Heather Warner, MPH, (she/her/hers) is the Hampshire Franklin Tobacco-Free Community Partnership Coordinator, at the Collaborative for Educational Services (CES) in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Tobacco-Free Community Partnership is part of a statewide public health program, the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program (MTCP) focused on comprehensive approaches to reduce tobacco and nicotine use. The program aims to reduce the health and economic burden of tobacco use by preventing young people from starting to smoke, helping current smokers to quit, protecting children and adults from secondhand smoke, and identifying and eliminating tobacco-related disparities.
Prior to starting her position with the Tobacco-Free Partnership in 2022, Heather worked for 15 years at CES as the SPIFFY Coalition Coordinator and then Manager. Heather’s passion for public health started when she worked at the Holyoke Health Department as the Director of the Holyoke Tobacco Control Program when the first tobacco-free laws were being established, before moving into the role of Coordinator for the Holyoke Community Health Planning Commission. With encouragement from local mentors, Heather attended the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences in Amherst and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Community Health Education. At the heart of her public health work is a deep commitment to listening, learning and taking action to address systemic and structural racism and promote social justice through collective and transformative frameworks for change.