Margaret M. Fitzpatrick

Ph.D., RN

Assistant Professor

She/Her/Hers

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Dr. Fitzpatrick’s research focuses on recognizing and amplifying the inherent resilience of youth and young adults navigating homelessness. Using a multidisciplinary, community-engaged approach, she examines how robust support systems and social determinants of health can be optimized to empower positive mental and physical health outcomes. 

Previously, Dr. Fitzpatrick served as a postdoctoral fellow with the Neighborhood Nursing team at Johns Hopkins University. Her work aims to build community capacity by informing policies and implementing universal care models that foster equitable, youth-centered, and participant-driven care.  

In her teaching, Dr. Fitzpatrick views the classroom as a diverse ecosystem where students are treated as future colleagues bringing unique knowledge and cognitive strengths. She emphasizes collaborative goal setting, drawing directly from her clinical experiences that intentionally shift away from deficit models to focus on individual and community assets.   

Her training and research have been supported by competitive funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the National Institutes of Health, including an F31 predoctoral fellowship and a T32 training fellowship. Dr. Fitzpatrick is dedicated to academic service and community empowerment, working to translate evidence-based research into impactful public health policies and compassionate clinical interventions.   

Research/Scholarship Interests

• Health equity and social determinants of health 

• Resilience in youth experiencing homelessness 

• Community-embedded nursing models 

• Biopsychosocial mechanisms of health 

• Strengths-based care and harm reduction 

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Nursing, Johns Hopkins University 

• PhD, Nursing, The Ohio State University 

• Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Quantitative Research Methods 

• BSN, Nursing, University of Connecticut 

Honors & Awards

• 2026: Journal of Pediatric Health Care’s Ellen Rudy Clore Excellence in Scholarly Writing Award  

• 2025: Selected Cohort Scholar, Yale CARES Training Program, Yale School of Nursing  

• 2024–2025: NIH/NINR F31 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health  

• 2024: Outstanding PhD Poster Award, Research Day, OSU College of Nursing  

• 2024: LIVE WELL Student Leadership Award, OSU College of Nursing  

• 2024: Third Place Award, MNRS PhD Student Poster Competition 

• 2021–2024: NIH/NINR T32 Training Grant Appointment, National Institutes of Health  

• 2020: Summa Cum Laude & Honors Scholar Distinction, University of Connecticut  

Selected Publications

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