Dr. Lisa Kiser Receives March of Dimes Women’s Health Award

Lisa H. Kiser, DNP, CNM, WHNP, of the University of Arizona College of Nursing, was honored with the Women’s Health Award for 2021 by the March of Dimes Arizona during their Heroes in Action awards ceremony. Dr. Kiser is a clinical assistant professor, women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife.

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The award honors registered nurses who work in antepartum, labor and delivery, maternal/baby care, postpartum and gynecology. Dr. Kiser has been instructing at the college for 10 years, where she teaches three days a week and works as a women’s health nurse practitioner at United Community Health Center two days a week as part of the college’s faculty practice. 

Dr. Kiser also volunteers at Clinica Amistad and Casa Alitas, the free clinic and migrant welcome center, supporting immigrant health needs. She received her BSN from UArizona in 2003, her MSN with specialties in midwifery (CNM) and women’s health (WHNP) from Frontier University in 2008, and her DNP from Frontier University in 2018.

“I was very moved to receive this award from the March of Dimes Arizona because they have transformed their organization and are doing the work that needs to be done to make sure that we eliminate health disparities for women and children in the United States,” Dr. Kiser said. “They didn’t stop with a focus on individual health but have expanded to a larger focus on the social determinants of health care that have to be addressed if we are going to improve outcomes in this country.”

Dr. Kiser’s nomination letter highlighted her role as the lead trainer for a federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant through which she trains nurses from HRSA Region Nine to be sexual assault nurse examiners. She chairs the women’s health course for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and she helped start the women’s health clinic at Clinica Amistad. Earlier this year she took students to Gallup, N.M., to help support the local community with their COVID-19 vaccination campaign on the Navajo Nation.

“Like so many places, we have really limited maternal care in large parts of rural Arizona. You don’t have to go across the globe, you can just go to Globe, Arizona, or so many other places to see the lack of access to good care. It’s heartbreaking,” Dr. Kiser said.

Dr. Kiser noted that the maternal mortality rate in the United States has been worsening since 2000; the rate is more than twice as high as any other high-resource nation. The World Health Organization reported in 2017 that the United States was one of only two countries globally reporting a significant increase in its maternal mortality ratio since 2000.

“When you think about the work the March of Dimes does, I’m so appreciative of the comprehensive approach they have of reducing and eliminating maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, because the health disparities are so significant here in the United States,” she said.

“An award like this gives me the opportunity to really talk about what health care means in our country and what we are doing here at the College of Nursing to solve critical health care issues. We tend to give awards out to individuals, but I want to focus on the phenomenal work the college is doing to educate the next generation of nurses and women’s health care providers for Arizona,” Dr. Kiser said. “I think being able to educate this next generation is such a gift, and the students do such a good job.”