Yolanda Ruiz-Isales , RN, MSN, MS, CLSSBB

She served in the United States Army Nurse Corps for 27 years and is a retired Colonel. She began her VA career in 2012 as a Nurse Manager in the Surgical and Specialty Clinics providing support in the following specialties: General Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Urology, Vascular, Cardiothoracic, Neurosurgery, Gynecology, Gastroenterology (Endoscopy/Recovery), Pain Clinic, Bariatric, Dental/Oromaxillofacial Surgery, Orthopedics, Otolaryngology, Podiatry and Would Ostomy.

Prior to becoming the Deputy Associate Director for Patient Care Services, she served as Chief Nurse for Primary Care and Specialty Care Clinics from 2016 to 2018 providing managerial oversight for six outpatient clinics and seven community based outpatient clinics. In 2017, she served as the Acting Chief Nurse for Community Living Center at the Kerrville Campus. In this capacity, she provided managerial oversight to the inpatient units, long term, dementia, short term, skilled nursing, and rehabilitative care.

In 2018, Ms. Ruiz-Isales was selected as Deputy Associate Director for Patient Care Services/Deputy Nurse Executive. In this capacity, she serves as the Chief of Nursing Services with over 1,300 full-time employees on two geographically separate campuses.

Ms. Ruiz-Isales earned her BSN from the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. She furthered her education by earning her MSN from Louisiana State University in New Orleans and Master of Science, National Resource Strategy at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. She is a certified lean six sigma black belt.