SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Linda Bradley is enrolled in the Nursing PhD program at The Graduate Center in New York City. Her clinical practice extends from the Hospital beside to the side of patients in their homes in an Acute care and L.T.H.H.C.P.; from providing staff education on the latest tablet updates to Quality initiative as a team manager; from a Director of Nursing in a Licensed Home care Agency to clinical adjunct for Community Health Nursing students at N.Y.U. and S.U.N.Y. Downstate. Her volunteer work includes but not limited to organizing Let’s Move Day walks and providing health promotion presentations. Linda’s belief is that in whatever she is performing she is a representative of what the best in nursing can be. Linda is a New York City Nursing Education Consortium in Technology (N.Y.C.N.E.C.T.) scholar and an N.Y.U. LIBN Fellow. Linda is a member of Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society. She served as an Executive board member as the Archivist for Alpha Phi chapter (2011-2013). She is a recipient of Outstanding Community Leadership award. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Nursing at C.U.N.Y. New York City College of Technology. She is a board certified public health clinical nurse specialist (PHCNS-BC). Professor Bradley is currently teaching Physical Assessment in the Baccalaureate degree program. She assisted in the data collection process of NIH funded Loma Linda Health Study 2 in 2007 in a local church. Her research interest is in exploring the relationship of knowledge and action in health seeking behaviors in faith-based populations.

I have a long-standing commitment to improving women’s health. My passion for women’s health started during my time at Brandeis University when I counseled peers on reproductive health issues and studied family planning campaigns in Latin America. Working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger and witnessing maternal deaths confirmed my interest, the importance of clinical experience, and getting my BS and MSN/MPH. I realized that I would need these tools to make an impact in the field. As a Returned Peace Corps Fellow and Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholar, I earned my degrees at The Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Public Health. I have worked as a nurse educator, faculty, program manager and clinically in labor and delivery. My interest in research grew from these experiences and I am now a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. My specific area of interest is reducing the primary cesarean section rate, by examining how admission decisions and practice affects or possibly predicts cesarean delivery (CD). My research will focus on admission of low-risk pregnant women to the labor unit, since admission in latent labor often leads to a cascade of interventions with a higher likelihood of a CD.

Laura Elizabeth Britton of Chapel Hill, North Carolina earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from Wellesley College in 2005 and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of North Carolina in 2014. She is a member of UNC-CH’s first cohort of Hillman Scholars and currently is a pre-doctoral trainee supported by NIH/NINR T32NR007091-20: “Interventions for preventing and managing chronic illness.” She is broadly interested in delivery of family planning services to women with chronic illnesses and associated health disparities. Her dissertation research will focus on contraception use among women with diabetes and women with cancer.

Raquel Brown is currently a student in the PhD program at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at the Florida Atlantic University. Raquel developed a love for teaching based on her academic and life experiences to date. She felt that a PhD degree would give her more in-depth knowledge as a nurse and would enhance her ability to teach. Raquel is currently an adjunct clinical instructor at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University. She began her career as a registered nurse at the University Hospital of the West Indies –a teaching hospital- where she earned her diploma as a Registered General Nurse. In 1995 she successfully completed the course: Care of the Critically Ill. Raquel earned her Registered Midwife diploma in 1998. In 2004 she graduated from the University of the West Indies with the Master of Science in Nursing degree, with an emphasis on education. Her research interest pertains to alternate remedies; particularly herbal remedies use among ethnically diverse populations. Raquel is curious to know what the decision-making process is for Caribbean people in South Florida who use herbal remedies. She thinks knowing the decision-making process will help healthcare providers to better meet the needs of this population. In 2014 she was awarded the Gertrude E. Skelly Foundation Stipend, ($10,000), and the Cross Country Scholarship, $125. She is a current recipient of the Jonas Scholarship, ($5,000)

I am a current Doctor of Nursing Practice student with West Virginia University. My passion and future doctoral work will hopefully focus on Melanoma skin cancer incidence, prevalence, and prevention methods for the under-served rural residents of West Virginia. I obtained a BSN from the University of Charleston in 1999, then pursued a Masters in Nursing Administration in 2002. My sixteen years of nursing experience ranges from critical care, wound care management, clinical coordination, outpatient plastic surgery, and open heart and vascular services. I currently reside in academia where I have taught for eleven years. My leadership roles include course coordinator positions within my teaching department, District 3 Lead for the Cancer Action Network for West Virginia, District 17 Lead for the West Virginia Nurses Association, and maintain membership in the National League of Nursing, American Cancer Society, and American Nurses Association. I strongly believe nursing and advocacy is a gift, and leadership is a privilege that is both learned and earned. We move forward together as a profession, not alone. My hope is that nurses will continue to develop positive inter-professional leadership roles carving out the future of health care for all populations.