Darlene Salas, MBA

Clinical Practice Liaison, LTC, at Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

Darlene is an executive healthcare leader impacting individuals, families, colleagues and systems by demonstrating clinical excellence and inclusiveness throughout her 25 years of clinical practice. She has nearly 2 decades of experience as an adult nurse practitioner in a variety of practice settings including hospital, home care, outpatient clinic and long-term care.

Most of that time has been spent in non-profit organizations, focused on underserved and vulnerable populations with an emphasis on the intersection between physical, psychological and emotional health. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the care of difficult patients by nurse practitioners, specifically acknowledging the impact of mental health on a person’s experience of functional gastrointestinal disorders.

In her most recent role, she served as Director of Geriatric Services and was responsible for management of the care and psychotropic medication prescribing (in coordination with geriatric psychiatry) for 90 long term care residents with multiple chronic conditions including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and major neurocognitive disorder. Her initiation of a co-management approach to patient care including social workers, chaplains and clinical psychologists resulted in objective improvement in clinical outcomes and subjective, meaningful improvements in quality of life for residents and their families. After completing an executive MBA, she has transitioned to a role in Medical Affairs with Neurocrine Biosciences where she engages in scientific exchange with health care providers and provides disease state education on drug induced movement disorders.

She is committed to professional and educational excellence, having precepted and mentored dozens of RN and NP students. She has served as adjunct faculty at the UCLA College of Nursing and is serving on a dissertation committee for a PhD candidate at California Institute of Integral Studies.