Front and Center: Iesha Smith
Published on Monday, April 28, 2025
By: Danny Barrett, dlbarrett@umc.edu
Photos By: Jay Ferchaud/UMMC Communications
Iesha Smith became a teacher officially only a few months ago, joining the faculty last fall in the occupational therapy program in the School of Health Related Professions.
In reality, though, she’d been passing along skills to aspiring health care workers for half a decade working at Children’s of Mississippi.
“Teaching in OT and working in the neonatal unit are different paces and workloads and a different type of reasonability in each,” Smith said. “With young adults, I relish being able to tell them what I just saw in clinic this week. It is valuable to the student. I still have a foot in the clinical world, which makes it more relatable for them.”
Smith teaches courses in pediatric fieldwork and occupation-based practice to first-year students in the three-year program. A certified neonatal therapist, she earned her Master of Science in occupational therapy at UMMC in 2014, then worked in pediatric OT in the private sector before coming to the NICU at Children’s. She still works one day a week in the unit’s follow-up clinic, which evaluates premature infants from ages four to 24 months.
Being such a familiar face at SHRP in recent years for working the school’s Research Day as a judge, guest-lecturing OT students, and interviewing prospective students for the program makes the transition from worker to teacher easier for her.
“I was always helping out here and always knew I wanted to be involved with students,” she said. “I loved being around students at Children’s and getting to teach them. I wanted a bigger influence on their journey. I wanted to help them become the kind of therapist I’d want to treat my child, my mom, my grandmother or whoever else.”
Her addition to the OT faculty was a natural fit based on her work to advance the profession.
“She has long been an integral part of our OT program and has a passion for shaping future occupational therapy practitioners,” said Dr. Megan Ladner, chair of the program. “That passion was evident when she guest-lectured in our pediatrics course, supervised field work for our students and served as a mentor for capstone experiences.”
Smith was raised and went to high school in the Biggersville community – population 205, as of the 2020 Census – near Corinth in north Mississippi in an immediate family of couriers. “My mom and dad were couriers for FedEx, while my stepdad worked for UPS,” she said. “My grandmother and aunt were both educators, and that’s where I probably got some of my teaching genes from.”
Her journey to a health care career was formed watching those who cared for her family members going through terminal illness and more.
“When I was in the 10th grade, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said. “That’s what thrust me into the world of treatments and surgeries and multiple medications. I watched her balance cancer treatments, chemo and surgeries with going to work every day and delivering packages.
“Also, I was a witness to my grandfather having a stroke during quadruple bypass surgery after already being a longtime caregiver for my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s disease. He’s 96 now. Seeing his recovery and watching the caregivers he needed at the time was just inspiring. It was then that I knew I wanted to help people.”
It's a choice that’s made the difference for a generation of newborns since first joining Children’s in 2016, said Tara Husband, director of rehabilitation services.
“She’s been in all service areas here, including inpatient rehab, acute care, outpatient and the NICU,” Husband said. “Iesha has a natural talent and a compassionate heart for these children and their families.”
She credits a team of people – and not just the folks she sees at work – for helping her juggle two children, inspire doctoral students as a full-time instructor, shepherd high-risk babies to full health and work on her doctorate from SHRP.
“In NICU, we meet weekly with neonatologists, nurse practitioners, therapy teams, and social workers. We talk about every patient on the list. It results in really great holistic care for these children. If all we did was focus on their charts and not also on their development, we’re setting them up for a negative outcome. The goal centers on how quickly they can go home safely, but at the same time take care of their development while they’re with us so they’re not further behind their peers when they leave.”
Aptly, the topic of developmentally appropriate care is at the heart of her final project in the Doctor of Health Administration program.
“With my project, I hope to inspire other children’s hospitals to emulate the success here,” said Smith, who lives in Jackson with her husband, Brandon, and daughters Vivian, 7, and Virginia, 5.
“I lean on support from my husband, my family at home, and on my church family. I always remember what the ultimate goal is. I always tell my girls, ‘I’m doing this for you.’ I want them to know that if we as parents can do hard things, then you can, too.”