Upon first meeting with Leslie Miles, one can tell she’s a person who likes to laugh and have fun.

“I think everyone has to do something fun every day,” she said. “I ride my Wicked Witch of the West bike around my neighborhood, though my dog doesn’t really cooperate.”

As one of the newest College of Nursing faculty, Miles is thrilled at the chance to educate people about nursing, specifically psychiatric nursing.

“I love working with people who are disadvantaged and having them find some meaning in their life,” she said.

Miles’ father, a hospital administrator, gave her various summer jobs at the hospital when she was a teenager. However, it was one incident when she was 15 years old that really piqued her interest in the field of nursing, particularly psychiatric nursing. Her father put her in charge of a woman found on the front lawn of their church building who claimed to be the “Bride of Jesus.” The woman had traveled across several states to arrive in Miles’ hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. “I was going to find out what was wrong with her,” Miles said. After years of schooling, Miles did diagnose the woman: post-partum psychotic depression.

Following her undergraduate work at BYU, Miles married Stephen Miles and moved to Vancouver, B.C., where she lived for 13 years. Her specialty in eating disorders, personality disorders, and crisis emergency care and treatment brought her a variety of clients in Vancouver's diverse population.

“I loved it,” Miles said. “It’s where I learned how to deal with different cultures.”

By the luck of the draw—literally by picking locations out of a hat—Miles and her family moved to Utah. For the last 14 years, she has worked as a clinical nurse in forensic nursing at the State Hospital. She received her master’s in psychiatric nursing from the University of Utah.

Her master’s thesis was a book collaboration with current BYU College of Nursing Dean Beth Cole. The book, “Dealing with Sudden and Unexpected Death: A Handbook for Survivors,” is aimed at helping and supporting family members through the difficult time immediately following a death. The book has been used by police department chaplains for aiding grieving families in funeral preparations and other tasks to be completed for the bereaved.

Miles has been married for 27 years and has three boys. Every year, she travels back to Vancouver to visit friends and favorite spots. She enjoys a variety of hobbies, including knitting, crabbing (when in Canada), and watching her sons play lacrosse.