Alison Colbert

Dr. Colbert is a Full Professor at the Duquesne University School of Nursing. She is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Public/Community Health with 15 years of experience in settings including jails, drug and alcohol treatment facilities, and community clinics.  She also conducts prenatal classes for incarcerated pregnant women. Dr. Colbert received her BA (in Journalism) from the University of Arizona, her MSN from the University of Texas at Austin, and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. Named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar in 2010, Dr. Colbert's clinical practice and research centers on health promotion in vulnerable populations. Her current research focuses on the development of an intensive care-management intervention to improve the health and well-being of women recently released from jail or prison. She has also been involved in research studies examining medication adherence for people living with HIV/AIDS, screening by nurses for interpersonal violence, and safe-sleep practices/SIDS prevention in high-risk populations. Colbert was also named the 2011 Junior Investigator by the Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association. In addition to her commitment to use nursing research and practice to improve care for the underserved, she is also very interested in the public policy issues related to health care for incarcerated women. 

Dr. Colbert teaches in the graduate programs in the School of Nursing, including the Graduate Forensic Nursing and PhD programs. She is active in several professional organizations including the International Association of Forensic Nurses (serving on the Education Committee) and APHA. She is a past-president of the Duquesne University School of Nursing's Sigma Theta Tau chapter and co-founder and co-chair of the Criminal Justice, Trauma, and Violence RIG of the Eastern Nurses Research Society. She serves as a reviewer for multiple journals, and an active member of her own community as a volunteer for organizations serving vulnerable women.

• PhD, Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, 2007
• MSN, Community/Public Health Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, 2002
• BA, Journalism, University of Arizona, 1993

• Public and community health
• Forensic nursing
• Campus based sexual assault
• Disability in nursing education