Alumni Spotlights

Read our interviews below to hear from alumni about the awesome work that they have been doing since graduation!

Katie Nelson, PhD

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, PhD, '23

What SOURCE activities or other service/community-based activities were you involved with while a student at JHU?

SOURCE Student Governing Board | 2019-2023
SOURCE Service Scholars Program | 2020-2021 - with Roberta's House
Baltimore Action Project | 2022-2023 - with Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
SOURCE Federal Work-Study Research Assistant | 2022-2023 

What have you been up to since graduation, and what are you doing currently?

I have been learning how to not be a student.🙂 I'm still in Baltimore; finding ways to pour into our incredible community where I'm able to. I started working as a Nurse Scientist in the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health (JHCIH) and have an adjunct appointment at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JHSON) since August 2023. At JHCIH, I work across many of our behavioral health projects liaising and supporting tribal communities with a range of health-related challenges, and at JHSON I teach community-based public health clinical.

Have you been involved with any community service/volunteer work or community-based professional work since graduating?

I still stalk the SOURCE Scoop every week to see what's happening in the area! My husband and I are big supporters of Moveable Feast and Friends of Patterson Park - we try to volunteer with them as much as we can. I love teaching clinical and getting students out into the community to amazing organizations supporting older adults like GEDCO, Lori's Hands, and Waters Towers, to show them how important nurses are outside of hospital settings, too!

What lessons did you take away from your time with SOURCE, and how did those lessons help you get where you are today?

Getting linked in with the community - outside of the Johns Hopkins bubble - was so important to me when I moved to Baltimore 10 years ago. SOURCE facilitated meaningful opportunities for me to engage, intentional spaces for me to reflect on my positionality, strengths, etc., and introduced me to a network of people I'll always hold dear.