Debbie Y. Stevens

PhD, MSN, PMHCNS-BC , Doctoral (Alumni)

Debbie Stevens, PhD, MSN, PMHCNS-BC, graduated with her PhD from Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in 2014. Dr. Stevens doctoral work with African-American caregivers was selected by the Dean of Graduate Studies and featured on Emory University’s website. She was also recognized by Emory’s school of nursing with the outstanding PhD student award in 2014. Dr. Stevens was the John A. Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholar from 2011 to 2013. Dr. Stevens conducted a mixed methods study examining chronic stress and burden in African American caregivers of adults with dementia. She explored relationships between race related stressors like discrimination along with traditional caregiver burden. The main outcome variables for this project included depression, anxiety, burden and c-reactive protein. Dr. Stevens’s faculty advisor was Kenneth Hepburn at Emory University. Other committee members include: David Williams, PhD, MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, FAAN at University of Virginia, Jenny Foster, PhD, RN at Emory University and Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, PhD, MPH from the Centers of Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Stevens is a dual-certified Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist and Adult Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with over 13 years of experience in both acute care and outpatient settings. During her PhD program, Dr. Stevens was also a Janssan scholar of the American Psychiatric Nursing Association (2011) and is currently a member of American Nurses Association, International Society of Psychiatric Nurses and Sigma Theta Tau International. She is married and has two daughters and one son.