Island Health Project (IHP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Maisie Pollard as its inaugural Executive Director, a newly created leadership role supporting the continued growth and evolution of healthcare on Fishers Island. She will assume her role in October.

Maisie brings more than 25 years of healthcare and nonprofit leadership experience, with a strong record of strategic planning, organizational growth, financial and operational management, as well as building collaborative teams and partnerships.

Maisie spent more than two decades in senior leadership at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she served as Chief Administrative Officer for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. During her tenure, she helped lead the growth of clinical programs and services, developed new initiatives serving underserved communities, and worked closely with physicians, staff, hospital leadership, and community partners. Most recently, Maisie served as Executive Director of Family ACCESS of Newton, a nonprofit organization providing early childhood education, family support, and mental health services to children and families throughout Greater Boston.

“We are delighted to welcome Maisie as IHP’s first Executive Director,” announced Diane Baker, IHP Board Chair. “Her extensive healthcare leadership experience, knowledge of the organization, and deep connection to Fishers Island make her uniquely suited to help guide IHP and Fishers Island Medical Services (FIMS, the clinical and administrative provider of IHP) through this important next chapter.”

Maisie already knows IHP and the Fishers Island community well. She previously served as Vice Chair of the IHP Board and was closely involved in the organization’s strategic planning and work to envision the future of healthcare on the Island. Her connection to Fishers Island is also deeply personal. Maisie’s family has been part of the Fishers Island community for four generations, and she looks upon the Island as her home.

“I am truly honored and excited to have the opportunity to serve as IHP’s first Executive Director,” Maisie said. “Fishers Island is a very special place for me and my family, and I care deeply about ensuring that our community has access to excellent, sustainable healthcare for generations to come. I look forward to working closely with Dr. Lauren Davis, the FIMS staff, the IHP Board, and the broader community as we build the next chapter of healthcare on Fishers Island.”

Maisie was selected by the Board following an extensive search led by John Tarvin at Eos Transition Partners. She was chosen from a strong pool of highly qualified candidates for her proven ability to lead complex organizations, navigate healthcare administration, and bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision, skills that will be critical as IHP strengthens its operations and shapes the future of healthcare on Fishers Island.

We invite the whole community

to stop by the doctor’s office on

Friday, August 7th, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM

for an informal meet and greet with Dr. Lauren Davis.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to welcome her to Fishers Island.

We hope to see you there!

Dear Fishers Island Community Member,

Great News from Island Health Project!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Lauren Davis has been hired to be the Island Physician.

Dr. Davis is board certified in family medicine and urgent care and has been most recently practicing in New Jersey. She and her husband, Craig, also a physician, have two sons who will be enrolled at the Fishers Island School this Fall, and they are expecting their third child in November.

Dr. Davis’ official start date is August 15th. The Doctor’s Office will continue with visiting physicians until that date. As always, please call the Doctor’s Office for an appointment if needed. Please view Fishersisland.net or the IHP website for the schedule of visiting physician names and dates.

Island Health Project is excited to introduce Dr. Davis and her family to the Fishers Island community with plenty more information to follow very soon!

Diane Baker
Chair, Board of Directors

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We invite the community to stop by the doctor’s office on

Friday, August 7th, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM

for an informal meet and greet with Dr. Lauren Davis.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to welcome her to Fishers Island.

We hope to see you there!

---

Lauren Davis, DO, FMCP-M

Dr. Lauren Davis brings a combination of primary care knowledge, urgent care experience, and functional medicine depth to her role on Fishers Island. She is triple board-certified in Family Medicine, Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine, and Functional Medicine, and is a graduate of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona through their integrative medicine in residency program.

Dr. Davis earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Lincoln Memorial University’s DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she was selected as an undergraduate fellow through the National Undergraduate Fellows Association (NUFA), teaching anatomy and osteopathic manipulation to second-year medical students. She also served as the NUFA representative of LMU to the National Council.

She completed her residency training at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York, in an integrated program combining Family Medicine and Osteopathic Neuromuscular Medicine, where she served as Chief Resident and Vice Chair of the National Resident Council of the American Osteopathic Association.

Following residency, Dr. Davis spent two and a half years providing frontline urgent care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, managing high-acuity, high-volume presentations across a broad patient population. At the end of the pandemic, Dr. Davis went into private practice in Southern New Jersey.

Currently in her practice, Dr. Davis provides concierge care in home across the Jersey Shore and virtually, with a focus on maternal and infant health, complex multi-system conditions, and neurodivergent heath in children and adults. Her osteopathic training adds a hands-on, structural dimension to her assessments, while her functional medicine background allows her to look beyond surface-level symptoms to identify root causes that standard workups often miss. She has particular expertise in mast cell activation, connective tissue disorders, dysautonomia, Lyme disease, and neurodivergence.

That clinical focus is rooted in something personal. After her own postpartum recovery, Dr. Davis recognized a striking parallel to what she had learned as a collegiate athlete: that true recovery is not passive, it is a structured, physiological process that demands the same rigor as performance preparation. That insight became the foundation of her practice, and ultimately prompted her to author Thrive, Mama! The Ultimate Postpartum Blueprint and develop educational courses designed to fill the gap she had lived through herself.

Dr. Davis also serves as a content creator for McGraw Hill’s Boards and Beyond platform, where she develops osteopathic medical education resources for students preparing for board examinations, extending her teaching mission to the next generation of physicians.

Dr. Davis believes that good medicine begins with being genuinely known by your physician. On an island where access to specialized care requires planning, she is committed to providing continuity, clinical thoroughness, and responsive care that her patients can rely on year-round.

Before medicine, Dr. Davis was a Division III All-American pitcher and ESPN Pitcher of the Year at Ursinus College, a background that shaped her precision, resilience, and commitment to performance at every level. She brings that same standard to the care she provides her patients.

At the end of 2024, the IHP Board voted unanimously to establish a Strategic Planning Committee to look at all aspects of the way we provide healthcare on Fishers Island. Our goal is to make sure we are doing the best job possible AND that we will be able to continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

In February, a five-member committee was appointed and immediately got to work searching for an outside consultant to guide us in our efforts. The Committee received proposals from five different firms and after careful deliberation, hired Stephen Pratt, President of Impact Catalysts, a Massachusetts-based firm that specializes in working with non-profits. Steve has extensive experience working with various types of medical organizations all over the country. He has family roots in the New London area and is familiar with Fishers Island.

Steve has already begun working with the Strategic Planning Committee to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of IHP’s operations, including organizational structure, staffing, management and governance practices, as well as financial history. To this end, he will be examining the practices of healthcare providers in similar environments, particularly including comparable small islands and isolated rural communities.

One of the most important aspects of this process will be gathering stakeholder input. In other words, we want to hear from YOU!

• What do you think about IHP’s current operations?
• What changes would you like to see?
• Are there aspects of healthcare that you would like to see added to our current offerings?

To gather this information, Steve will be organizing focus groups and a community survey during the early summer months. The mission of IHP is to provide quality healthcare to all members of the Fishers Island community, but we need your feedback to make that happen. We want to hear from everyone; summer visitors as well as year-round residents and other island organizations.

We look forward to partnering together!

We are excited to launch a new seasonal newsletter for IHP! Use this link to join our mailing list and stay up-to-date with IHP news and events throughout the year:

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We can’t wait to connect with you!

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