Our Faculty and Staff

My name is Leslie Holley and I am a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) and have been for 15 years. I am originally from Chicago Illinois and currently reside in Land O’ Lakes, Florida (near Tampa). I am an alumna of Northern Illinois University and Illinois State University. My child life career began in Chicago where I worked for two years at what is now known as Comer Children’s Hospital at The University of Chicago. Upon relocating to Florida, I spent 12 years working for BayCare, specifically at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. Currently I work full time as a Sr. Learning and Development Specialist.

My past experiences, including several years as the Internship Coordinator, fueled my passion to transition into academia and mentor perspective child life specialists. I am very excited to dive into aspects of this amazing profession with you as we explore one of the many and most challenging variables that child life specialist face.  My child life experiences have included working:

• As the preschool and school-age CCLS (in all units of the hospital)
• In the Burn Unit
• In the General Pediatric unit
• In Hematology and Oncology Inpatient and Outpatient unit
• In the Day Hospital
• As a Trauma Responder
• As a Preceptor
• As the Internship Coordinator
• As a part of Evidenced Based Practice (EBP) Committee

My involvement with the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) has included the following:

• Participation on the Education Committee
• Participation with the Mentor / Mentee Program
• Participation on the Focus Review Board (FRB)
• Currently, I am a reviewer on the Journal Review Board (JRB) and have served in this role for two years.

I am very excited to begin my career in academia and look forward to working with you all this semester.