Shirley Orr

Shirley Orr, MHS, APRN, NEA-BC, has served as Executive Director for The national Association of Public Health Nurses (APHN) since 2015. Additionally, she maintains a public health consulting practice, SOCO Consulting. Shirley’s public health experience spans over 25 years in leadership roles for local and state health departments in Kansas, along with 12 years of national consulting experience, focused on public health systems improvement, public health workforce and leadership development, and organizational leadership and management.  

Through her consulting practice, Shirley has supported national public health standards and accreditation in approximately 40 states and the US-Associated Pacific Islands. Her consulting clients have included the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), state and local health departments, public health institutes, foundations, academic institutions, and other health-related organizations. Her work with RWJF included supporting the RWJF Future of Public Health Nursing initiative, which included convening the Forum on the Future of Public Health Nursing and completion of a national public health nursing enumeration.  

Shirley is an adjunct faculty member for the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita and a lecturer for the Wichita State University School of Nursing. She is currently a student in the PhD in Leadership and Change Program through Antioch University.