Patricia Bursnall is the Director of the PMHNP Fellowship. She brings a 16-year background in family practice, therapy, and psychiatric care to this role. She also credits her leadership background as a lead clinician and school administrator, as well as her lecture background at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Anschutz campuses, the FNP Fellowship, and University of Haiti to assisting her in preparation for launching the PMHNP Fellowship.
"My approach is to educate the whole person. Each PMHNP Fellow brings their unique skills to this program, and I see my job as nurturing those strengths and building on areas for growth. As a provider, I treat the whole person. I need to be able to carefully listen, ask critical questions, listen some more, and work with the patient and the community toward their treatment goals."
Patricia loves working with the underserved and bicycling. She loves mountain and gravel biking, has been a biking guide, coach for adolescents, referee at the Colorado High School Mountain Biking League races, and even completed a world biking tour. Patricia has worked and lived with her husband and child in Colorado Springs for over 25 years.
Elena Ollis is a board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). She obtained her BSN in nursing with a minor in psychology at Seton Hall University. She engaged in skilled nursing home visits prior to working as a psychiatric registered nurse in Princeton House, an inpatient psychiatric facility. Elena obtained her master’s in nursing with a PMHNP specialty from Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, and has been practicing as a PMHNP for the past 12 years in a variety of settings. Some of the those include nursing care facilities where she served as a PMHNP liaison/consultant, outpatient private practice, and a non-profit outpatient psychiatric clinic, where she engaged in an interdisciplinary NIH initiative focused on treating early onset psychosis in adolescents and young adults. Over the past 4 years, Elena has been a member of the PVCHC provider team. As Peak Vista’s first PMHNP, Elena lent her expertise to numerous primary care providers (and continues to do so today), helped open this organization’s first psychiatric clinic, has served in a role of a clinical preceptor to multiple PMHNP students, provided didactic education to FNP Fellows, and lectured at UCCS. Most recently, Elena transitioned into a new role as Attending Faculty for the PMHNP Fellowship.
Throughout her career, Elena’s passion and her professional drive have always been directed toward providing care for underserved populations within communities where the care is most needed and is least available. Elena’s Rogerian style empathetic listening approaches and her strong belief in evidence-based shared-decision making practice has enabled her to stay engaged and passionate about her craft.
When not engaged in new professional ventures or further educational pursuits, Elena enjoys playing violin, reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with her husband and her seven-year-old daughter.