Meet Dr. Nanci Bobrow

We could not let Women’s History Month pass without taking the opportunity to recognize some of the women who have been so important to the Saint Louis Crisis Nursery.

Today we would like you to meet Dr. Nanci Bobrow.

In 1986, Dr. Bobrow was seeing children victims of sexual abuse and the non-offending spouses in her role as a Psychologist. It was heart-wrenching therapy. Dr. Bobrow says, “I would go to court as an expert witness Psychologist and in one especially awful case, after testifying as to what the children had told me, drawn for me and cried about with me, the jury awarded custody of the children to the father/abuser. There were many other sad stories, and I was angry for much of the time at the system especially. I thought that this was not the way this should be - PREVENTION of this scourge of child abuse was what was needed.”

 How long have you been involved with the Saint Louis Crisis Nursery?

I knew about the move to start Saint Louis Crisis Nursery (by the Junior League of St. Louis) and applauded the efforts. I was working, our children were smaller, my husband, Jim (Dr. James Bobrow) was in the early years of his practice and it was a hectic time, but when the Nursery got up and running I wanted to be involved.  I approached the Crisis Nursery founders and asked to join the Board of this wonderful new organization which aimed to prevent child abuse and help strengthen families. The Nursery was about a year or two old. I think it was 1988 and I have been on the Board since then.

What are you most proud of regarding the Crisis Nursery?

I was on the Search Committee that hired DiAnne Mueller, our CEO. I watched the Nursery grow to our second site at Christian Northeast and then to St. Charles and onwards. I was Board President through some of this growth and very proud to see our prevention efforts supported and embraced. I remained as Board President for 5 years.

I am so proud of the Outreach Centers and our Family Empowerment Program. I am proud that we serve 6,500 children a year, touching over 117, 000 children in our tenure serving the metro community. The therapeutic model is strong and sound and effective in preventing child abuse. We have the outcome data and parent satisfaction surveys to prove it. I love our outreach to the homeless, our art therapy and Latino outreach program. Our collaborations are key, and I am proud of those. DiAnne is truly amazing with her calling to do this truly spiritual work. 

The Saint Louis Crisis Nursery is honored to have Dr. Bobrow as part of our family for over for 30 years. Much of the Nursery’s success is because of the support of amazing people like Dr. Nanci Bobrow.