Dr. Katie Boston-Leary is the Senior Vice President of Equity and Engagement at the American Nurses Association. Katie is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and the School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She is a board member for St. John’s University Health Programs, Hippocratic AI and Ingenovis Health and an editorial advisory board member with Nursing Management, Nursing 2023 and ACHE. Katie serves as staff on the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and is also part of the National Academy of Science and Medicine’s National Plan to Address Clinician Well-Being supported by the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Katie authored two chapters in The Sage Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy, the first encyclopedia focused on racism and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Katie was also featured in the documentary film, Everybody’s Work, produced by SHIFT Nursing film funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Katie also led a National Nurse Staffing Think Tank and Task Force, which published actionable recommendations to address the nurse staffing crisis. She is also a 2024 International Council of Nurses (ICN) Global Nurse Leadership Institute Scholar. Katie has also testified on panels and roundtables on Capitol Hill on the nurse staffing crisis and regulatory burden on hospitals and nurses. She also serves as faculty for IHI’s Health Equity Program for senior leaders.

She was identified in August 2019 Health Leaders Media Journal as “One of Five Chief Nursing Officers Changing Healthcare”. She also won the ICABA TD Bank 2023 Woman of Impact award and the 2024 Spectrum Circle Award for Innovation in Health. She was recently inducted as a Distinguished Fellow at the Academy of Diversity Leaders in Nursing with the National Black Nurses Association and as a Fellow with American Organization of Nursing Leadership.

She has conducted research on care delivery models and time allocation with Quint Studer, Joslin Insight and McKinsey. She is a well-known speaker nationally and internationally with many publications and podcast guest invitations. She completed her PhD at Walden University in Health Services, obtained a dual degree MBA and MHA from the University of Maryland Global Campus and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Bowie State University in Maryland.  She is a board-certified Nurse Executive and obtained a nurse executive leadership certificate from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been interviewed for numerous print, online and televised media outlets namely CNBC, NY Times, Cheddar TV, Axios, Beckers, Forbes and Bloomberg News. She has authored numerous articles on staffing, diversity and leadership and was featured on NBC’s Today Show to discuss the nurse staffing crisis that is impacting health care delivery.