Leslie Oleck is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, an educator and an advocate for nurses and mental healthcare.

Ms. Oleck advocates for people with mental health needs and for nurses who care for them. She is Immediate Past President of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association where 15,000 psychiatric nurses prevent suicide in this peri-COVID era. She works with the Coalition of Advanced Practice Nurses of Indiana and the Indiana State Nurses Association to improve mental health care access and in the prevention of mental health and substance use disorders. She had a sustainable practice of psychotherapy treating mental health and substance use disorders with diverse populations.Additionally, she did consultation/liaison psychiatric nursing in large urban hospitals and outpatient medication management. As an educator, she taught students healthcare advocacy as they contacted policy makers on state and national levels.

Ms. Oleck has co-chaired the Mental Health Advocacy Council of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, was the first APRN on the Indiana Alzheimer’s Research Council, and the first psychiatric APRN on the Advanced Practice Council of the Indiana University Hospital network. She continues to influence policy for mental health care, nurses and nursing students.

Ms. Oleck obtained her RNBS, MSN and post-master’s certificate from Indiana University.