NSME new faculty: Leslie Kirstein

Department of Nursing

By California State University, Bakersfield

August 23^rd, 2021

The last year has been a hectic and stressful time to be a nurse, but for Leslie Kirstein at least one good thing came from a busy day in the intensive care unit at Adventist Health Bakersfield. Throughout 2020, nurses from all over the hospital took shifts in the ICU to help the overloaded staff there. One day in July, Kirstein, a full-time ICU nurse who had just graduated with her master’s in nursing, struck up a conversation during lunch with Krystal Ball, a post-anesthesia care unit nurse and CSUB nursing faculty member, who happened to be working in the ICU that day.

“We conversed about the world, the pandemic, our families and my recent educational accomplishments,” Kirstein recalled. “A week later, I received a call from her asking if I would like a part-time position helping nursing students in the skills lab; the following semester, she offered me a clinical position and eventually guided me through the process of applying for a full-time position.”

Born and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., Kirstein’s family moved to Bakersfield when she was in high school. After graduating from West High in 2001, she earned her associate degree in surgical technology and worked at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and Millennium Surgery Center before deciding to pursue nursing, earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Western Governors University.

This fall, Kirstein will teach a variety of classes for CSUB’s nursing department, including a fundamental clinical rotation, a beginning pharmacology course and a “steps for success” class that is designed to help nursing students navigate the program.

“Joining the CSUB faculty has been an amazing adventure with so much positivity and outpouring of support from the entire nursing department,” Kirstein said. “Words cannot describe how excited I am to join this team and I feel like the stars were aligned just right on that hectic pandemic day to guide me towards this new adventure.”

At home, Kirstein lives with her partner, Marla, and their three dogs (Tootsie, Gus and Goofy), as well as Kirstein’s mother, who moved in with the couple in February and has since helped revive a struggling garden. Kirstein has two daughters, both pursuing their own educations: eldest Katherine is transferring to CSUB this fall to study biology, while youngest Marissa begins her nursing education at Dominican University of California.

In her free time, Kirstein loves being in the outdoors.

“I could nap in the sun all day but thrive being in water!” she said. “I love to swim, kayak and hike. I can easily get lost in a book and find myself happiest with cuddle time and movies with my Tootsie, who has been by my side since 2007.”