SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Rachel Allen is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a Family Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). After graduating from Thomas Jefferson University with her BSN, she began her nursing career in the Neuroscience ICU at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her experience in the Neuroscience ICU nurtured a respect and intrigue for the brain-behavior connection as well as healthcare ethics, and ultimately led her to complete her MSN at the University of Pennsylvania. Rachel initially worked as a family PMHNP with a diverse group of children and adolescents in a pediatric neurology center and an adolescent residential treatment center. She went on to join the National Health Service Corps and work as a PMHNP in a federally qualified health center that provided treatment for an underserved population. Rachel’s work as a clinical instructor for nursing students in both psychiatric and neurological rotations, reinforced her passion for teaching. This passion for teaching, along with a desire to make a greater impact on the mental health system, the overall healthcare system, patients’ lives, and the next generation of nurses, contributed to pursuing doctoral studies. Rachel’s doctoral research aims to use historiography to examine societal views in the U.S. from the 20th century to the present, toward mental health care for people living with SMI, as well as historical and sociopolitical influences on the history of how our society has chosen to care for its members living with SMI, with a particular focus on the deinstitutionalization movement.