Caroline S. Nestro, PCNS, PhD, MS

Caroline Nestro, MS, RN, is an Associate Clinical Administrator in the Department of Psychiatry who, throughout her career, has been using strength-based approaches to patient care as well as in the provision of supervision and mentoring. She graduated with her BSN in 1980 from Adelphi University and obtained her Masters in Adult Mental Health Nursing from the University of Rochester in 1991. Her nursing career began in medical, surgical and intensive care settings. She has been with the Department of Psychiatry since 1984 and has worked across the continuum of care. Caroline has worked in a leadership capacity since 1998 and was instrumental in facilitating the creation of the Department of Psychiatry Advisory Council of Consumers in 2006. She chaired the Department's Diversity and Cultural Awareness Leadership Team between 2007-2014 and facilitated a variety of departmental, university and community activities aimed at facilitating learning and dialogue regarding inequity related to difference. Her interest in consultation approaches at the individual, group and organizational levels and her interest in advocacy align with her role as a patient- and family-centered care champion. She has worked on several projects that use film, literature, music and the arts to open discussions and raise awareness about lingering stigmas related to mental health, health inequalities, and Rochester's history, with a focus on race relations and community partnerships to promote mental health.

Caroline has been the recipient of the Excellence in Clinical Care Award, the Excellence in Psychiatric Nursing Award, has received a Distinguished Community Service Award from East House Corporation, and in 2014 received a Dr. David Satcher Community Health Improvement Award. She is pursuing her doctorate in human development where she is exploring the dynamics that prevent integration, across racial lines, of the health care workforce hierarchy. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.