AANP President Elect
Colleen A. Leners, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAADN, FNAP, FAAN
Dr. Colleen Leners is the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) president-elect.
Dr. Leners has spent more than four decades in military, clinical, academic, executive and policy leadership, with a career that has helped shape health care delivery and nursing education nationally. Her military service includes the U.S. Navy Reserve Nurse Corps and U.S. Army Nurse Corps, including a deployment to Iraq with the 47th Combat Support Hospital, where she earned the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service and leadership.
She most recently served as chief health officer at 1stCallHEALTH, leading integrated health care services for veterans across the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia region. Earlier in her career, she was director of policy for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), where she led national policy initiatives and oversaw more than $1.3 million in NIH-funded workforce and precision medicine programs. She also served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator John Thune on the Senate Finance Committee.
Dr. Leners is widely recognized for her work in nursing policy, workforce development, veteran health equity, resilience research and academic progression. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing; the American Association of Nurse Practitioners; the National Academies of Practice; and the Academy of Associate Degree Nursing. She serves on the board of directors of the OADN Foundation; the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing Alumni Board at Case Western Reserve University; and is an Ambassador for the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR).
She was also selected as a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) American Service Fellow for senior public service leaders. During her AANP president-elect year, she’ll pursue a Mid-Career Master in Public Administration at HKS while continuing to work per diem clinically, before stepping into the AANP presidency.