems emerges from her role as President-Elect where she served as a liaison on the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health and to the Healthy Schools Network. As President of the National Association of School Nurses, Linda advocated for child and adolescent health and wellbeing during the pandemic as a panelist on national webinars and as a partner with national public health and school health organizations. She currently teaches community/public health nursing at RI College Onanian School of Nursing and consults on school health issues with the RI Department of Health. 

Linda received her RN diploma from St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing, Providence; BSN from Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC; MEd in the field of school nursing from Cambridge College, Cambridge, MA; and MSN in advanced public health nursing from Rush University, Chicago, IL. She earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in transformative systems leadership at Rush University.

Linda leads with passion in environmental health and currently serves on the RI leadership and Northeast boards for the American Lung Association and the RI Asthma Coalition. Other work included serving as Vice President on the Healthy Schools Network board - a national organization advocating for a healthy school environment. She is a member of the American Nurses Association-Rhode Island environmental health subcommittee. Linda speaks nationally on disaster preparedness for school communities.