Noelene Kimiko Jeffers

PhD, CNM, IBCLC

Core Faculty at The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity

Noelene K. Jeffers has over 10 years of experience as a nurse-midwife serving families in federally qualified health centers, hospitals, and free-standing birth centers in Washington, DC.

In her research, Dr. Jeffers utilizes a reproductive justice lens to examine the structural and social determinants of Black maternal and perinatal health. She currently leads or collaborates on studies that examine the impact of midwives and birth center care on perinatal health, racism, and discrimination in midwifery education programs, and the integration of doulas into state perinatal health systems.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, an MSN from the Yale University School of Nursing, and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research goals include the development and implementation of community-engaged interventions that promote perinatal health equity, wellbeing, and thriving for Black women and birthing people.

JHU Center Affiliation:
Center for Equity in Child and Youth Health
Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Full CV

[email protected]

@hands4catching

Specialties and Expertise

September 2024 Jam Session: Dr. Nolene Jeffers Discusses Midwives, Doulas, and Black Maternal Health

Media

Blog: Forging Policy: How Can Doulas Improve Black Maternal Health?

News: ‘Momnibus bill’ plans announced at Virginia’s Black Maternal Health Summit

Publications

Jeffers, N. K., Arrington, L. A., Marcelle, E., Snowden, E., Mensah, C., Aslami, L., & Marea, C. X . (2025). “This year is not about carrying the heaviest burden”: A qualitative study on Black women’s postpartum experiences. SSM – Qualitative Research in Health. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100536

*Jeffers, N. K., Arno, C. A., McShane, K. S., Vanderpuije, M., Lozano, A., Bradford, H. M., Shasanmi-Ellis, R., Grace, K. T., Robinson, K. N., & Marea, C. X. (2025). Homelessness in pregnancy: Life course factors and mental health in the context of COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1509350

Martin, L. M., McKinney, C. D., Escobar Acosta, L., Coughlin, J. W., Jeffers, N. K., Solano-Umaña, A., Carson, K. A., Wang, N-Y., Bennett, W. L., & Bower, K. (2025). Remote lifestyle intervention to reduce postpartum weight retention: Protocol for a community-engaged hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation trial. JMIR, 14, e62847. https://doi.org/10.2196/62847

Jeffers, N. K., Berger, B. O., Marea, C. X., & Gemmill, A. (2022). Investigating the impact of structural racism on black birthing people-associations between racialized economic segregation, incarceration inequality, and severe maternal morbidity. Social Science & Medicine, 115622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115622

Bower, K. M., Geller, R. J., Jeffers, N. K., McDonald, M., & Alhusen, J. (2023). Experiences of racism and perinatal depression: Findings from the pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system, 2018. Journal of advanced nursing, 79(5), 1982-1993. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15519

Jeffers, N. K., Zemlak, J. L., Celius, L., Willie, T. C., Kershaw, T., & Alexander, K. A. (2022). ‘If the Partner Finds Out, then there’s Trouble’: Provider perspectives on safety planning and partner interference when offering HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). AIDS and Behavior, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03565-6

Koschmann, K. S., Jeffers, N. K., & Heidari, O. (2020). “I can’t breathe”: A call for antiracist nursing practice. Nursing Outlook, 68(5), 539-541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.07.004

Bryant, A. S., Riley, L. E., Neale, D., Hill, W., Jones, T. B., Jeffers, N. K., Loftman P., Clare C. A., & Gudeman, J. (2020). Communicating with African-American women who have had a preterm birth about risks for future preterm births. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 7(4), 671-677. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00697-8

2025 K12 Clinical Scholar

2025 Outstanding Faculty Research Paper

2017-2020 Future of Nursing Scholar, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

2014 Leadership Development Award, American College of Nurse-Midwives

2012 Inducted into Sigma Theta Tau

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