Michael Bleich, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, President & CEO, NursDynamics LLC, is an internationally recognized nurse leader, scholar, educator, and executive whose remarkable career has strengthened the health care workforce and shaped the systems in which nurses learn, lead, and practice. Across clinical care, executive leadership, higher education, policy, and professional service, his work has consistently challenged nurses and health care leaders to think differently about how they led and their approach to solving the most complex health care and workforce challenges.

Dr. Bleich's career reflects enduring impact across health care and academia. He served as a Chief Nursing Officer in Wisconsin and Nebraska before becoming the Dr. Carol A. Lindeman Distinguished Professor of Nursing and Dean of the School of Nursing at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), later serving as Vice-Provost for Interprofessional Education at OHSU. He also served as President and Maxine Clark and Bob Fox Dean of the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College. At the University of Kansas Medical Center, he advanced nursing, medicine, and health care delivery through roles including Associate Dean and Professor in the School of Nursing, Chair and Professor of Health Policy and Management for the School of Medicine, and Chief Executive Officer of KU Health Partners.

Of significance, Dr. Bleich was selected as one of the five nurses on the committee that wrote the original seminal report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, published through the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine). He also authored Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace, distributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A prolific author, he has written more than 100 scholarly publications and continues to write on leadership development.

Dedicated to investigating health care trends, health systems innovation, and policy development, Dr. Bleich served as the President of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (now TruMerit) and the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research. Dr. Bleich’s many awards include the University of Minnesota’s Humanitarian Award, Luther Christman Award from the American Assembly for Men in Nursing, and the Anthony J. Jannetti Award for extraordinary contributions to health care from the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses. Dr. Bleich was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2006.