Growing Our Own Leaders

Deb Center and I are just back from a visit to meet with healthcare leaders in SW Colorado to discuss how we can support building a “Grow Your Own” healthcare leadership program in the region. More and more the message, from both around Colorado and the nation, is that if we expect to create a sustainable succession of healthcare leaders, we will have more success doing it from within our own communities. Finding, and affording, housing in many areas of Colorado is difficult even with a livable wage, so asking people to relocate every time there is an opportunity for professional development and job growth is not always reasonable. If people can grow from within their own or nearby communities without needing to move with all the challenges associated with moving, wouldn’t that be best? We think so. I believe this is a wonderful strategy to build our healthcare workforce and upskill our next generation of nurses. More about this later, but for now, I want to encourage you to think about what creating a healthcare leadership development program in your community might look like.

Several Center staff members are headed to the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers meeting in La Jolla, CA in a few weeks. I am hoping that we have a strong turnout from Colorado for this event, as so many of the nurses in the state are trailblazers in nursing. Speaking of trailblazers, the Nightingale Awards always highlight the great work happening in nursing in the state. While it isn’t possible to highlight everyone who was honored at the event as so many of you are changing the world in how you practice, I congratulate all the winners. I do, however, want to identify a few people who have been wonderful partners with the Center over the years that I want to congratulate personally. Lola Fehr was a luminary for her long-standing work in nursing across the country. She was honored last year by the University of Colorado with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” and this luminary honor was well deserved! Additionally, Dr. Amy Barton, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Students at the University of Colorado was honored with a Nightingale award for Excellence in Nursing Eminence. Dr. Barton’s long list of accomplishments is too long to list here, but it is wonderful to see her honored for her years of service supporting the development of the nursing profession in our state. Well deserved!

Thank you for all you do! You matter. You set an example for our next generation of healthcare providers and I am proud to call myself a nurse.



Ingrid Johnson DNP, MPP, RN, FAAN

President and CEO