Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, Chico State Uni­ver­si­ty, Nurs­ing Department

Dr. Hol­ly Kralj is hon­ored to join the impor­tant work of the Butte First 5 Com­mis­sion. She is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of nurs­ing at Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Chico (CSUC), with a spe­cial­ty in maternal/​child nurs­ing and pub­lic health. She is also a cer­ti­fied nurse-mid­wife and women’s health nurse prac­ti­tion­er with Enloe Hos­pi­tal. Hol­ly holds a Bach­e­lor of Arts in reli­gious stud­ies from CSUC and com­plet­ed her bachelor’s in nurs­ing in 1998. Hol­ly com­plet­ed her master’s in nurs­ing and mid­wifery at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Fran­cis­co in 2001, and com­plet­ed her Doc­tor­ate of Nurs­ing Prac­tice at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hawaii, Manoa, in 2014. She was the recip­i­ent of the Dean’s Research Award for her doc­tor­al work, Cre­at­ing Path­ways of Care, which focused on increas­ing com­mu­ni­ty screen­ing and treat­ment of peri­na­tal mood and anx­i­ety disorders.

Hol­ly has worked exten­sive­ly in Butte Coun­ty as a cer­ti­fied nurse-mid­wife and women’s health nurse prac­ti­tion­er. She is cer­ti­fied as a lac­ta­tion con­sul­tant and has giv­en numer­ous pre­sen­ta­tions on peri­na­tal mood and anx­i­ety dis­or­ders and best prac­tices for sup­port­ing the breast­feed­ing dyad. She is a mem­ber of the steer­ing com­mit­tee for the Moth­ers Strong Col­lab­o­ra­tive and has worked dili­gent­ly with­in the com­mu­ni­ty to increase access to safe and com­pas­sion­ate care for women and fam­i­lies. She also has had the joy of being an Options for Recov­ery fos­ter mother.

Hol­ly is the proud moth­er of two grown sons and two young daugh­ters. She believes that sup­port­ing the care and devel­op­ment of chil­dren and fam­i­lies is the most impor­tant work one can do.