Alanna Coleman, DNP, MN, NP-PHC, Miller Fellow, is a primary health care nurse practitioner specializing in the care of older adults. Dr. Coleman is passionate about older adult health and has experience caring for older adults in various settings, including retirement, long-term care, and rehabilitation. She has a keen interest in advocacy and health policy, quality improvement in health care and professional practice development, and has participated in several quality improvement initiatives at the nursing, department, and organizational level. Dr. Coleman is employed as a Nursing and Health Policy Analyst at the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) and is an adjunct assistant professor with the Frances Bolten Payne School of Nursing. She held the position of Clinical Practice Lead and most responsible care provider for five years in three retirement homes in the Mississauga-Halton area with Optimal Retirement Care Solutions.
Dr. Coleman held the Communications Executive Network Officer position and is a co-lead Executive Network Officer in Social Media, and Policy and Political Action for the Nurse Practitioner Interest Group with the RNAO from 2021 to 2023. As an Executive Network Officer, she actively advocated for nurse practitioner role, practice, and funding expansion across sectors through resolution statement development and as a member of the RNAO’s Assembly of Leaders to improve health care delivery across Ontario. Dr. Coleman has supported the development of the RNAO’s Nursing Career Pathways report and the RNAO’s international best practice guidelines: transitions in care and services second edition, and clinical practice in a digital health environment as a stakeholder reviewer. Dr. Coleman has also led a multiorganizational fall prevention initiative to decrease fall rates among six retirement homes in Ontario.
Dr. Coleman received her Bachelor of Nursing from the University of New Brunswick-Humber College collaborative program in 2009 and an honor in the Critical Care Nursing certificate program at Durham College as the highest-ranking graduate in 2010. She completed the Master of Nursing in Nurse Practitioner program at Athabasca University in 2017 and received a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Aspen University in 2023, where she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She completed the Miller Post-doctoral Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University in 2024. Dr. Coleman has two certificates for the safe prescribing of medical cannabis and served as an expert consultant and speaker for the Canopy Growth Corporation for the use of medical cannabis in continuing care.