Featured Speakers & Highlights

Featured Presentations at the APNA 36th Annual Conference

APNA President’s Address

Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses Activating Our Voices as We Evolve in Our Profession
Thursday 10/20 
Leslie G. Oleck, MSN, PMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC, LMFT

Leslie Oleck has been a psychiatric-mental health nurse for 40 years. Leslie graduated from Indiana University with a master’s in nursing as a psychiatric mental health clinical nurse specialist (PMHCNS), and later returned to complete a post-master’s degree as a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP). She has had a solo practice of psychotherapy with specific interest in trauma survivors, conducted consultation/liaison psychiatric nursing in hospital settings, and has been a medication manager and psychotherapist in university and community facilities.

Leslie has been active in APNA as Practice Council Chair and Council for Mental Health Advocacy Co-Chair, as well as having been a Sigma Board Scholar mentored by Mary Moller, DNP, PMHCNS, and the APNA Board; later being voted onto the Board by APNA members. She has enjoyed teaching undergraduate and graduate nursing students, and currently mentors RNs and APRNs as they strive to dignify the lives of their patients while contributing to nursing and mental health care. As a nurse leader, Leslie has advocated for recognition for psychiatric-mental health nurses on state and national levels and has influenced change in organizations and political systems. She celebrates the over 15,000 psychiatric-mental health nurses of APNA who prevent suicide and support wellness daily!

Keynote Presentation

How Racism, Socioeconomic Status, & Stress Affect Mental Health: And What We Can Do About It
Friday 10/21 
David R. Williams, MPH, PhD

Dr. Williams is the Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also a Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard. Previously, he was a faculty member at Yale and the University of Michigan. The author of more than 500 scientific papers, his research has addressed how race, stress, socioeconomic status, racism, health behavior and religious involvement can affect health.

David has been ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences, and as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He was a scientific advisor to the award-winning PBS film series, Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick? His research has also been featured in the national print and television media and in his TED Talk. He served as a co-chair of the recently released National Academy of Medicine Report on the Future of Nursing 2020-2030.