MISSION
The Global Nursing Program at MGH Global Health provides nursing education and promotes nursing leadership to increase the capacity of nurses and midwives to improve clinical outcomes for the populations they serve.
GLOBAL NURSING FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The Global Nursing Fellowship Program offers short-term fellowships to provide didactic instruction and clinical mentorship based on requests for specific clinical expertise from our partners. Fellows foster a sense of commitment to the global nursing community, elevate the role of nurses in delivering clinical care, and provide fundamental nursing education to advance nursing practice
Process
MGH Global Nursing works with clinical department leadership to identify nurses interested in living and teaching with our partners for up to three months. Priority for placement is given to nurses at least three years post licensure and who have been employed in their current service for at least two years. A demonstrated ability to work across and within diverse cultures and resource scarce settings is preferred. For more information about the Fellowship, contact the Global Nursing Program: msebert@partners.org.
GLOBAL NURSING LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
The Global Nursing Leadership course offers nurses and nurse leaders an opportunity to develop strong leadership skills, essential in dynamic health care environments around the world. Nurse leaders serve as role-models who can motivate other nurses, impact patient outcomes, and positively affect health policy and legislation. This course has been shared with nurse leaders across seven countries, as well as domestically. For more information about this program, contact CGH Global Nursing: msebert@partners.org.
BY THE NUMBERS
1088%
more nurses in the US than in sub-Saharan Africa
48%
of WHO member states have less than 3 nurses per 1,000 people
2023 FELLOWS
Katie Fitch, MSN, FNP-BC
Nursing Fellow
Katie Fitch, MSN, FNP-BC is an Associate Principal in Medicine at Harvard Medical school and is a Clinical Research Nurse Practitioner in the MGH Metabolism Unit. Katie conducts research to improve the understanding of metabolic complications of HIV including cardiovascular disease. She has also explored potential treatment interventions for these complications grounded in health promotion.
Katie has worked internationally in Chile and Bolivia, has served as a National Health Service Corps Scholar, and has worked in primary care as a nurse practitioner at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. She is also a volunteer community educator at several AIDS service organizations throughout Massachusetts where she enjoys working with community members to provide health education and promotion on how to prevent co-morbidities such as heart disease, diabetes, and dyslipidemia.
Currently, Katie is the Project Manager for the REPRIEVE trial, a multicenter trial in HIV and cardiovascular disease. Throughout her experiences, Ms. Fitch remains dedicated to clinical research and the role that nurses, and nurse practitioners have in this area of practice. Katie provided nursing research education to master’s in nursing students in Mbarara Uganda January 2023.
Clara Gona, PhD, FNP-BC
Nursing Fellow
Clara Gona, PhD, FNP-BC, is an associate professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, School of Nursing. where she teaches in the Advanced Practice program. Dr. Gona is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and an external Faculty Nurse Scientist at the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research at MGH.
Dr. Gona is interested in African Immigrant health, Global Health and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in nursing education. Her current community-based research seeks to create a multifactorial culturally targeted lifestyle modification intervention to address CVD risk in African immigrants. In July 2023, Dr. Gona traveled to Mbarara, Uganda for two weeks to teach research with first- and second-year Master of Nursing Students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
Margaret Howes
Nursing Fellow
Margaret Howes is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with over 12 years of advanced practice nursing experience. Her interest is in the holistic care of the acute medical patients with comorbid mental health concerns. She has worked for the Avery D. Weisman MD, Psychiatry Consult Department, at the Massachusetts General Hospital for several years. Prior to that she worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at Tewksbury Hospital on the medical floors as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She deployed with GDHR in 2021 to the migrant camp in Matamoros to support mental health initiatives for migrants and volunteers. In June 2023, Margaret traveled to Uganda to share her expertise and knowledge with master students specializing in mental health at Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
Jennifer Samiotes
Nursing Fellow
Jennifer Samiotes is an accomplished nurse with a master’s degree from Northeastern University as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (NP). With 27 years of dedicated service at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), she has made a significant impact in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), demonstrating her commitment to delivering the highest quality care to young patients and their families. Jennifer also serves as an Assistant Pediatric Clinical Professor at Saint Anselm College. Jennifer’s passion for global health is evident through her participation in international missions. She has been an active member of MGH’s Global Disaster Response (GDR) team, Operation Airway, the MGH Biothreats team, and DMAT MA-1, where she has contributed her skills and expertise to provide healthcare in disaster-stricken areas around the world. In July 2023, Jennifer traveled to Mbarara, Uganda as a Global Nursing Fellow, teaching and guiding pediatric master students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
2022 FELLOWS
Barbara “Bobbie” Curtis, CNM, MSN
Nursing Fellow
Barbara “Bobbie” Curtis, CNM, MSN, is a staff nurse-midwife in the Midwifery Division in the Department of OB/GYN at Mass General and is a teaching associate with Harvard Medical School. Her clinical interests include caring for pregnant women with medical complications and miscarriage. She has further interest in global health and caring for pregnant women in disaster settings. Bobbie volunteered with the CGH Global Disaster Response team during Hurricane Dorian and has been to the migrant camps at the US border to provide woman’s health services. As a Global Nursing Fellow, Bobbie has traveled to Sierra Leone twice to provide support and midwifery education to students at the School of Midwifery, Makeni.
Jane Flanagan
Nursing Fellow
Jane Flanagan, Ph.D., RN, AHN-BC, ANP-BC, FAAN, is an associate professor and the Department Chairperson at the Connell School of Nursing. She has appointments as a nurse scientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Yvonne Munn Center for Nursing Research; as an associate clinical scientist at the Phyllis Cantor Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and as a nurse practitioner at Bournewood Hospital.
Dr. Flanagan is the Editor for the International Journal of Nursing Knowledge and serves on the Editorial Board for the International Journal for Human Caring. She is an appointed Fellow in NANDA-I, the National Academy of Practice and the American Academy of Nursing. She serves as the President-elect of the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS), and is the Communications Chair and Nominations Chair for the Society of Rogerian Scholar. Dr. Flanagan is a certified nurse practitioner and the coordinator of the Nurses Improving Care for Hospitalized Elders (NICHE) program at MGH.
Dr. Flanagan’s work is focused on advanced care planning, and spiritual and holistic strategies to improve the experience of older adults—especially dementia caregivers and those with chronic health conditions.
In February 2022, through the MGH Munn Research Center, Jane began teaching components of research to Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Masters of Critical Care Nursing students.
Jacqueline Kennedy-Harte, ACNP-BC
Nursing Fellow
Jacqueline Kennedy-Harte, ACNP-BC, is a Critical Care Nurse Practitioner at Mass General Hospital. She has been an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, mainly in Surgical Critical Care, for 20 years. She has mentored many nurse practitioner and medical students in addition to precepting nurse practitioners to Mass General. Prior to her current role she had 15 years of experience as an ICU nurse working with patients after major general surgeries, trauma, burn care, vascular, thoracic, cardiac surgery, and neurosurgery.
Her nursing career began with a diploma program in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin. After a year of Burn Care Nursing in London, she moved to Boston and received her BSN and MS in Nursing at Northeastern University.
Prior teaching experience includes guest lecturer at Northeastern University Acute Care Program, adjunct faculty for undergraduate students at Boston College, panelist at NTI for AACN, panelist at Harvard Consortium for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
Amanda Breed McSweeney, CNM
Nursing Fellow
Amanda Breed McSweeney is a Certified Nurse Midwife with 19 years of full scope experience. She is interested in reducing maternal mortality in low resource settings by spreading knowledge to local healthcare providers. She was honored to serve as an educator in Sierra Leone for two weeks in October 2022 and is looking forward to continuing this relationship. She has also worked with local midwives through Midwives for Haiti and with the University of Washington in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. Amanda also enjoys precepting students, teaching simulation and is the assistant director of the 30-midwife group of Midwives at Mount Auburn.
2019 FELLOWS
Jennifer Duran
Nursing Fellow
Jennifer Duran, RN, is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse who has worked at MGH for over 21 years. Throughout her time, she has conducted many professional educational courses for clinical staff and is very passionate about providing education to families or caregivers in the care of their neonate. In November 2018, Jennifer traveled to Mbarara, Uganda as a nursing fellow to work with neonatal staff at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. While there, she worked alongside nurses and other clinical staff members and provided daily educational sessions, with a noticeable improvement in practice. Jennifer plans to continue to build upon this first Global Health trip by continuing an ongoing relationship with MRRH.
Sara Groves
Nursing Fellow
Sara Groves, MPH, MSN, DrPH, has more than 45 years of experience in public health nursing, 14 years of this spent living internationally in Brazil, Haiti and Uganda. Sara has been a repeat Global Nursing Fellow at Mbarara University of Science & Technology Department of Nursing (MUST) where she has supported research development, clinical teaching, and program implementation and evaluation. In 2014, in collaboration with MUST faculty, she facilitated the launch of the Masters of Science in Critical Care program. In the most recent nursing fellowship, she assisted the faculty in completing a community needs assessment to identify and develop an additional site for community health nursing students. Groves received nursing degrees from University of Iowa and Boston University, her doctorate in international public health from Columbia University, and has over 30 publications in areas of international practice.
Sophia Harden
Nursing Fellow
Sophia Harden, RN, received her BS in Health Science from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York and her BSN from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA. She was selected as a Global Nursing Fellow to provide skin and wound care teaching for 8 weeks in Mbarara, Uganda. She was a skin care champion and recipient of the prestigious Partners in Excellence award for her role with the Phillips House nursing staff. Harden currently works in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.
Julie Mann
Nursing Fellow
Julie Mann, MSN, CNM, has been a Certified Midwife for over 15 years and is currently the Assistant Director of Midwifery at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Julie’s international experience includes the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, Africa and Haiti, where she served as the Co-Director of the Women’s Health Program. Most recently, Julie has been focusing on supporting midwifery education. She recently completed the Harvard University & Mount Auburn Hospital Medical Education Fellowship. In June 2018, as a Nursing Fellow for MGH Global Nursing, she provided midwifery training and support for the midwifery program at Lira University in Uganda.
Jennifer Neczypor
Nursing Fellow
Jennifer Neczypor, RN, MSN, CNM, FNP-C, graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in 2017 with a dual certification in nurse-midwifery and family practice, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Global Health. She currently serves as a staff nurse-midwife at MGH and at Chelsea Health Center, where she aims to reduce health disparities through the provision of high-quality, empowering midwifery care and reproductive health services for immigrant and refugee women. Ms. Neczypor has worked in a variety of global settings, most notably serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu from 2009-2011 and as a midwifery preceptor and educator in Dhulikhel, Nepal, in 2017, partnering with the NGO One Heart World-wide to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality through the training of skilled birth attendants. Her clinical interests include midwifery in low-resource settings, respectful maternity care, malaria in pregnancy, and family planning. In June 2019, she travelled to Lira, Uganda, as an MGH Global Nursing Fellow, assisting with training and program support for Lira University’s midwifery program.