Celina Noreen Leeper
Celina Leeper is a dedicated and compassionate Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) with over 14 years of experience in clinical and home health settings. She began her healthcare journey in 2004 as a medical assistant, later earning her nursing diploma from Pioneer Pacific College in 2009.
Throughout her career, Celina has specialized in patient assessment, medication administration, and care plan development, demonstrating exceptional proficiency in managing multiple patient cases while maintaining high standards of care, documentation, and HIPAA compliance.
Her work spans gastroenterology, home infusion nursing, and healthcare innovation, where she has consistently implemented practical solutions to improve patient outcomes and streamline care delivery. Celina’s path to nursing was deeply personal, inspired by the care her mother received from hospice nurses during a terminal illness.
She has supported patients and families through complex health challenges, including liver disease and hepatic encephalopathy, drawing on her own experiences with family health struggles. She also contributed to healthcare innovation teams, developing organized supply trays and operational processes to enhance efficiency and patient safety.
Her professional philosophy emphasizes patient education, family support, and leading by example, ensuring that care is empathetic, informed, and practical.
In recent years, Celina took time away from clinical practice to focus on her health and the well-being of her children, addressing personal medical challenges and her daughter’s complex mental health needs. She has used this time to grow personally, achieving two years of sobriety and gaining insight into ADHD, both personally and within her family.
Now fully recovered and refocused, Celina is preparing to return to the healthcare field as she pursues a degree in counseling, aiming to support those with grief, mental health and substance-use recovery. Ultimately she plans to advance her nursing degree to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner where she can fully utilize her nursing degree in the mental health world. She continues to balance her professional goals with her role as a mother and mentor, helping her daughter launch her own Etsy shop while maintaining her nursing expertise.
• Licensed Practical Nurse
• Pioneer Pacific College - A.A.S.
• Graduated with Honors from Medical Assisting Program GPA 3.83
• Daughters of the Revolutionary War
• Tualatin Elks Club Member "Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love, and Fidelity"
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to knowing my why - understanding the deep personal reason behind my choice to become a nurse. My why has always been my North Star, and it's what got me through the hard things. I lost my mom to colon cancer when she was 56, and watching the hospice nurses care for her inspired me to help others who felt as helpless as we did. That purpose has guided me through every difficult day in my career.
I also think grit and perseverance are underrated. I grew up helping my mom with her t-shirt shop in the 80s - I was one of seven kids, and we all had to help out. My mom would make us wear our mistakes, so we learned to have a good work ethic. I ended up having an entrepreneurial heart because of that - I was raised to think not only about my job, but about how to contribute to the success of the business. I've always tried to think in an innovative way, which is why I loved being on Kaiser's innovation team and coming up with solutions like the supply trays.
Resilience in the face of overwhelming loss, pain, and struggles has been hard earned. I've been through a lot - losing over fifteen members of my family to death from a combination of cancer, old age, stroke, heart disease or Covid-19, recent personal health challenges, and being ostracized from my family at age 18 when I left a high control religion. Sometimes you just gotta have grit and endurance and strength to get through it. You just gotta struggle through it, and you'll be better for it on the other side.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
1. Be on Time Punctuality shows respect. People trust those who keep their word
2. Give Full Effort - Excellence is a choice, not a talent.
3. Work Hard - Work ethic keeps you when others are laid off.
4. Bring Positive Energy. Your attitude is the single thing you have the most control over.
5. Be Prepared and don't be afraid to ask questions. It’s easier to ask ahead of time than regret it later for not asking.
6. Go the Extra Mile - Bring your best work. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
7. Be Teachable - Feedback isn’t failure—it’s a fast track to growth. Failures are opportunities to learn.
8. Be Professional - A professional is someone who can do their best work when they don't feel like it.
9. Be Kind - Kindness costs you nothing, except perhaps patience. Kindness builds connection, and connection is the beginning of trust. Trust is Everything!
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Know your why. Why do you want to do this?
Because in life, no one is exempt from struggles.
There's gonna be days of pure joy and beauty but there's also be tough days, days when you don't want to do this.
Your why is gonna be your North Star. And my why was always what got me through the hard things. I've seen some nurses get into it for the money, and they burn out. They say, this is too hard, it's not worth it. But if you have a clear why for pursuing a career in nursing, it will serve as a guiding star during challenging times.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Our country is having a mental health crisis right now, and there's a huge need for mental health services. That's part of the reason why I'm starting school to become a mental health counselor. I find neuroscience and psychology fascinating and this will be the first step in my life long learning adventure.
I understand from my own experience how life is filled with struggles, challenges, grief or painful things you don't know how to deal with on your own. I've benefited greatly from trauma therapy called "EMDR" and also grief counseling.
I also want to encourage other women in healthcare to make their health a priority. We're always putting other people first.
My blood pressure was so high, for so long from an undiscovered tumor on my adrenal gland, that I could have had a stroke, and how good would I be to my family or kids if I had that happen?
Healthcare workers need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk - not just telling people to take care of their health, but also taking care of ourselves.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important values to me are compassion, perseverance, and being there for others who are going through what I've experienced.
When I worked in gastroenterology, I could encourage people to get their colonoscopies and tell them about my mom's story - how important preventative care is because she was a very old fashioned, modest and private person, plus she didn't have health insurance and put it off until it was too late.
With patients dealing with liver problems from alcoholism such as hepatic encephalopathy (toxicity of the brain due to the liver not cleaning out toxins from the blood) or liver cancer, I could tell families that I've been in their shoes with my dad and my oldest brother. My heart is there with them, I was always trying to support them as much as I could.
Being able to support people on their journey in places that I've been is really fulfilling. I also value having a strong work ethic and thinking about how to contribute to the success of the whole team or business, not just doing my own job.
I was raised with an entrepreneurial heart - my mom had seven kids and we all had to help out in her t-shirt shop. She taught us to take ownership of our work.
I've always tried to think in innovative ways to overcome challenges, whether that was creating supply trays at our office or being on Kaiser's innovation team to figure out strategies to answer our phones faster.
And now, taking time to be the mom I need to be and making my own health a priority has shown me that you can't pour from an empty cup. I want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
