The journey of Jennifer McIntosh, PhD ’21, who just completed her fourth nursing degree, shows the many opportunities nursing offers to those who keep learning and growing.
Jennifer McIntosh, PhD ’21: Nurse, Educator, Mental Health Advocate, Mother and Inspiration to Future Nurses
Dr. McIntosh is a nurse, college instructor and community healthcare advocate who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and a PhD in Nursing earned in 2021 from the College of Nursing and Public Health (CNPH). In December, she completed a master’s degree in psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner at CNPH—while continuing to teach graduate courses at Adelphi, Yale University and the City University of New York.
She also was the keynote speaker at CNPH’s 2023 Pinning Ceremony, advising graduates to embrace every opportunity for professional development and pursue advanced nursing degrees.
Nursing is truly her calling, but, as she said, “It wasn’t a straight road … I took a lot of detours.”
Her journey began in Brooklyn but detoured to Haiti, where she was sent to live with her grandparents at age 2. Then in 1994, at age 15, she was back in the United States, visiting her parents, when political unrest in Haiti had led to the cancellation of all international flights. “I ended up staying in the United States and eventually adjusted.”
She enrolled in college but said that as a first-generation student, she didn’t understand the process and resources needed to succeed. That, plus her new role as a single mother, put her dreams on hold. She worked in customer service and enrolled in a business program before choosing nursing as a career.
Finding Herself in Nursing
Armed with a BS in nursing, she went to work as a nurse for Northwell Health, first at South Shore University Hospital, then Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, where she was an emergency department staff nurse. She then earned a master’s degree in nursing with a concentration in healthcare systems management. This opened doors to nursing leadership roles and fueled her passion for research. Later, she became director of patient care services at South Oaks Hospital, a behavioral health facility that’s also under the Northwell umbrella.
She began to think about better positioning herself to serve the community as a healthcare leader and advocate. After exploring nursing doctoral programs, she chose Adelphi. “There’s a human touch to the Adelphi program,” she said. “They create a warm, inclusive, nonthreatening environment, despite the rigors of the program. They’re with you every step of the way.”
She remains close to Patricia Donohue-Porter, MS ’78, PhD ’87, director of the PhD in Nursing program, and Professor William Jacobowitz, EdD, her former professor and dissertation chair. In 2020, Dr. McIntosh was a PhD candidate, pregnant with her third child during the pandemic. Rusty was born in April 2020, just after she’d attended a class held via Zoom.
Dr. McIntosh’s doctoral dissertation—on nursing and the care of those with mental illness—was sparked by her experiences in hospital emergency departments and inpatient behavioral health units. “There’s a critical need for mental health providers in this country, particularly to meet the needs of children and adolescents … in underresourced communities,” she explained. “By having this level of education, and being actively engaged in research and practice, I can serve as an effective advocate in healthcare policy.”
Charleen Jacobs-McFarlane ’06, PhD ’23: Dedicated to Studying Sickle Cell Disease
Nursing is in Charleen Jacobs-McFarlane ’06, PhD’s DNA. “My parents were from the Caribbean, and both were nurses,” she said. “My mom wanted both my sister and me to get BSN degrees as a starting point for careers with many different directions.”
She has since become a successful specialist in sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disease that affects as many as 100,000 African Americans—and for which, until recently, no new drug therapies had been developed since 1905.
A magna cum laude graduate of Adelphi’s BS in Nursing program who came back as the August 2024 Pinning keynoter, Dr. Jacobs-McFarlane credited Adelphi’s emphasis on the power of nursing with her early success. She recalled that the College of Nursing and Public Health expects its nurses to be leaders, whether working at a patient’s bedside, being a nursing manager or executive, or as a clinical practitioner.
“You can become an expert in many different things. I’m able to use my knowledge, skill and education to help people improve their lives and ensure that they are living fulfilling lives. It’s what sets us apart,” she said. “It’s what matters to me the most as a nurse.”
Focused on Inequities in Accessing Care
While she pursued a master’s degree at Hunter College, she became interested in sickle cell disease during a Mount Sinai internship. That eventually led to a job as a sickle cell practitioner in the hospital’s hematology department. Following that, her mentor in a Montefiore Hospital pain management program encouraged her to pursue her PhD.
For that, she chose to return to Adelphi. “I knew it had a very good, established and flexible PhD program,” she said. “All the classes were on Fridays, so I could work 10-hour shifts and have Fridays off. It was great.”
Most important, she recalled, “I felt welcomed and included and like I was back at home. She said Professor Donohue-Porter was “the best ever. She’s the PhD program director, and her caring, nurturing ethos just trickles down to everyone and disperses to the rest of the faculty. I was one of the lucky ones to get her as my dissertation chair.”
Dr. Jacobs-McFarlane, who got married and earned her PhD in the same year, 2023, is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In this role, she assesses whether sickle cell disease patients experience inequities in accessing care.
Effecting Change for Patients
She continued, “We have quality indicators—such as education levels, where patients live and work, what insurance they may have and transportation to medical appointments—that affect their health that we can use to see if patients are getting appropriate care.”
At the same time, she continues working as a nurse practitioner in Mount Sinai’s Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program, where she provides nursing care for 400 to 450 sickle cell patients. And as an assistant professor of nursing at Lehman College in her native Bronx, New York, she relishes the diversity of both fellow faculty and students.
She’s looking forward to learning what her new degree might lead to. “I’m just starting over again, you can say, and starting something that I’m not used to doing in my everyday work. With my PhD, I can use research to effect change in the lives of those with sickle cell disease.”