Six School of Nursing Doctoral Students Receive Scholarships Through the Nurses Educational Fund

The six JHU School of Nursing doctoral students who received scholarships from Nurses Educational Funds (NEF) are,

Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. (NEF) established in 1912, is a non-profit organization that has depended solely on donations to advance our only mission, to promote leadership and health equality through annual scholarship support for professional nurses seeking master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing education, advanced clinical practice, research, health policy, and administration. Tax exempt donations to NEF can be made by going to, https://www.n-e-f.org/donate.html.

Each year the NEF scholarship application process opens on October 1st and closes on February 1st of the next year. To apply for an NEF Scholarship, go to the NEF Website at: www.n-e-f.org and click on “Apply” on the Menu.

Meet this year’s Hopkins School of Nursing NEF Scholars:

Allison Gilmer

Allison is currently a dual-degree student at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is working toward obtaining her Doctorate in Nursing Practice and Master’s in Public Health. Working in both emergency and primary care clinical settings, as well as abroad in Ecuador and Haiti, Allison witnessed firsthand how gaps in care impact individual and community health. These experiences instilled in her a passion for improving access to quality care for all populations.

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Marcus D. Henderson

Marcus, a PhD Candidate at the School of Nursing, focuses on the critical role of parents in adolescent suicide prevention, specifically the psychosocial factors associated with parental self-efficacy in preventing suicidal behaviors. His experience as a young caregiver for his great-grandmother with Alzheimer’s and great aunt with Down Syndrome, inspired Marcus’ nursing career. Witnessing the expert care provided by home care, hospice, and acute care nurses motivated him to pursue nursing.

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Faith Elise Metlock

Faith is pursuing a PhD at the School of Nursing and a certificate in Health Disparities and Health Inequality at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In addition to her academic pursuits, Faith is the Founder & CEO of Black Health Explained, a health marketing agency dedicated to developing tailored media solutions for engaging underrepresented communities in health initiatives. passion for nursing was ignited during her undergraduate studies, where she recognized the critical need for preventative care and community engagement to address chronic health conditions that disproportionately burden marginalized groups.

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Claire Pletcher

Claire, a PhD Candidate at the School of Nursing, is a nurse clinician and researcher dedicated to improving communication pathways between family caregivers and palliative care patients from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. She first became interested in nursing through the stories shared by her two grandmothers and mother, who were all nurses. Claire’s focus is in developing and implementing novel communication pathways in palliative care. Her dissertation work utilizes data from the National Study of Caregiving with an aim to understand communication patterns among family caregivers and palliative care patients.

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Kelly Preti

Kelly is currently pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice/Master of Business Administration at Johns Hopkins University. Kelly is also an ONCC Oncology Certified Nurse and ANCC Board-Certified Pain Management Nurse, and the course director for the World Academy of Pain Medicine United (WAPMU) for the Advanced Practice Provider (APP) course. Upon completing her DNP/MBA, Kelly plans to lead as a clinician, educator, and executive within the health care community, and give back to the nursing and nurse practitioner professions by mentoring, empowering, and collaborating with other healthcare professionals to continue advancing the field and improving practice.

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Amy Ushry

Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She was drawn to public health nursing because of its unique intersections between individual-level care, community-level impact, and systems-level change. Amy’s area of focus for her PhD is in maternal health equity, where she has been a research assistant on numerous maternal health and health equity-related research projects within the University.

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