Laura Reichhardt, MS, APRN, AGPCNP-BC, FAAN is the Director of the Hawaiʻi State Center for Nursing, a state entity which works to identify and address workforce needs for nursing through research, quality outcomes and best practices, and recruitment and retention strategies. Her specialties include healthcare workforce strategy and planning, healthcare policy, and developing community collaboratives. Successes include launching the Hawaiʻi Preceptor Tax Credit initiative, leading the initiative to expand the Nurse Residency Program to all islands, including specialty training, and incorporating preceptor development and as a result improving new nurse retention statewide. Her efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Governor-directed funding towards nursing, improved emergency proclamations, securing travel nursing, and more. Through this work, she is an active member of the American Academy of Nursing, including joining by request the AAN Models of Care Task Force, National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Beginning her career in public health with a B.S. in Health Sciences with an emphasis in Community Health in 2006 from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, she supported research in culturally-based indigenous diabetes prevention, community-identified diabetes and obesity prevention, and immigrant health disparities. Originally from the U.S.-Mexico border region of Arizona, she began her career with the Arizona Department of Health, Office of Border Health as the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission Arizona Outreach Officer. In this role, she worked with binational federal, state, local, and tribal governments and non-governmental organizations to address health inequity and health workforce development within the border region. In 2008, she completed a fellowship from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute, receiving training in systems theory and program development. Ms. Reichhardt joined the Hawai’i Medical Service Association Care Management department, focusing her work on quality improvement and health delivery design for Medicare and Medicaid plans. She entered the University of Hawai’i School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene Master’s Entry Program in Nursing, completing a M.S. in Nursing; she is certified as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner who has worked in federally qualified health centers and school health settings. She completed a fellowship in health policy under the UH Mānoa Nursing Office of the Dean, was the nursing intern for former Hawai’i Senator Rosalyn Baker, is a member of the Pacific Century Fellows 2016 cohort, Omidyar Fellows Cohort IX, Pacific Business News 40 Under 40, and Hawaiʻi Business Magazine 20 for the Next 20. A resident of Hawaiʻi for 16 years, Ms. Reichhardt is married to Danny Kaʻaialiʻi, named 2021 Hale ‘Aina Award Restauranteur of the Year. Together they have two children, an 8-year-old at the Hawaiian immersion school, Ke Kula Kaiapuni ʻo Ānuenue, for which she is the Hope Pelikikena Pūʻulu Kālā (Vice President for Grants) for Nā Leo Kākoʻo, their parent teacher organization, and a 4-year-old who attends the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Children’s Center.