Anne Batchelder is the recipient of NEF Eleanor C. Lambertsen Scholarship, given to a doctoral applicant in nursing education or administration. Anne is currently a PhD Candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, researching community building in group antenatal care in Malawi. Prior to her doctoral studies, Anne received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Boston College. Following her undergraduate degree, Anne pursued a career as a community organizer, building political will to influence policy and politics to improve the lives of those experiencing poverty and health challenges. Anne earned a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and worked in global health on child and maternal health, with field experience in Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

After many years working in public health and working closely with clinicians, Anne decided to expand clinically, by pursuing a Masters in Nursing from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Anne is particularly interested in building and sustaining relationships with patients in so she worked as a psychiatric nurse in an eating disorder unit and as a public health nurse. The nursing role enabled Anne to meaningfully connect with patients and serve their needs. While in nursing school, Anne joined a research project on pollution exposure during pregnancy in Bamako, Mali. This inspired to Anne to pursue a PhD in Nursing, enabling her to conduct research from the nursing perspective.

Throughout her career, Anne has worked to improve the lives of women and children, through psychiatric clinical nursing, through program and policy implementation, and through advocacy and political organizing, domestically and globally. As a researcher, she brings clinical, organizing, policy development and programmatic experience to explore the problems of postpartum depression and global community building.

Working in Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Mali, as well as her experience at the U.S. Agency for International Development with many partner countries and missions, she grew to understand the importance of community in building sustainable, human-centered, effective programs to improve maternal and child health. As an organizer and a psychiatric nurse, she understands that changing an individual’s relationship to their community and their self-efficacy and power, can result in real and substantial changes in their lives and health. These experiences have prepared her to conduct this research on how community building develops within the context of group antenatal care. Through the support of NEF, Anne will be able to reach these ambitious goals and conduct this meaningful research.