Dr. Francine Bono-Neri
About Dr. Bono-neri
Dr. Francine Bono-Neri is a proud member of the nursing profession with over 32 years of experience. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner, academic nurse educator, trained sexual assault nurse examiner, researcher, published author, invited speaker, and nurse leader.
Dr. Bono-Neri earned her BSN in 1992 from Adelphi University, and graduated cum laude from New York University with her MA and title as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in 1997. In 2021, Dr. Bono-Neri graduated summa cum laude from Molloy University, earning her Ph.D. in Nursing Research,
Leadership, and Health Policy.
Dr. Bono-Neri served as a Director-at-Large for the American Nurses Association for the State of New York, as President for the Long Island Chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, and was the Founding Chair and Director of an LPN program in Long Island City, NY.
In 2019, Dr. Bono-Neri entered the anti-trafficking space after recognizing her failure in identifying a case of trafficking in the pediatric clinical setting and her ultimate failure as a mandated reporter. She immediately pivoted her focus to anti-trafficking measures and vowed that she would do everything in her power to close this knowledge gap in the healthcare professions so that no other victim would be failed by another healthcare professional.
Dr. Bono-Neri is the recipient of a prestigious Nurses Educational Funds (NEF) National Scholarship. As a way of giving back and to empower other nursing colleagues to enter the anti-trafficking space, she has established a scholarship in perpetuity through NEF, The Francine Bono-Neri Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a master’s or doctoral nursing student pursuing clinical expertise or scholarly work in the area of human trafficking and anti-trafficking measures.
Dr. Bono-Neri was inducted as an Associate Member into the New York Academy of Medicine, and as a Nurse Leader into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She was awarded a Nassau County Legislature Citation and was recognized at the United Nations, receiving the 2024 Inspiring Global Nurse Award and the 2024 International Ceca Award. She is to be inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) in November of 2024.
Dr. Bono-Neri is the Co-founder and President of Nurses United Against Human Trafficking, P.A., a global professional association created for the sole purpose of combatting modern-day slavery by educating, equipping, and empowering diverse discipline professionals, with a particular focus on healthcare and law enforcement, on human trafficking and anti-trafficking measures.