Rachel H. Adler, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC, AGNP-C

Rachel Adler joined the UT faculty in Fall 2021.  She was formerly Professor of Anthropology at The College of New Jersey, where she taught and conducted research in anthropology, nursing, public health, and sociology.  Dr. Adler practiced inpatient psychiatric nursing as an RN for almost a decade.  She is currently an advanced practice nurse, board-certified in both Psychiatric Mental Health and Adult-Gerontology Primary Care. Dr. Adler’s research and clinical interests include medical and urban anthropology, men’s health, community health, providing care to the severely mentally ill, correctional nursing, cultural competence, health disparities, race and ethnicity, and immigration to the US.  Her book, Yucatecans in Dallas: Breaching the Border Bridging the Distance, studies a community of Mexican migrants in Texas. The documentary she produced, “From the Burg to El Barrio” highlights her investigation of ethnic transition in the formerly Italian Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, NJ. A recent publication, in The Journal of Men’s Studies, examines the relationship between homelessness and incarceration among inner-city men.  She is currently researching gender-appropriate strategies for health care providers to address the high rates of male suicide in the US.

• Professional Background

  Education

  • 2021 - Post-Graduate Certificate - Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner - Liberty University
  • 2018 - Master of Science in Nursing - Gerontology Nurse Practitioner. - The College of New Jersey
  • 2009 - Bachelor of Science in Nursing - Nursing - Drexel University
  • 2000 - Doctor in Philosophy - Anthropology - Arizona State University
  • 1992 - Master of Arts - Anthropology - Arizona State University
  • 1989 - Bachelor of Science - Secondary Education - State University of New York College at Oneonta

  Highlights

  Licensures and Certifications

  • Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (Texas, NJ)
  • Registered Nurse (Texas, NJ, PA)
  • Board Certification Psychiatric Mental Health by American Nurses Credentialing Center
  • Board Certification Adult/Gerontology Primary Care by American Association of Nurse Practitioners

   

  Honors and Awards

  • 2009, Sigma Theta Tau International nursing honor society (induction)
  • 2000 Phi Kappa Phi honor society (induction)

   

  Appointments

  • 2021 - present - Professor/Clinical - UT Health San Antonio, School of Nursing
  • 2020 - Full Professor - The College of New Jersey
  • 2005 -2020 - Associate Professor - The College of New Jersey
  • 2001 - 2005 - Assistant Professor - The College of New Jersey
  • 2019 - Advanced Practice Nurse - ID Care, Hillsborough, NJ
  • 2017 - 2018 - Staff Registered Nurse - New Jersey State Prison, PRN through Axion LLC
  • 2014 - 2016 - Staff RN - Princeton House Inpatient Psychiatry, University Medical Center of Princeton/Plainsboro

• Research & Grants

  Grants

  Grants 

  • 2004, Funder: The New Jersey Historical Commission. Dollars: $14,000. Title: The Chambersburg Immigration Project

  Research Opportunities:

  • 2020-Present,  Suicide prevention/collaboration between primary care and psychiatry in the era of COVID-19
  • 2019-Present, The Black Swan Project: Challenging confirmation bias on campus
  • 2017 - 2019, Recognizing the Indiscernible Lives among Us: Telling the Stories of the Trenton Homeless.
  • 2015 - 2019, Exploring Meanings of Rule Breaking Behaviors among Committed Psychiatric Patients at Princeton House.
  • 2010 - 2016, Latina Myths Project. This project examines a compilation of oral traditions about prenatal care collected from Latina mothers in the Trenton area. The goals of the project are to educate biomedical clinicians about the cultural traditions of this patient population and to create a bridge between two paradigms of knowledge: Latino traditional culture and the Western biomedical model.

   

• Service

  Service to the Profession

  Professional Affiliations

  • American Association of Nurse Practitioners
  • Transcultural Nursing Society
  • American Psychiatric Nurses Association
  • Schizophrenia International Research Society
  • American Anthropological Association
  • Society for Medical Anthropology
  • Society for Applied Anthropology
  • Heterodox Academy
  • Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism

   

  Community Service

  • 2018, TCNJ medical mission in Haiti
  • 2018, Collaboration with Rescue Mission of Trenton
  • 2010, Volunteer in ED of St. Francis Medical Center
  • Guest speaker at Children’s Home Society, United Way of NJ, El Centro Family Resource Center
  • Member and past Coordinator of the former group ImmPACT: Immigrants’ Public Advocacy Coalition of Trenton
  • 2002 - 2007, Volunteer for El Centro Hispanic Family Resource Center in Trenton, NJ

• Publications

  • “Men and Suicide: Primary Care Prevention in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond.” Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In press.
  • 2021, Adler, RH. The Nexus of Homelessness and Incarceration: The Case of Homeless Men in Trenton, NJ. The Journal of Men’s Studies 29 (3): 335-353.
  • “Bucking the System: Mitigating Psychiatric Patient Rule Breaking for a Safer Milieu”. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 34 (2020): 100-106.
  • 2020, “Burkitt’s Lymphoma Presenting with Fever of Unknown Origin and Isolated Hypoglossal Nerve Palsy” with Kathleen Seneca and Ronald Nahass. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 32 (5): 354-56.
  • 2012, “From the Burg to the Barrio”. Documentary. Co-Producer.
  • 2008, Yucatecans in Dallas: Breaching the Border, Bridging the Distance. Second edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
  • 2007, "But I do academic anthropology!: Advocacy, Ethics, and the Politics of Research" Practicing Anthropology. 
  • 2007, “Latina immigrant victims of interpersonal violence in New Jersey: A Needs Assessment Study” The Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma (coauthored with Maria Zarza, Ph.D.)
  • 2006, “But they claimed to be police, not la migra!: The Interaction of Residency Status, Class and Ethnicity in a (post-PATRIOT Act) New Jersey Neighborhood.” American Behavioral Scientist 50, September 2006, vol. 1 Pg. 48-69
  • 2005, Review of Crossing the Border: Research from the Mexican Migration Project. Douglas Massey and Jorge Durand eds. Contemporary Sociology 34: 649-50.
  • 2005, “Oye compadre, the chef needs a dishwasher: Yucatecan Men in the Dallas Restaurant Economy.” Urban Anthropology.
  • 2005, “Latinos/as in New Jersey” in Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Suzanne Oboler and Deena González eds. Oxford University Press.
  • 2004, “Guatemalans.” Immigrant and Refugee Health: A Handbook for Health Professionals.  Cambridge University Press.
  • 2002,  “Patron-Client Ties, Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Transnational Migration: The Case of Yucatecans in Dallas, Texas.” Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development  31: 129-162.
  • 2001, Are You a Real Refugee? A Critique of Official Classifications of Migrant Types from a Political Economy Perspective.  Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants Vol. IX Washington D.C.: Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, American Anthropological Association
  • 2000, “Human Agency in International Migration: The Maintenance of Transnational Social Fields by Yucatecan Migrants in a Southwestern City.” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 16(1): 165-187.

   

  Presentations

  • 2021 “Men and Suicide: Primary Care Prevention in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond.” Presented at American Psychiatric Nurses Association.
  • 2020, Comments on Ilana Redstone’s Paper “The Silent Crisis in the Classroom” Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conference.
  • 2018, “Housing Insecurity in a Small City: Telling the Stories of the Trenton Homeless”. Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings.
  • 2017, “Moving toward Quality and Equitable Healthcare in NJ”. Panel discussion. TCNJ.
  • 2017, “Exploring Meanings of Rule Breaking among Patients in a Psychiatric Hospital”. presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings.
  • 2016, Screenings of “From the ‘Burg to the Barrio”: Annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada