Kelly Goudreau, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, FCNS, FAAN, is Associate Director Patient Care Services/Nurse Executive for the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center (KCVAMC), a role to which she was appointed in April 2017. Her career with the Veterans Health Administration began in 2011 after working in the private sector for several years.
As a Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health, Goudreau is a past president of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists. She also received the 2010 Brenda Lyon Leadership Award from the organization in recognition of her involvement in nursing leadership initiatives at the local, regional and national levels. Goudreau is a graduate of the VA Executive Career Field Candidate Development Program and has been inducted as Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing and the Clinical Nurse Specialist Institute.
In addition to her impressive nursing career spanning more than 30 years, Goudreau is an award-winning author. Her textbook, Health Policy and Advanced Practice Nursing: Impact and Implications was named “Book of the Year” in the Nursing Management and Leadership category by the American Journal of Nursing in 2018. In addition to authoring this textbook, Goudreau has published more than 30 journal articles and is co-editor for two books.
“I learned so much from my time as a doctoral student at the UAB School of Nursing,” Goudreau said. “The strength of the faculty and their mentorship is something I carry with me to this day. They emulated servant leadership and it is my pleasure to carry those lessons forward in my role as the Associate Director for Patient Care Services at the KCVAMC.”
In 2014, Goudreau received the Marie L. O’Koren Alumni Award for Innovation from the UAB School of Nursing. The award, named for the School’s second dean who developed the first doctorate in nursing program in the Southeast, recognizes alumni who have made innovative contributions to the field of nursing. Goudreau received her PhD from UAB School of Nursing in 2000.
