Leslie Morris was born and raised in Long Branch, NJ, and was among the first generation of children to be reared in the Seaview Manor housing project. A graduate of Long Branch High School, she has worked in various clinical and administrative capacities in such cities as Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Jersey City, NJ.
For 12 years, Ms. Morris served as director of the school-based adolescent health center at Snyder High School in Jersey City, NJ. At Snyder, Morris distinguished herself in several ways. She founded one of the nation’s first school-based HIV testing programs and implemented a nationally recognized teen abstinence program that was featured on both the CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning. Ms. Morris’ program became a model for school-based health programs throughout the country. Offering a range of services to the student population at Snyder High School, from primary medical care, family planning, and reproductive health care to individual, group and family counseling, Ms. Morris’ program was among a handful of school-based health centers nationwide that offered comprehensive health care to students on school grounds.
Following 12 years in Jersey City, Ms. Morris received and accepted the call to work on a five-year national project out of Washington, D.C. There she served as director of the Adolescent and School Health Initiative at the National Association of Community Health Centers. The project was funded by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA, the nation’s federal public health organization. In this position she provided training, technical assistance, consultation and resources to the nation’s network of community health centers that sponsor school-based health centers. Ms. Morris’ position enabled her to travel throughout the country and Puerto Rico where she assisted health centers in the development and implementation of school-based health centers. She has written and published in the areas of school-based and adolescent health care.
Upon completion of the five-year project in Washington, D.C., Ms. Morris resumed working in New Jersey, overseeing the transition of five school-based health centers in Newark, NJ, and developing and implementing an outreach project in Southern New Jersey.
Currently, Ms. Morris is Director of Community Relations at the New Jersey Primary Care Association in Princeton Junction, NJ. The NJPCA is a non-profit corporation that represents the organizational providers and affiliates of community-based ambulatory health care statewide. This position entails collaborating with state officials on key health policy issues affecting the network of community health centers in New Jersey, providing training to community health center providers, advocating for ongoing financial support for community health centers, and developing public relations efforts aimed at consumers and legislators promoting the value of community health centers.
In addition to her position at NJPCA, Ms. Morris is an adjunct professor at Burlington County College in Mount Laurel, NJ, and a Big Sister at the Burlington County branch of Big Sisters/Big Brothers, Inc.
Ms. Morris is a graduate of Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts and received her Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Boston College. She obtained a second Master’s Degree in Public Health in the area of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a licensed therapist in the State of New Jersey, and a lecturer and workshop panelist on various issues affecting the African American community. She makes her home in Westampton, NJ.
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