Amanda Leightner, newly named Merrick Family Professor in Respiratory Care in Boise State’s College of Health Sciences, has been on the move in recent weeks — and has found fans everywhere she goes.
Leightner and her husband spent the last week moving from Ohio to South Carolina, — in a truck, with a Great Dane and two cats — with a detour to Vermont, all following a Florida American Association of Respiratory Care national conference. Leightner and her husband have four children with two daughters in college in Ohio and two sons who are starting their careers.
Leightner, an associate clinical professor in the Department of Respiratory Care, teaches remotely but is no stranger to Boise or the COHS team. She’s known COHS Senior Associate Dean Lutana Haan and Megan Koster, the department’s award-winning chair, for years. And she shares a connection with Kristen McHenry, director of the respiratory care master’s degree program, who is also a remote COHS colleague. Those bonds made accepting the endowed position an easy choice; the program’s reputation and recognition sealed the deal. Leightner compares the Boise State faculty and staff to a ‘Dream Team,’ describing them as true leaders in the respiratory care profession, naming education, experience, and passion as a few of their collective talents and motivation.
“They’re definitely proactive with their students, and they come from very diverse backgrounds, and that makes a big difference,” she said.
“They have a wealth of knowledge that makes a very, very solid program.
“They’re just a phenomenal team. I didn’t have to think long.”
Leightner earned her bachelor of science, master’s and PhD from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. She worked with several Ohio hospitals before returning to her alma mater to teach for many years before starting with Boise State in the fall of 2024. Her work experience includes critical care, trauma, NICU and polysomnography. She serves on the National Board Respiratory Care (NBRC) board of directors, Sleep Section Chair for the American Association of Respiratory Care (AARC) and is the incoming president for Lambda Beta, the national honor society for respiratory care and with multiple other professional organizations.
Can do attitude leads to success
It may come as no surprise that Leightner has adopted Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan as her motto. She credits her parents for teaching her she could accomplish anything by hard work and dedication and hopes she has instilled the same drive in her children.
Self-described as hard-working, dependable, and energetic, her colleagues have noted that her social personality and cheerfulness make her unique in the higher education work environment. Leightner admits today’s current health climate presents challenges and reinforces ‘outside the box’ thinking or as Boise State has coined “blue turf” thinking to find suitable ways to teach remotely with the tools available. However, positive student outcomes continue to keep her motivated as they graduate, move into the workforce, and provide excellent patient care. In her travels, and among friends and colleagues who know about the endowed appointment, “They all know the Blue Turf,” she said. “That’s definitely a hallmark, for sure.”
“I am deeply honored and profoundly grateful to have been selected as the inaugural Merrick Family Professor in Respiratory Care,” she said. “This appointment represents an extraordinary opportunity to advance the field of respiratory care and sleep medicine, and I am excited and humbled to contribute to the legacy and mission that this esteemed position embodies.”
At the Orlando AARC national conference, she had the chance to meet some of her Boise State master’s students from all over the country. Her first COHS teaching commitments have been at the graduate level, and she’ll pick up a hybrid undergraduate course for the spring term, entailing visits to the Boise State campus; there are early plans as well for a sleep lab on campus that she would coordinate, and Leightner also expects to be involved with the new undergraduate degree in neuroscience, the first in Idaho, along with her clinical courses focused on cardiopulmonary disease management and a theory-based master’s course on managing organizational change.
If it sounds like a lot, she’s confident COHS students are up to the challenge.
“They’re strong academic students at Boise State,” she said. “They are just very well-rounded students, leaders already.”