From a young age, reading inspired Robin Jacobs to live a life dedicated to helping people.
“As a kid, people would play outside and I would be arguing with my mother that I wanted to go to the library. I spent a lot of time reading and knew I really wanted to help people in some way,” said Jacobs.
Originally from the Central Valley area of New Mexico, Jacobs, assistant professor of preventive medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, grew up in a poor family. No one in her family had a college degree, so after high school, she didn’t go to college right away. Instead, she worked at a health food store.
One day, she hurt her back and someone recommended she see a massage therapist. After a few weeks, her pain disappeared, developing her interest in how the mind, body and spirit work together. She was inspired to enroll in massage school, where she learned about health anatomy, physiology and healing from a holistic standpoint.
Years later, Jacobs attended the University of New Mexico, where she became interested in the philosophical and theoretical aspects of medicine. She decided that she didn’t want to practice medicine; instead, she wanted to examine medical theories and develop programs to help people in need of medical treatment. She switched her major and pursued a bachelor’s in health education.
After graduating, Jacobs traveled and worked to design a program that would help protect children living with abusive, alcoholic and drug-addicted parents. She traveled throughout Latin America and lived in Mexico before returning to the U.S. and continuing her education at San Diego State University.
She felt that receiving her master’s in social work would allow her to help people, not just medically, but administratively and on a larger scale.
“I wanted to look at how communities, neighborhoods, nations and countries worked to help the vulnerable. I wanted to help decrease health desperation of all kinds,” said Jacobs.
While in graduate school, Jacobs’ professors helped her recognize her passion for seeking answers to problems that affected many people. Jacobs learned to create plans and generate ideas, which led her to focus on research.
“I found that, for me, the answer was through research. Science is not truth. It is as close to truth as you can get, and the more rigorously you do research, the closer you are to the truth,” said Jacobs.
Once she completed her master’s, Jacobs traveled, volunteered as a translator and participated in community affairs projects throughout Latin America. She next returned to the U.S. to earn her doctorate in social welfare at Florida International University.
During her time at FIU, Jacobs was part of a research fellowship that focused on health desperation, a field that studies people who do not have the means to seek medical help. She also conducted research on large populations to develop strategies to improve society’s health and well-being.
In 2008, after doing much work and research with Hispanic populations, Jacobs read an article about HIV prevention in female migrant workers in South Florida.
The article’s author, Maria Fernandez, a medical researcher at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, agreed to meet to discuss Jacob’s research. Twenty minutes into the meeting, Fernandez told Jacobs she should work at NSU. They met with the dean and Jacobs was offered a job.
“I was asked to leave a stable position and said OK. I didn’t care as long as I got to work with people who wanted to help and do good work,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs wrote grant proposals for the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focusing on ethnic minorities. She was also offered and accepted the position of director of global medicine at NSU, through which she set up and directed mission trips abroad. In these trips, medical students and doctors set up clinics and supplied free medical care to underserved populations.
Today, Jacobs continues to direct mission trips to Vietnam, Peru, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh and Ecuador and conducts research on the physical problems people have in different countries due to the types of work they do and the places they live. She also teaches research methods classes in behavioral science, biomedical informatics, and research and grant writing. She is a member of NSU’s Health Professions Division Research
Committee, working with a panel of professionals from all the HPD schools to talk about research and grant proposals for the university.
Jacobs said the medical research field is intellectually and physically challenging and that it requires constantly having to think critically, but students should go for it if that’s what they want to do.
“The important thing is to love what you do every day,” she said. “If you don’t like what you are doing, then don’t do it because everything else is just noise. So just focus on what you want to do and the money will come.”
