Jennifer Bottoms-Robb

Jennifer Bottoms-Robb, BSN, RNC-NIC is honored to be a recipient of the Nurses Educational Funds Scholarship. Currently enrolled in the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing at Hunter College, Jennifer is entering her final year of study for her master's degree to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. For the past 20 years, Jennifer has worked as a Neonatal ICU nurse, spending the majority of that time at Northwell Health’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center.  She loves caring for the neonate population, and educating and supporting their parents from admission to discharge.  

When Jennifer began her graduate level educational journey, her goal was to become a clinical psychologist. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Morgan State University. After working in a non-clinical capacity for several years in healthcare and later in the restaurant industry, Jennifer felt unfulfilled and that's when she decided to return to school to truly make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable. She pursued nursing as a second career and obtained her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University. 

Hunter College was her choice for her master's degree because of its excellent reputation for educating NYC’s future professionals and for the flexibility of its hybrid educational program. Jennifer has always been passionate about mental health and is excited to redirect her career toward this much-needed specialty. 

In particular, Jennifer would like to use her degree to help individuals in the Black community, who have been underserved for many years and have grappled with issues including intergenerational trauma, distrust of healthcare professionals, lack of resources, and stigma. Jennifer wants to bridge the gap that exists due to the lack of mental health providers of color, which, in many cases, is a barrier to seeking treatment. She looks forward to further exploring how to best aid her community in a few specific areas of interest. Jennifer’s primary interest is to create a safe, welcoming, and culturally competent space for Black families to combat the aforementioned barriers to optimal mental health. Secondly, she would like to assist young people in tackling their mental health issues early with the hope of preventing more severe mental illness from developing in the future. Lastly, as a result of the higher rate of infant mortality among Black Americans, she is also interested in helping Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) parents work through the unique mental health challenges that arise due to an extended hospital stay with a critically ill child. Her long career as a NICU nurse has made it clear that this area requires more focus. She looks forward to her clinical experiences this upcoming semester in inpatient psychiatry and perinatal mental health to delve further into these areas and determine how she can most effectively make a difference. 

Jennifer is a single mother who works part-time, and will be attending school part-time as well as completing her clinical hours this semester. Her daughter is also pursuing her undergraduate degree, which increases Jennifer's financial burden. Jennifer is overwhelmed with gratitude for the generosity of Nurses Educational Fund, Inc. She sincerely appreciates NEF’s dedication to helping numerous nurses achieve their educational goals year after year.