Biography:

Dr. Diane Breckenridge, PhD, MSN, RN, ANEF, FAAN is presently the Founding Dean and Professor of Nursing of Westcliff University, Irvine and Corona, CA. In this role, she serves as Chief Nurse Administrator and CA BRN Approved Director beginning a new College of Nursing. Dr. Breckenridge is also the Founder of Strategies for Success and consults for Nursing Education, Research and Practice from her home office in West Hollywood, CA. Her long-term academic-practice partnerships have gained momentum as she was elected President-Elect, 2023-2024, President 2024-2025 of the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL) LA Coastal Chapter with the goal to have more Academic-Practice collaboration between LA, Orange, and Inland Empire Chapters’ CNOs/Directors/Managers and Deans/Directors. She is a past President of Sigma Xi Chapter of University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and developed with her faculty 2 Sigma chapters in CA at National University and Charles R. Drew University She plans to develop a chapter at Westcliff University. Dr. Breckenridge developed the Nursing Education, Research, and Practice (NERP) Model, based on neighborhood health center principles, for nursing students to continue to meet clinical objectives at testing and vaccination sites during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Her “Lessons Learned: Comparing the 1918 Flu Pandemic with the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic” for a Sigma webinar brought over 4000 registrants from 11 countries. Dr. Breckenridge traveled this past summer to Abu Dhabi with the Sigma Research Congress. Dr. Breckenridge’s focus in her 49 year career as a Staff/Charge/Head Nurse and Clinical Nurse Specialist, Professor, Director, Chair, Dean, Executive Dean, Vice President, and Chief Nurse Administrator, as well as on the executive teams and boards of Health Care and Educational Systems, is her Strategies for Success Program focusing on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of students’ access to nursing education, retention, on-time graduation, passing licensure and certification exams to transition to the nursing workforce as culturally competent practice ready nurses. Dr. Breckenridge, was elected the Diversity Officer of Middle States on the east coast. Her ongoing Strategies for Success work with students from elementary, middle and high-school to college continued in CA pipeline program grants at Charles R. Drew University and UCLA. Dr. Breckenridge’s Pre and Post-doctoral Training and Fellowships, funded from the NIH, were completed at the University of Maryland and University of Pennsylvania. She is a recipient of 33 million dollars in external federal, state, and association grant and donor funding for targeted Strategies for Success and Academic Practice Theory Guided Evidence-Based Practice programs. Dr. Breckenridge when in Pennsylvania received the PSNA of ANA Global Citizen Award and when relocated to CA received a Proclamation addressing her work supporting underserved and under-resourced students and nurses from the late Senator Dianne Feinstein.