Colleen Leners, D.N.P., FNP-BC, APRN
Fellowship Year(s): 2014-2015
Profession: Nurse
Specialty: Nursing
Fellowship Details:
1st Call Health
Sen Thune (R-SD)
California
At time of Fellowship
Colleen Leners most recently served as the traumatic brain injury (TBI) program manager for Naval Medical Center San Diego. She also worked as a clinical faculty member at the University of San Diego nurse practitioner program. Leners is a board-certified family nurse practitioner with a post-Master’s certificate specializing in emergency medicine.
Prior to becoming the TBI program manager, she was the principal nurse practitioner for the Wounded, Ill, and Injured Primary Care Clinic for the Comprehensive Combat & Complex Casualty Care (C5) Department, providing holistic care to service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before joining the C5 program, Leners served as a major in the U.S. Army. She deployed to Iraq as the officer in charge of the Outpatient Services Forward Operating Base. As the only female provider, she volunteered to leave the forward operating base to train Iraqi Army members and care for civilians. She was awarded the Bronze Star for her work with all echelons of the Combat Support Hospital.
Leners has held leadership positions in local and state nursing organizations primarily focusing on military and veterans’ health care issues and underserved populations of the community. She is past president of Sigma Theta Tau, Zeta Mu (2010-2014) and the Emergency Nurses Association of Nevada. She is active on the Health Policy and Practice Committee for the California Association of Nurse Practitioners. She was recently elected to the National Nominations Committee for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She has received numerous military and civilian awards, including Emergency Nurse of the Year (Nevada) and recognition as Health Care Champion in 2008 by the San Diego Business Journal.
Leners received her DNP from Case Western Reserve University, where she was honored with the Dean’s Legacy Award. She earned her MSN in the family nurse practitioner program from University of San Diego and BSN from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Current Info:
Chief Health Officer
1st Call Health
Health Care Workforce
Since Fellowship:
Dr. Colleen A. Leners, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAAN, FAANP, serves as the Chief Health Officer at 1stCallHEALTH, where she leads a team focused on veteran-centered care. A decorated military veteran and recipient of the Bronze Star, Dr. Leners brings over 30 years of experience in clinical, academic, and policy leadership. As the former Director of Policy at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), she guided national advocacy efforts and led National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research initiatives, including the “All of Us Research Program.”
In her role as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, Dr. Leners served on Senator John Thune’s staff, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ health. Currently, she is the Region 3 Director for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and serves on the boards of Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Case Western Reserve University Alumni. Dr. Leners holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) focus from the University of San Diego, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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