News: People
Greetings from your 2025-2026 Elected Officials
Board of Directors
D. Ryan Barrett, Sr.
President Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY president @ nsna. org
I ' m honored to serve as NSNA President. I am currently a practicing ER nurse at CommonSpirit / CHI St. Joseph in Lexington, KY, and a RN to BSN student with a minor in Healthcare Ethics and Policy at Northern Kentucky University.
My journey in healthcare spans over two decades, beginning as an ER Tech and progressing through various critical care settings before finding my calling in nursing. This path has shown me that our work saves people and serves humanity at their darkest hour – a responsibility that demands our strongest advocacy.
I ' ve previously served as Chair of the Council of State Presidents and as President of the Kentucky Association of Nursing Students. These experiences reinforced what I often share in my speeches: " If you ' re not at the table, you ' re on the menu." But I believe in something more powerful – when nurses don ' t have a seat at the table, we build a bigger table. We are carpenters, constructing a future where every nursing student ' s voice echoes through the halls where decisions about our profession are being made.
I ' m inspired by Dr. Pam Cipriano ' s powerful observation that nurses have gone from " invisible to invaluable " – a trajectory we must continue. The pandemic revealed to the world what we ' ve always known: nurses are the backbone of healthcare. We are autonomous professionals with specialized knowledge and a holistic approach to patient care that is irreplaceable.
Dr. Beverly Malone once said that " vision without action is a hallucination." I ' m committed to moving beyond rhetoric to results – developing specific, measurable goals and creating actionable plans with clear timelines. This means engaging in the sometimes uncomfortable work of systemic change rather than settling for symbolic gestures.
With 4.7 million nurses nationwide but only 4.17 % actively engaged in professional organizations( compared to 20.28 % of physicians), we have an unprecedented opportunity to expand our reach and impact. I pledge to advocate tirelessly for nursing students as directed by our resolutions – fighting for education funding, safety, and inclusion.
Let me be clear: this advocacy isn ' t about partisan politics. It ' s not about red or blue. It ' s about safe staffing ratios, workplaces free from violence, fair wages that reflect our work, and addressing the critical faculty shortage that threatens the pipeline of future nurses.
I invite you to join me in building this bigger table. Grab your theoretical hammers, nails, saws, and lumber. No one is going to do it for us – it is our time, and I am ready to build a table strong enough to support the future of healthcare that our communities deserve.
Please reach out anytime at president @ nsna. org – I ' m here to serve and build alongside you.
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