Whitney Abbott

Hi my name is Whitney Abbott and I am a women's health advocate. I have a love for travel and adventure, and I’m always planning my next trip in the back of my head. After graduating as a Registered Nurse in 2007 I made women’s health care my primary focus. I’d been working as a nurse in Taiwan and it sparked in me a passion for global health. I returned to the States to become a midwife with the goal of gaining the skills to decrease neonatal and maternal mortality. After graduating from the University of Kansas Medical Center as a CNM, APRN in 2012, I founded a free-standing birth center in one of the poorest counties in Kansas. I partnered with a local non-profit to offer healthcare at cost (or free) to women I’d seen struggle with maternity due to lack of access to care. I’ve also qualified as an international board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) and have a passion for seeing breastfeeding rates increase. I most recently headed up the midwifery program in a field hospital in the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh where I’ve developed a program to improve care for mothers across 20 different measures. I graduated with my Master's in Global Public Health from Johns Hopkins in May of 2021. I am currently working as a Nurse Midwife for the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Oklahoma.