Colleen Leners is the Director of Policy at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). AACN serves as the voice of academic nursing, encompassing education, research, and practice. Dr. Leners was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the office of Senator John Thune (R-SD) of the Senate Finance Committee. Dr. Leners, alongside the staff at the Senate Finance Committee, managed the Medicare and Medicaid portfolios and worked on issues of veteran’s care in Senator Thune’s office. She has maintained an active family nurse practitioner practice for over 25 years and has served our country in the United States Army Nurse Corps, which after multiple deployments overseas was honorably discharged. She has many notable achievements both civilian and military and was inducted as a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and awarded the Bronze Star for her service overseas.

Dr. Leners has served as the Traumatic Brain Injury Program manager, created a nurse-managed primary care clinic for Wounded Warriors at Navy Medical Center San Diego. She has also been a registered nurse and nurse practitioner for three decades. She received her DNP in Leadership from Case Western Reserve University, MSN FNP from University of San Diego and her BSN from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Aimee is a psychiatric and addictions nurse practitioner. Her background in nursing includes public health, mental health and addictions nursing. She is currently a senior instructor at the University of Colorado in the college of nursing and Denver Springs. She is a grant recipient from National Institute of Drug Abuse and American Association of Colleges of Nursing to educate nurses on opioid use disorders and medication assisted treatment. To date she has trained over 2,500 nurses nationwide as a part of her grant. Aimee’s clinical and research expertise include creating and implementing new evidence guidelines to low-barrier approaches to medication assisted treatment for substance use disorders in integrated care settings to reduce stigma and improve access to care. Aimee is also the clinical director for a $5 million legislative initiative to expand access to medication assisted treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in rural Colorado counties. Aimee’s work on the initiative included the creation and deployment of a state-wide medication assisted treatment for Opioid Use Disorder toolkit that facilitates provider ease in treating OUD. She is also currently the PI spearheading an integrated, multiyear, state-funded maternal/child SUD research project to reduce maternal mortality due to drug overdose and to improve infant-related health indictors. She continues to grow her research and expertise by pursuing her PhD by studying novel biomarkers in substance use disorder.

Brayden Kameg is an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP-BC), and a certified addictions registered nurse (CARN). Primarily, her research and clinical interests include substance use disorders and addiction, with focused interest in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and opioid use management. She also has expertise in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their association with adult substance use disorders, and recently evaluated rates of ACEs and substance use disorders in a sample of nearly 700 undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

She was awarded funding through the AACN and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Mentored Training Program to develop and disseminate training materials regarding opioid use management. She worked with various professional nursing organizations to broadly disseminate these training materials, which included a three-webinar series, and then sought feedback in regards to barriers to and facilitators of opioid use management in clinical practice, particularly buprenorphine prescribing.

Yovan Gonzalez is a family nurse practitioner working as a primary care provider for the NYC Health + Hospitals system. At Gouverneur Health, Yovan has led efforts to integrate behavioral health into primary care by participating as a member of the Integrated Mental Health Services (IMHS) committee. Yovan was also the first nurse practitioner at Gouverneur to be waivered to prescribe buprenorphine. At the Roberto Clemente Center, he has focused on providing integrated care at a behavioral health facility whose clients are mainly Hispanic. He has also successfully integrated a buprenorphine clinic and screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) into routine clinical practice.

Yovan is originally from Lima, Peru. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his BSN and MSN. Yovan recently completed his Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP) degree and his post-master’s psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) certificate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. His DNP scholarly project focused on increasing nurses’ knowledge in the screening and management of substance use through an online SBIRT program. Yovan was a doctoral fellow of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Minority Fellowship Program and a finalist of the Don Quixote Award for the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry in 2019. Yovan also has several publications based on his doctoral work.

Dr. Novak is a professor teaching online courses for the Aspen University’s School of Nursing programs. She teaches classes for all three of the program offerings: DNP, MSN, and RN-BSN. Dr. Novak is board certified in Nursing Professional Development and is a Fellow in the Academy of Emergency Nursing. She has over 30 years of experience in adult education and continuing professional development for healthcare professionals. Dr. Novak is also the President and CEO of AEN Services, LLC, which provides consultation, continuing professional development, and conference management services. She is also a Peer Reviewer for NCNA/ANCC. Her doctorate is in Public Health: Community Health & Education, she holds 2 masters degrees, 2 bachelors degrees, and 1 associate degree (and a Partridge in a pear tree!). She is the poster child for lifelong learning.

Dr. Brasher has 10 years of experience teaching prelicensure nursing students on the subject of Pediatric Nursing. She is a pediatric Registered Nurse and Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with extensive experience in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. She obtained her PhD in Nursing with a minor in neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She is recognized as a content expert in Pediatrics and is actively involved in curricula development.

Ruth Gallego is an AACN-CDC Public Health Nursing Fellowship with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She co-leads the Immunization Resources for Undergraduate Nursing (IRUN) project. She earned her MPH with a specialization in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Washington University in St Louis and her BS in Nursing from CUNY College of Staten Island.

Colleen Leners is the Director of Policy at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in Washington, D.C. AACN serves as the voice of academic nursing, encompassing education, research, and practice. Dr. Leners was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the office of Senator John Thune (R-SD) of the Senate Finance Committee. Colleen serves on the Case Western Reserve Alumni Board and many committees for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). She has maintained an active family nurse practitioner practice for over 26 years and has served our country in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She has many notable achievements both civilian and military and was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Dr. Leners was awarded the Bronze Star for her service overseas.

Dr. Leners served as a Traumatic Brian Injury Program manager, created a nurse-managed primary care clinic for Wounded Warriors at Navy Medical Center San Diego (C5). She has also been a registered nurse and nurse practitioner for nearly four decades.

She received her DNP in Leadership from Case Western Reserve University, MSN FNP from University of San Diego and her BSN from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Rachel Stevenson, joined the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in June 2018 as the Director of Government Affairs. Rachel leads the Association’s daily advocacy efforts and works closely with Members of Congress, their staff, coalitions, and AACN membership to advance health and health care through a nursing lens. Rachel compliments these efforts as the Executive Director of the Nursing Community Coalition, which is convened by AACN. The Nursing Community Coalition is a 63-member organization that is a cross section of nursing education, practice, research, and regulation.

Prior to her arrival Rachel spent eight years as a Legislative Director and Senior Legislative Assistant at Polsinelli and Wheat Government Relations, respectively. In those roles, she provided critical advice and advocacy on behalf of a wide-array of health care clients, including AACN.