Stephanie Haley-Andrews, RN
Stephanie Haley-Andrews, RN, is a healthcare executive, clinical architect, and founder of Apex Senior Advisory Consulting, with 30 years of experience as a registered nurse across both acute care and senior living settings. She began her professional journey earning a Bachelor of Arts in English with an initial focus on marketing and communications, but ultimately returned to her calling in healthcare after realizing her passion centered on direct service to others. She went on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and built a career grounded in caring for vulnerable populations and improving systems of care.
Her clinical background spans emergency departments, burn intensive care, pediatric emergency services, and trauma program management, where she developed deep expertise in high-acuity and high-risk care environments. She later advanced into executive leadership, serving as Division Director of Trauma and Emergency Medical Services for HCA Continental Division, overseeing trauma and EMS operations across hospitals in Colorado and Kansas for three years. Her longstanding commitment to vulnerable populations naturally evolved into senior living, where she has spent the past seven years focused on geriatric population health and system-level care improvement.
In senior living, Stephanie served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Services for two large organizations, most recently at Atria Senior Living for nearly four years, leading clinical strategy and operational care systems at scale. In January of this year, she launched Apex Senior Advisory Consulting, where she now works with age technology companies, financial and wealth planners, attorneys, and families to bring transparency and clinical clarity to senior care decision-making. Her work is centered on bridging the gap between complex healthcare systems and real-world understanding, ensuring families and industry partners can navigate senior living with confidence and informed insight.
• Registered Nurse (RN)
• Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
• Human Edge LLM Expert AI Trainer
• Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals
• Regis University - BSN
• Creighton University - BA, English
• Top 10 EMS Innovator in the country (national award for developing pediatric stroke alert system)
• Annual Leadership Award at Children's Hospital
• Society of Pediatric Nursing Award
• Certificate of Appreciation
• 2015 Denver Health Star Award
• 2013 Denver Health Star Award
• 2011 JEMS Top 10 EMS Innovator Award
• 2011 City of Aurora Ruth Fountain EMS Award
• 2009 Above & Beyond Award
• 2005 Distinguished Service Certificate
• 2004 Leadership Award
• 2000-2001 Excellence in Clinical Practice Award
• Affiliate Member of American College of Surgeons (since 2016)
• HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)
• American College of Surgeons
• Society of Trauma Nurses
• Pediatric Trauma Society
• American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Emergency Medicine
• Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado (EMSAC)
• Emergency Nurses Association
• Donor to Christ's Body Mission in Denver (faith-based mission helping homeless people) - tithes 10% of income
• Member of Clinical Care Committee -
Argentum
• Journal Reviewer -
Journal of Trauma Nursing
• Volunteer -
Denver Police Orphan's Fund
What do you attribute your success to?
I really attribute my success to the family I was raised in. My parents instilled a strong work ethic in me from a young age. I started working when I was 13 years old as a cashier at the zoo, and I always had to contribute by getting good grades. My success really comes from my upbringing and my mother, who is deceased now, but she was probably my role model. She went into healthcare and healthcare administration and wound up being a COO for a large healthcare organization here in Colorado, and I seem to have somewhat followed in her footsteps.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Stephanie’s journey reflects the importance of following purpose over comfort. Transitioning from marketing into nursing and then into executive leadership demonstrates her belief in aligning your career with impact and service.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
For anyone looking to become a registered nurse, it is one of the best investments you can make for your entire life, especially in the age of AI. Yes, AI can do a lot to support the medical field and the nursing field and eliminate some administrative burden, but you always will need nurses to actually provide hands-on care. The opportunities are endless. Look at me - I started out working in the burn ICU and made my way up to SVP of two companies, and now I'm running my own company. There's just so much opportunity if you become a nurse.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in senior living is always staffing - finding caregivers who want to care for elderly people. There's a nursing shortage that impacts us as well. But what really drove me to start my consulting career is the major lack of transparency in senior living. It's really a black box. People are often rushed into making quick decisions for their mom or dad, and every sales director will say your mom can age in place here forever, but that's not necessarily true because all senior living falls under state regulations that dictate what conditions they can and cannot care for. There's a lack of transparency about pricing, care levels, and what people are sold versus what really is happening. On the opportunity side, there's a lot of opportunity to do better care of seniors in senior living. There's really wonderful new technology out there that can, even through some AI, do fall prediction and provide fall prediction data using data to deliver better care for seniors. This was one of my passion projects - to get good data so we could try to help increase the length of stay for residents who might be failing. We instituted fall risk identification programs and made sure we had a Medicare Part B therapy provider, like a PT, in our buildings 5 days a week working with residents to increase their balance and prevent falls, which is the leading cause of residents having to leave senior living.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Really, it's caring for vulnerable populations. Caring for vulnerable people is super important to me. Obviously, my family I love my family. I have one adult son. I also highly value ethical organizations. That's very important to me. I'm an enormous patient advocate, and doing the right thing for the patient is what drives me.