With a career stretching back 50 years when she graduated with a nursing degree, few nurses can claim to be as experienced as Brighton Heights resident Jerry Ann Allen. Though if you ask her, her dream of becoming a nurse goes back much farther than that.
“At age 6, I knew that I wanted to be a nurse,” Allen told The Chronicle.
Having graduated from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, Allen’s duties as a nurse took her to Fort Worth, Texas; Knoxville, Tennessee; Indianapolis, Indiana; and finally to Pittsburgh, helping countless patients along the way.
In June, Allen received some much deserved recognition for her service when she was presented with an Innovator Award at the 18th Evelyn Paige Parker Scholarship Brunch organized by Pittsburgh Black Nurses in Action, which was held on June 3 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
As the name implies, Pittsburgh Black Nurses in Action is an African American nursing association, and is part of the National Black Nurses in Action. The Innovator Award celebrates Black nurses who have paved the way for future members of the profession.
Allen is known locally for co-founding Allen Place Community Services Inc., which coordinated health programs with local churches in order to see to the wellbeing of their congregations and offering health education until the organization’s dissolution in 2025.
Further, she and her husband are the namesake of the Dr. Milton and Jerry Ann Allen Family Nursing Scholarship, which helps Pennsylvania nursing students, and particularly African American ones, afford nursing education.
Joanne Boyd, president of Pittsburgh Black Nurses, called Allen a “pillar of the community,” noting her support for many nursing organizations and funding of scholarship opportunities.
“She’s just a solid partner for us,” Boyd said.
Allen described being honored by Pittsburgh Black Nurses as a “legendary” feeling. She said she first got interested in nursing during a kindergarten health program she attended at age 6, during which she found that she loved to help out her fellow students.
“(In) everything I’ve done, the patient comes first,” she said.
This interest became a passion at the age of 12, when a friend of hers was struck by a car. Allen said that during the wait for the ambulances to arrive, she realized that she needed to know more about healthcare so she can help people in accidents.
During high school, she began working in a nursing training program and hasn’t looked back since.
Allen was one of three Innovator awardees as the scholarship brunch. One of the other honorees, Lorraine Starsky, also has ties to the Northside, having worked for more than five years with Project Destiny, a California-Kirkbride organization social services agency.
