Poppy Hiser, RN, MPH
Discipline: Public Health
About: Poppy Hiser is a lifelong advocate of underserved populations and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she received her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Community Health Education and her Bachelors in Science (BS) in Nursing. One of Poppy’s parents has an invisible disability. When Poppy became a parent herself through birth and adoption, she became a strong parent advocate of children with disabilities.
Poppy was privileged to work as a research assistant on two different medical-anthropological studies; one informed local and national HIV public health policy and one examined prenatal and perinatal environmental factors. This research has informed Poppy’s work as a labor and delivery nurse, an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and La Leche League Leader. Poppy’s understanding of the way early environmental factors impact future health outcomes in our most vulnerable populations has been a key factor in her work.
In March of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and during lockdowns with her own children, Poppy created a free website for families of young children to access information addressing children’s mask wearing and parental and child mental health. Poppy has also worked in the public-school setting with medically fragile students with IEPs as well as elders with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
