Ulysses Johnson, III, MSN, CRNA, is a native of Longview, TX. A career in nursing was always the goal for Ulysses at an early age, but his Health Science Technology teacher introduced him to the path to nurse anesthesia in his senior year of high school. Mr. Johnson obtained his BSN from Grambling State University in 2005 where he graduated #2 in his nursing cohort. While matriculating at GSU he was a member of the World Famed Tiger Marching band, where he served as a Drill Sargent, Trombone section leader, president of Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc., and a brother of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Despite the intensity of being an active member of the band, and a nursing major, Ulysses still found time to volunteer by working with the youth of the community through Kappa’s Guide Right initiative and worked as a nurse extern. Upon graduation from GSU, Ulysses relocated to Houston, Tx where he landed a position at St. Joseph Medical Center’s Houston Collaborative Critical Care Internship. As his passion for cardiac began to grow stronger, Ulysses then took on a position at CHI Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Texas Heart institute in their 52 bed Cardiovascular Recovery Unit in 2008.
Mr. Johnson always made himself available to Grambling’s School of Nursing in various roles from guest lecturer, mentoring current and future students, and was the keynote speaker of the class of 2010’s pinning ceremony. With sights on nurse anesthesia programs on the east coast, Ulysses made the move to NYC in 2014 where he worked at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia Medical Center in their CTICU. This position played a pivotal part in his professional growth and development as a nurse leader when he was promoted to Clinical Nurse III and volunteered to be co-chair of the education committee for his unit.
Ulysses was instrumental in spearheading changes within orientation process for new hires to promote improvements within retention and employee satisfaction. These were recognized by the CNO and became the gold standard for NYP-Columbia hospital wide. In 2016 Ulysses attended his first Diversity CRNA workshop at the University of Pittsburg. Shortly after he began his journey in Erie, PA to become a CRNA at UPMC Hamot School of Anesthesia Gannon University Class of 2020, where he graduated with the Joseph H. Carter MD Award in Clinical Excellence.
Currently Ulysses is a member of the cardiac anesthesia team at Mount Sinai Hospital Morningside in NYC. Fall 2021 he began his path towards a PhD in Nursing Education at Liberty University with a focus on researching factors that can affect first time pass rates on NCE exam. Abound completion of this terminal degree he will be among the small number of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist of color with a PhD.
Ulysses is an active member in various mentorship programs from Diversity CRNA, Dream Big, that assist minorities to be stronger applicants for admission into the highly competitive anesthesia programs, and serves as one of the instructors for Leadership Excel and Achievement Program (LEAP), graduate certificate program through Case Western Reserve University.
Every step along Ulysses’ career is to prepare for his goal of starting a nursing anesthesia program at his Alma mater, Grambling State University. Ulysses’ philosophy in nursing has always been caring with confidence while practicing with patience, which he tries to instill within any student or orientee he encounters.
