Jill C. Doyle, MS, CNM, is the recipient of the 2026-2027 Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association, Inc. (CUPHSONAA) / Penny Hund West Scholarship from Nurses Educational Funds (NEF). Jill earned her BA in Spanish from the College of the Holy Cross, her MS in Nurse-Midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing, and is currently a PhD Candidate at Boston College Connell School of Nursing.

Jill’s path to nursing and midwifery began during an undergraduate immersion program in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she met Carmen, a nurse-midwife who described midwifery as “a beautiful process of accompaniment.” The idea that midwifery meant walking alongside individuals and families through transformative life experiences, while honoring their values and lived realities, left a lasting impression.

For more than fifteen years, Jill has practiced as a Certified Nurse-Midwife across academic medical centers and community health centers in the Boston area, caring for women and birthing people across the reproductive lifespan. She continues to practice clinically while pursuing her doctoral studies. Through her clinical work, she became increasingly aware of inequities in maternal health and postpartum experiences and grew convinced that research was essential to addressing them. Her decision to pursue doctoral education was further shaped by her own experience with postpartum preeclampsia after the birth of her son, deepening her commitment to improving postpartum outcomes for others.

Jill chose Boston College for its commitment to holistic nursing education grounded in social justice, which aligned with her belief that rigorous scholarship must advance knowledge while honoring the lived experiences of the communities it serves. Her doctoral research lays the foundation for a broader program of scholarship focused on maternal health equity following hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Using complementary quantitative and qualitative approaches, her work examines how social and structural inequities shape postpartum health and care experiences. Through this research, she seeks to generate evidence that centers the voices and experiences of those most affected while informing more equitable policies, practices, and systems of care. In addition to her dissertation research, Jill serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health.

Her long-term goal is to become a nurse-midwife scientist leading an independent program of research that advances maternal health equity in the United States. She plans to pursue postdoctoral training at the intersection of population health, maternal cardiovascular health, and health equity science, with a particular interest in systems-level interventions that improve postpartum health and reduce maternal cardiovascular risk. Through an integrated career in research, clinical practice, and education, she hopes to generate evidence that informs more equitable, patient-centered care, while mentoring the next generation of nurses and midwives.

Receiving the NEF Scholarship is both a tremendous honor and a meaningful affirmation of Jill’s commitment to nursing scholarship. As a Columbia alumna, she is especially grateful to be part of a legacy of nurses whose work has shaped the profession, and she is honored to carry that tradition forward through research, education, and compassionate care.