The Invest in Nursing grant has had great success over the past three years in the partnership between UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing and Piedmont Health Services, Inc., with three cohorts of Student Scholars from UNC Chapel Hill, and with three cohorts of Faculty Fellows from across the State of North Carolina. This program is a time-limited grant funded opportunity, provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and will no longer continue programming in this current iteration after the 2021-2022 cohort year. It is our hope that other educational entities will use Invest in Nursing as a blueprint for implementing similar programming. Reach Out

Rachel McInerney, DNP, FNP-BC

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Rachel McInerney is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a novice professor, starting in July 2020, teaching in both the graduate and undergraduate programs. She teaches public health, reproductive health, and medical-surgical clinicals. She also teaches advanced practice physical assessment, primary care for NPs, and sexual and reproductive health for the advanced practice nurse. Additionally, she serves on the Inclusive Excellence and the Baccalaureate Admissions committees.  

 Prior to starting her career at UNC, Dr. McInerney developed a passion for working with underserved communities. From 2013, Rachel worked as a family nurse practitioner at Chatham County Health Department. It was here that she was a provider to those in the maternal, child, family planning, adult, and STD programs. An advocate for risk reduction, Rachel found the health department setting to be an area where she could best help the community. It was at Chatham County Health Department that she was able to implement her DNP project: Implementation of an Opioid Overdose Prevention Program in a Rural Health Department.  

 Dr. McInerney has a B.A in Biology from Alfred University and received her ABSN and MSN from UNC-CH. She finished her DNP at ECU. She is scheduled to start a Psychiatric Mental Health NP certificate program this Fall. Rachel is from “everywhere,” as her father was in Marine Corps, but she has lived in NC for over 20 years. She currently resides in Chatham County with her spouse and three children Connor (10), Claire (6), and Harper (4). She and her family enjoy boating on Jordan Lake and traveling