Jonas Scholars
In an effort to expand the pipeline of nursing faculty, researchers, and advanced practice nurses, Jonas Philanthropies created the Jonas Nursing Scholars program, providing financial assistance, leadership development, and networking support to doctoral nursing students whose research and clinical interests address the country’s most pressing health care needs.
Jonas Nursing Scholar
Julia Whitaker Humphries
2024-2026
Julia Whitaker Humphries received a BS in Family and Consumer Science: Nutrition at the University of Georgia in 2016 and a BSN from the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in 2018. She has worked in pediatric and rural emergency nursing and discovered a passion for teaching when she began precepting newly graduated nurses. In 2021 she began teaching as a clinical instructor. In 2022 she became the College of Nursing inaugural BSN-PhD student. She will complete PhD course work in Spring 2025 and begin her dissertation phase Summer 2025. In 2023 she was selected as a Sigma Theta Tau Rising Star for the 47th Biennial Convention in San Antonio, Texas and presented her systematic literature review about telehealth nursing in rural healthcare at the GNLC Doctoral Symposium in Atlanta.
Past Jonas Nursing Scholars
Nicole Smith
2016-2018
Dr. Nicole Smith graduated with her Ph.D. in Nursing from the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in 2021. A certified nurse educator, she currently serves as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Smith holds a Master of Science from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from North Carolina A&T State University. She has been a registered nurse since 2009 and specializes in medical-surgical nursing and simulation. In 2021, she was one of 12 nationwide to participate in the National League for Nursing’s Scholarly Writing Retreat, and in 2016, she was awarded the New Faculty Award and Excellence in Teaching Award-Undergraduate. Her completed dissertation was titled, “Measurement of intrinsic cognitive load and mental effort in pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing students: A focus on instructional design in the synchronous online classroom.”
Amanda Reichert
2014-2016
Dr. Amanda Reichert completed the Ph.D. in Nursing program at the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in 2016. She has been a registered nurse since 1992 and brings a varied background in nursing practice and education. Her clinical experience includes staff and nurse management positions in several settings and service as a public health nurse. Dr. Reichert understands the needs of rural Georgia, evident through her professional endeavors including employment with the Department of Public Health and providing disaster relief and medical care throughout Georgia following Hurricane Opal. Educational positions have encompassed skills lab coordinator, clinical practicum site placement coordinator, as well as classroom and clinical instructor. Upon completing her Ph.D., Dr. Reichert joined the nursing faculty at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega. Her completed dissertation was titled, “Deans’ ways of knowing: The lived experiences of baccalaureate nursing school deans.”
Natasha Laibhen-Parkes
2012-2014
Dr. Natasha Laibhen-Parkes obtained her BSN from Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing in New York, her MSN in Nursing Education from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, and her Ph.D. from the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, where her research focused on the effectiveness of evidence-based practice and nursing research educational interventions on evidence-based practice use and competence among pediatric bedside nurses. Dr. Laibhen-Parkes is an assistant professor of nursing at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, and a pediatric nurse at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In the past five years, she has facilitated the sustainability of evidence-based practice at CHOA among nurses. In 2007, she developed an evidence-based practice and nursing research curriculum to help engage nurses with the practices. The evidence-based practice and nursing research won CHOA’s Honorable Mention in Education Excellence Award and the GCCI project won the Golden Apple Award at at CHOA’s 2010 Health Education Expo. The title of Dr. Laibhen-Parkes completed dissertation was: “Web-based evidence based practice educational intervention to improve EBP competence among BSN-prepared pediatric bedside nurses: A mixed methods pilot study.”