Alicia Farlese, DNP, MS, RN, NI-BC

Part-time Instructor

Dr. Alicia Farlese is a retired Captain (O-6) with a distinguished 26-year career in the United States Navy (USN) Nurse Corps and the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). She holds a BSN from the University of Kentucky and both an MSN and DNP in Nursing Informatics from the University of Maryland.  

As an ANCC board-certified informatics nurse, Dr. Farlese has been a senior leader in national health IT programs and policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2003 to 2020.  She played a pivotal role in shaping health IT regulations, including implementing key provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act and the ARRA / HITECH ACT. At HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP/ONC), she led the Health IT Certification Program and served as a senior advisor/ subject matter expert in health IT regulations, compliance, clinical and nursing informatics, quality and safety, standards and interoperability, usability,  clinical decision support, social determinants of health (SDoH), workforce development, and public health readiness and response.

Dr. Farlese’s clinical background includes serving as a nurse at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. She has also deployed for critical health care needs and disaster response, including aboard the USNS Comfort and as a member of the advance response team before and during Hurricane Katrina. Continuing her commitment to service, she remains actively involved in community initiatives, elected to a local high school’s governance board, volunteering with CASA of Lexington as an advocate for children in the court system, and supporting public health preparedness by volunteering with the Lexington-Fayette County Medical Reserve Corps.

Currently, Dr. Farlese is a part-time instructor and course lead for health IT in the MSN and DNP programs at the University of Kentucky. She previously served as adjunct faculty and on the nursing informatics advisory board at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. 

Beyond academia, Dr. Farlese is a certified yoga instructor and nutrition coach, integrating mind-body practices into her professional and personal life. She also runs a health IT consulting practice.

A native Lexingtonian, Dr. Farlese returned home in 2020 with her husband and children. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, Pilates, hiking, weightlifting, running, live music, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

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