Leadership & Advocacy Conference 2025

 Julie is the KNA Lobbyist and has served four years on the Louisville Metro Council and 20 years in the Kentucky State Senate where she chaired the Senate Health and Welfare Committee for 16 of those years. In 2015, she founded the Denton Group, a government relations firm, which represents national, regional and local entities at the state and federal level. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville and has her Masters in Political Science.

Dr. Katie Boston-Leary is the Senior Vice President of Equity and Engagement at the American Nurses Association addressing DEIAB and workforce challenges within the profession. 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 2025 and ACHE. Katie leads the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and served on the National Academy of Science and Medicine’s National Plan to Address Clinician Well-Being supported by the previous U.S. Surgeon General. 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 award-winning documentary film, Everybody’s Work funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 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 will be inducted this year as a Fellow with American Organization of Nursing Leadership (AONL). She has conducted research on care delivery models, time allocation, racism and civilized oppression in nursing with Quint Studer, Joslin Insight and McKinsey. She is a well-known speaker internationally with many publications, podcasts and national outlets namely CNBC, NY Times, Cheddar TV, Axios, Beckers, Forbes, Bloomberg News and on NBC’s Today Show. 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 was recently identified August 2019 Health Leaders Journal as “One of Five Chief Nursing Officers Changing Healthcare”.  Her most recent research was a qualitative study on nurses’ perceptions of power dynamics in the hospital setting.  She is a well-known speaker nationally and internationally with many publications and podcast guest invitations.  She recently 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 stories in numerous print, online and televised media outlets namely CNBC, Cheddar TV, HR Maximizer and Bloomberg News. She recently co-authored an article titled, The US COVID‐19 Crisis: Facts, Science and Solidarity, which was published in the International Nursing Review (INR), the official journal of the International Council of Nurses (ICN).