About Joan M. Fisher

Joan Fisher, BN, MEd, RN (Retired) was first certified as an IBCLC in 1985, and recertified in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. Throughout her thirty-five year Nursing and Teaching career she has worked as an RN, taught in Schools of Nursing across Canada and as a Professor of Nursing at Dalhousie University. Joan has community and hospital experience working with prenatal and postnatal families, particularly in the area of breastfeeding. Joan is the mother of two breastfed sons.

On moving to Ottawa in 1982, Joan continued to pursue her interest in breastfeeding. In July, 1985, she successfully wrote the first International Certification Exam for Lactation Consultants. Subsequently, she established the first private Lactation Consultant practice in Ottawa.

In 1988, Joan and her family moved to Hamburg, Germany, living there until their return to Ottawa in August, 1990. While in Germany, Joan lectured to Health Professionals on American and British military bases, and was successful in reviving a Breastfeeding Mothers' Support Group at the American Base in Bremerhaven. Her professional development included visits to Finland, The Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and Oxford, England, where she met with, and learned from, experts in the field of human lactation.

Joan was been active in the International Lactation Consultants' Association (ILCA), serving as Chairperson of the Education Committee in 1987, and as Liason to the WHO Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labelling 2003-2008. In 1986, she initiated the formation of a Canadian Chapter of ILCA and served as the founding President. She has been Member-at-Large on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Lactation Consultants Association and their representative to the Breastfeeding Committee of Canada. Joan was an active member of the Ottawa Valley Lactation Consultants and had a busy private practice in Ottawa.