U.S. Army Colonel Nicole L. Kerkenbush is the Military Deputy Program Executive Officer (PEO) for the Defense Healthcare Management Systems (DHMS). In this capacity, Colonel Kerkenbush provides clinical and business direction in health care Information Management /Information Technology (IM/IT) principles and approaches to the program, as well as military functional representation during interactions with internal and external stakeholders. Colonel Kerkenbush also oversees the organization’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Deployment and Change Management strategies with senior service leadership across the Defense Health Agency (DHA), the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs (ASD/HA), and clinical and business leaders across the military services as program lead in the management of military manpower. Prior to this assignment, Colonel Kerkenbush served as the Acting Deputy Director for the Solutions Delivery Division in the DHA Health Information Technology (HIT) Directorate, and Army Medical Command/Office of The Surgeon General (OTSG)/MEDCOM Chief Information Office (CIO)/G-6. In this position, Colonel Kerkenbush collaborated with other service CIOs and Chief Medical Information Officers (CMIOs) to establish the DHA HIT Shared Service. In the course of a 22-year career as an officer in the Army Nurse Corps, Colonel Kerkenbush gained extensive expertise in IM/IT environments at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. Her previous positions include: Chief Medical Information Officer, OTSG; Clinical Business Intelligence Division Chief, OTSG; Chief Medical Information Officer, Great Plains Regional Medical Command, San Antonio, TX; Nursing Clinical Officer in Charge, Orthopedic Unit, Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX; Reserve Officer Training Command (ROTC) Brigade Nurse Counselor, Ft. Lewis, WA; and Nursing Performance Improvement Coordinator, Darnall Army Community Hospital, Ft. Hood, TX. Colonel Kerkenbush graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas in 1992. She received a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration, a Master’s Degree in Nursing Informatics, and a Certificate in Healthcare Informatics from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Upon completion of her advanced education she was honored as the Outstanding Graduate Student in the UW School of Nursing. Colonel Kerkenbush is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College’s Intermediate Level Education (ILE). She is Board Certified in Nursing Informatics by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) Management Systems Society (HIMSS).