You could call Roseline Jean Louis, who is graduating with a PhD from Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, driven.
With roots in Haiti, Jean Louis was raised in Rochester, New York, and she’s a tireless advocate for underrepresented populations, both at Emory and beyond. She is passionate about the health of mothers and infants and exceptionally gifted at serving this population. The National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) named her a Birth Equity Research Scholar in 2020, making her one of only five recipients of the prestigious fellowship that year.
The latest addition to her CV? Being named the graduate student recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, considered the highest honor presented to an Emory University student.
Returning to academia
As a single mother of four children, Jean Louis pursued an associate’s degree in nursing at Georgia State at Perimeter College, which she saw as a path to financial stability.
“During my first clinical, I realized I loved caring for people in their most vulnerable state,” says Jean Louis. “I decided to stay [in college] for so long that I’m completing my PhD!”
She made the leap to Emory through the Bridges to Baccalaureate Program, a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative. The program provides financial support and research opportunities to help students advance from an associate’s to a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Jean Louis remembers that her goal was to get her associate’s degree and get to work. But the funding for a Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) at Emory broadened her possibilities.
“During the summers at Emory, they were planting the research bug. And it took root in me, deeply,” she says.
She began working as a labor and delivery nurse while completing her BSN. “Because of that research bug, I started to look at the care disparities, which depended on both who was giving and who was receiving that care,” Jean Louis says.
“I felt like a great nurse, but I could only make a difference in the few lives I touched that day. I thought with a PhD, I could have a greater impact,” she says.
Finding her community
Jean Louis is most passionate about working to reduce maternal health disparities.
“What draws me in the most is the raw humanity of it,” she says. “Birth for anyone should be a time of support, dignity and celebration. But many Black women and birthing people enter it like a battleground, hoping they’ll make it out the other end. I was interested in the why behind it and how to fix it.”
As a Birth Equity Research Scholar, she focused on investigating the role nurses play in perpetuating or interrupting harm. “That experience informed everything,” she says.
“Being selected was the most affirming moment in my entire academic journey. It was a moment of alignment where my lived experience, research interest and desire to be in community with scholars of color came together. They really understood the work I was doing and believed that I was capable and should be taken seriously, even though I didn’t think that at the time.”
Jean Louis credits her NBEC mentors with propelling her to lead quantitative analysis within the Centers for Disease Control’s reproductive health division and become involved in the work the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was doing, roles she wasn’t sure she was ready for.
“Now, coming out of it, I have all this belief that I can do things I never imagined, and be successful,” she says.
Advocating at Emory
During her Emory PhD program, Jean Louis joined the School of Nursing’s Divisional Committee on Community and Diversity, working to develop programs and policies aimed at increasing access, and was elected president of the PhD Nursing Student Association by her peers.
At a university level, Jean Louis served on the Emory University Laney Graduate School Council as the Black Student Taskforce co-chair. In every role, she compassionately and tirelessly advocated for the interests of students, including those from underrepresented and non-traditional backgrounds.
Beyond academia, Jean Louis has actively served the Atlanta community, volunteering with multiple organizations focused on expanding and improving health care access and education, including as a past co-chair of the health committee for the North Fulton chapter of the NAACP.
Another vote of confidence
For Jean Louis, winning the Brittain Award felt like another surreal vote of confidence from her mentor, Lisa Thompson, professor in the School of Nursing. Thompson nominated her for the award and describes Jean Louis as goal-oriented, thoughtful, approachable and incredibly passionate.
“Her contributions to scholarship, leadership and advocacy exemplify Emory’s values,” Thompson says. “I have no doubt that she will have a significant impact in her future career.”
From professional development to organizations and funding sources, Jean Louis has taken full advantage of Emory’s opportunities and felt supported by the School of Nursing at every step.
“I’ve been able to access so much to put me in this position,” she says. “I wouldn’t be here without Emory.”
Professionally, Jean Louis aims to establish herself as a leading scholar in maternal health equity, pursuing research that fills existing gaps while driving tangible change in nursing practices.
“I don’t want to be dead and never find out that the research I did had an impact,” she says. “I want to focus on the policy side to get things changed now, to implement interventions and impact maternal health outcomes for Black women specifically.
“You’ll see me again,” she adds. “I’ll be here, in this space, working to improve maternal health outcomes for marginalized populations for a long time.”