About Holly

Holly Smith is a Certified Nurse-Midwife with experience in domestic and international women’s health policy and program development. Holly trained in midwifery at Georgetown University 24 years ago, after which she practiced clinically as a full-scope midwife for 17 years in various hospital-based practices from San Francisco to a military hospital in Germany and finally at various northern California Kaiser Permanente facilities. Holly has a Master of Science in Nursing (Midwifery concentration), a Master of Public Health (MPH), and is currently pursuing a Master of Studies in Law at UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings School of Law).

Holly is one of a few experts in midwifery integration in California. She is also a fierce advocate for dignified, accessible, and safe abortion care. As a midwifery consultant, she partners with community organizations, nonprofits, policymakers, hospitals, birth centers, and more to improve midwifery integration in California, including – among others – the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, the California Health Care Foundation, and the California Nurse-Midwives Foundation. She was the lead editor and author of CMQCC’s Toolkit to Support Vaginal Birth and Reduce Primary Cesareans and is currently the project lead for CMQCC’s Community Birth Partnership Initiative. She is also the co-lead for a multi-year statewide strategic project to improve midwife-led care for California Medicaid recipients, which includes an extensive collaboration of hospital and community birth midwives across the state, Medicaid health plans, community advocacy organizations, and state and local agencies.

Holly was the Health Policy Chair for the California affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives for 6 years, and is now their Coordinator for Legislation and Advocacy. In that role, she consults on, writes, and advocates for California legislation promoting improved perinatal outcomes. You can find a sampling of her legislative scorecard here. Her focus in recent years has been abortion access, solving the maternity care access crisis, and midwifery integration. Listen to Holly’s recent interview on KQED Forum here.

Let’s partner on your work to improve maternity and sexual and reproductive health care.