Letrese’ Burton-Leonard
Clinical Services Manager
Student & Employee Health Services (SEHS)
Please join the Center for Nursing Excellence in congratulating Letrese’ Burton-Leonard is a Clinical Services Manager – Student & Employee Health Services (SEHS), for being selected as the December 2025 UAMS DAISY Nurse Leader Award recipient! This award expresses gratitude for courageous leaders fostering an environment where compassion and courage can thrive.
Letrese’ Burton-Leonard is a Clinical Services Manager – Student & Employee Health Services (SEHS) and was nominated by a UAMS co-workers. The comments below are taken from her nomination which speak to each characteristic as an outstanding nurse leader.
Creates an environment where attributes of trust, compassion, mutual respect, continued professional development and ethical behavior are modeled and support.
Letrese’ allows an open-door policy for all staff members, providing a safe environment to express thoughts and feelings without judgment, encourages effective communication, supports individuality and assures confidentiality is maintained. She leads by example and guides in a constructive manner that attributes to self reflection and often self resolution.
In my time in the SEHS department, Latrese’ has always demonstrated all the above listed attributes. I am apart of the Little Rock SEHS team, yet live and work in NWA. Despite working almost 3 hours away from the team, I feel very much apart of it! I feel it is Latrese’ s excellent leadership example that has made all the difference. Her team follows her good example, and the clinical staff is always ready to help me learn and understand our work every single time I have asked for assistance and they do so with patience. She inspires greatness and commands respect without saying a word. She is strict with patient safety, policy and procedure, work ethic, and how we as a department treat others. Her standards are high, yet she lives them herself and also inspires the staff to do so. She has always been available to me in times of need even when she is busy, she will help me. She personally knows just how to lead me. When I am done speaking with her, I feel like “ok, I can do this!”
We have monthly team meetings that she has always included me in by teams. I remember being so impressed by her in the first meeting I attended. She said things such as “Always put a spin on yes” and “be mindful of your tone and body language as well as the words you say.” Our department is here is assist UAMS employees and students in anyway we can within our scope and following policy and procedures.
Honestly, I have found it rare in the nursing field to have a manager that truly inspires me. I respect Latrese’ and her high standards and it is helping me be a better version of myself personally and professionally. She exemplifies- lives and leads- with these attributes “trust, compassion, mutual respect, continued professional development and ethical behavior.”
Motivates staff with a shared vision and enthusiasm to achieve better outcomes for themselves and for their patients and families.
Letrese’ is passionate about adhering to company policy. She is familiar with staff strengths and areas of concerns to better delegate tasks in improving patient outcomes, staff satisfaction and increase staff confidence. Letrese’ presents various staff training opportunities to close gaps in areas of concerns for individual and collective improvement. She also addresses staff concerns by being an advocate when necessary.
I think of not long after I started working here, Latrese’ was fairly new at her role in SEHS as well, she implemented the use of Epic for SEHS just a couple of weeks prior to the influenza vaccination campaign for thousands of employees/students!! Each one of these tasks was an unbelievable daunting task and she took it on with absolute grace! She stayed upbeat, forward thinking, adaptable through the hiccups and difficulties of transition. There were many times I would call her with problems or how to have difficult conversations or just for guidance through these times, sometimes personally in tears of frustration. By the time I got off the phone, I felt able to tackle what was in front of me and uplifted and strengthened. Her clinical staff has assisted in training me over the past 10 months through Teams calls and chat. They have always treated me with patience and respect and kindness. Does her good leadership have a part in how amazing her clinical staff acts? I would venture to say a resounding YES because from almost 3 hours aways, she has inspired me.
Promotes and enhances the image of nursing within the organization, the community and the profession including engagement, recognition, and retention.
Letrese’ meets frequently with new hires during orientation to address concerns and discuss opportunities for learning. She recognizes staff members during regular staff meetings/minutes and emails. Every year, Letrese’ makes it her personal mission to celebrate administrative professional day and nurses’ week by leaving special items on everyone’s desk for the entire week.
I definitely see these goals listed above in Latrese’ s leadership. I remember being impressed with her email signature when I was in the hiring process. I could tell, she is focused on personal and professional achievement. She is focused on reaching Magnet status, education, certification. Recently, SEHS achieved 1st runner up for the Team Impact Award. I feel she promotes a positive image of nursing in her role and community and this honor makes that evident. She is focused on retaining her staff and she recognizes any positive achievements of any member of her staff. She is quick to send out praise to one of us if we had positive patient comments in regards to our work or whatever the praise maybe- she willingly shows support/celebration for our achievements. She creates a sense of unity of the department and making sure the organization knows how hard SEHS staff work. I personally have to say as I have been learning from the staff the last 10 months and working- I am astounded how the Little Rock staff achieve what they have achieved!! They are outstanding.