CHEER CHAMPion of the Week: Allison Stiles!

​Dr. Allison Stiles, MD, BSChE, IBCLC is a physician in the Memphis, Tennessee area who is double board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics. She sees patients of all ages at her private practice, Memphis Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and her special interests include breastfeeding, adolescents, and diagnostic challenges. Allison practices breastfeeding medicine and offers breastfeeding consultations to mothers of newborns at her private office and at 2 hospitals. Allison is also Chair of the Shelby County Breastfeeding Coalition (SCBC), a consultant for the TN Breastfeeding Hotline, and part of the Volunteer Clinical Faculty for the University of TN Health Science Center.
 
As Chair of SCBC, Allison leads a diverse group of professionals who come together to further the Shelby County breastfeeding cause, improve breastfeeding rates, and work on projects such as the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative; hospital procedures; and social, community, and outpatient support for breastfeeding mothers. Two Shelby County hospitals are enrolled in CHAMPS—Regional One Health and St. Francis Hospital-Bartlett.
 
On June 8, 2016, SCBC hosted the “Memphis Area Breastfeeding Symposium.” This symposium brought in speakers from all over the country and brought together providers who work with mothers and babies in the Memphis area. “It was awesome,” Allison shares. SCBC is also currently working on a breastfeeding workplace initiative in conjunction with the Shelby County Health Department and Healthy Shelby to improve workplace lactation support and lactation rooms. BSTARS (Breastfeeding Sisters That Are Receiving Support) is another project of SCBC’s, and is supported by CHAMPS and led by Tiana Pyles, CLC, WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and SCBC Board Member. BSTARS is a breastfeeding support group for African-American mothers and may soon become an entity independent from SCBC.
 
What is Allison’s motivation to do this work? “As a pediatrician, knowing the significant health benefits of breastfeeding. If there is anything you could think of that makes the biggest impact on health in the United States, it’s breastfeeding.”

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