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Noelene Jeffers: Faculty Directory

Noelene Kimiko Jeffers, PhD, CNM, IBCLC

Assistant Professor
Noelene Jeffers
View Full CV

Specialties and Expertise

  • Disparities
  • Doula
  • Equity
  • Maternal Health
  • Quantitative Research
  • Quantitative Research Methods/stats
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Women's Health

Overview

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, she utilizes a reproductive justice lens to examine the structural and social determinants of Black maternal and perinatal health. Dr. Jeffers 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. Dr. Jeffers earned a bachelor of science 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 long-term 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.

Additional Resources

Below are selected resources. For more information, please see full CV.

  • Publications/Research

    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.

    Bower K. M., Geller R. J., Jeffers N. K., McDonald M., Alhusen J. Experiences of racism and perinatal depression: Findings from the pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system. Journal of Advanced Nursing. (in press)

    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.

    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.

    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.

  • Awards/Honors

    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