By Elisabeth Costanzo Stewart
Erin O’Hara-Leslie (MA ’92) must have extra hours in her day! How else could she Chair SUNY Broome’s largest academic department (Health Studies), teach a full load as an associate professor, and lend her expertise to eight campus committees, many of which feature her in leadership roles? She maintains accreditation standards, mentors new faculty, and prolifically develops new courses, academic tracks, and degree programs. Beloved by all for her indomitable spirit, unmatched work ethic, infectious laugh, and signature bright smile, SUNY Broome is simply a better place with Erin O’Hara-Leslie.
A lifelong New Yorker, O’Hara-Leslie did stints in Syracuse and Rochester before settling in Broome County. As a senior at Union Endicott High School, O’Hara-Leslie excitedly prepared to explore her options with her school counselor. To her dismay, she was offered only two: marriage or beauty school. Uninspired by both prospects, O’Hara-Leslie rallied when she realized that there was a college in her backyard that offered all students a strong place to start, even those without an official plan.
O’Hara-Leslie spent her first semester at Broome Community College studying psychology (now Human Services: A.S.), and admittedly bombed. Her second semester led her to the Paralegal: A.A.S. program, where she began to envision her future — sort of.
“I realized that I didn’t want to be a paralegal; I wanted to be a lawyer. So naturally, I enrolled in the medical assisting (MA) program,” O’Hara-Leslie laughed. “I know that they don’t seem connected, but there’s so much law involved – negligence, documentation malpractice, HIPAA violations, you name it! I was hooked.”
For a woman who craved professional versatility, O’Hara-Leslie found medical assisting to have it all. One minute, she’d serve as the liaison between the patient and physician during a clinical exam. Next, she’d be called upon to collect samples and run tests in the lab. She had to be detail-oriented to manage medical records, bill and process insurance claims, and reconcile accounts. And above all else, she needed to be compassionate and personable to deliver exceptional care. Check. Check. Check. And Check! The once-struggling student was now on the President’s List.
While at Broome, O’Hara-Leslie balanced her studies with two internships at local practices specializing in plastic surgery and internal medicine. Both resulted in job offers.
“Those job offers tempted me to go straight into the workforce, but I kept being drawn to a transfer program in healthcare education at SUNY Cortland,” O’Hara-Leslie reflected. “There was this weird gap in healthcare at the time where we were trained to fix people, but not educate them on how to stay healthy. I wanted to learn how to do that.”
After graduating from SUNY Cortland, O’Hara-Leslie began working as an HIV Counselor for the Broome County Health Department’s (BCHD) AIDS Institute. In the mid-1990s, stigma, fear, and unknowns surrounding HIV/AIDS were rampant. She traveled to bars, rehabilitation centers, and homeless shelters to administer HIV/AIDS tests, promote harm reduction techniques, and deliver sexual health education.
“I worked all throughout the community testing for HIV, Syphilis, and Tuberculosis (TB). I’d set up my little station in a coat closet at a local bar, draw blood samples, and offer 45-minute counseling sessions,” O’Hara-Leslie said. “I’d go from teaching a young woman about mother-to-child transmission, to training local doctors about the newest HIV/AIDS research. It was one of the most rewarding jobs of my career.”
O’Hara-Leslie spent the next few years building her resume in the private and public sectors. She continued at the BCHD as a health educator specializing in cancer education, thrived in pharmaceutical sales, and was stationed at Binghamton High School as a Student Assistance Counselor through Lourdes Youth Services. This role called a very pregnant O’Hara-Leslie to escort an equally very pregnant student to the hospital and coach her through delivery.
As the mother of two small boys, O’Hara-Leslie dreamed of a flexible work schedule. When she stumbled upon an adjunct instructor position in the medical assisting department, suddenly everything clicked. At SUNY Broome, she could piece together her favorite aspects of every previous job into one cohesive role. She could be an educator, practitioner, policy maker, counselor, and mentor — all in one place.
It’s a SUNY Broome legacy! O’Hara-Leslie’s husband, Andrew Leslie (MT ’91), sons Brennan Leslie and Samuel Leslie (EMTP ’23), and daughter-in-law, Julia Langton (RN ’23), all studied at SUNY Broome. Photo Caption: (above) O’Hara-Leslie and son, Samuel Leslie (EMTP ’23) at Mock Disaster 2025 Photo Credit: Matt Ebbers
Returning to her alma mater in 2004, O’Hara-Leslie progressively rose through the ranks from adjunct instructor to eventual Chair of both the medical assisting and health studies departments. During her nearly two decades on campus, she secured eight grants, developed three unique health studies academic tracks in Clinical Patient Care (CPC), Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and Medical Office Administration, and designed high-demand microcredentials in CPC and Healthcare Fundamentals, all while completing her graduate studies at the University of Buffalo.
O’Hara-Leslie doesn’t just confine her SUNY Broome ingenuity to health science endeavors. Her innovative spirit spreads campus-wide, most notably with her creation of the College’s Mock Disaster.
“The Mock Disaster came out of an accreditation standard that required all MA students to experience a simulated crisis to hone their skills,” O’Hara-Leslie explained. “My first thought was, ‘Let’s do something big!’ Since then, we’ve designed ten totally unique Mock Disasters to mirror scenarios that our students will encounter in the field.”
As the mastermind behind every disaster for more than a decade, O’Hara-Leslie and her co-chairs spend a full year crafting the catastrophe in secret. The result? Chaos — but controlled chaos, orchestrated down to the minute by a squad of more than 30 members of the College’s faculty and staff.
At the close of the 2025 Mock Disaster, O’Hara-Leslie announced her decision to officially pass the torch to a team of some of SUNY Broome’s best and brightest. Though she won’t formally be at the helm, she plans to always be in the wings to support the experiential learning activity closest to her heart.
Life is busier than ever for O’Hara-Leslie. She just wrapped up a two-year stint as Interim Chairperson of the Clinical Laboratory Technology program and is in the midst of shepherding her largest cohort of Health Sciences: A.S. and Health Studies: A.A.S. students to date, at more than 640 students. Over the Summer, O’Hara-Leslie joined forces with Dr. Tina Hasemann and Dr. Kim McLain to secure a substantial grant to support the expansion of her programs. Together, they are crafting an entirely new associate degree in community and public health.
And that’s just on campus! As a site visitor of the Medical Assisting Education Review Board (MAERB) for the Commission on Accreditation for Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), she evaluates medical assisting programs on college campuses nationwide. (Banking best practices to bring back to SUNY Broome!)
Though constantly on the go, O’Hara-Leslie never loses sight of her why behind her work. “I believe that learning is a life-long pursuit. I’ve taught classes where my students ranged in age from 17 to 75. Regardless of where they are in life, they come to us to learn. I love seeing the look of accomplishment on their faces. That’s my why.”
Read more inspiring stories in the Fall 2025 edition of BROOME Magazine: bit.ly/broomefl2025
Tags: Alumni, Health Sciences Division, Health Studies AAS and AS, Medical Assistant AAS, Profile
