Martha Ryan

As a Nurse Practitioner, Martha Ryan founded the Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) in 1989, having noted that homeless, pregnant women had difficulty accessing prenatal care. HPP first opened its doors in the closet of a homeless shelter. With a modest budget and a staff of 3, Ryan helped to serve 72 women in the program’s first year. Today, the Homeless Prenatal Program is a dynamic family resource center with a staff of 125 that serves 3,500 families annually. Ryan based HPP’s staffing structure on her work in Somalian and Sudanese refugee camps. Overwhelmed by need, her public health team hired women in the community to act as links between the refugee community and health services. These women helped to mitigate various public health epidemics with culturally-adept care while rising as leaders in the community. HPP operates in much the same way, as former clients and women from the communities HPP serves comprise half of the agency’s immensely talented staff. Ryan recently stepped down as HPP’s Executive Director and is now devoting her time to the agency’s next chapter: building affordable, permanent family housing linked to educational support and job training and wrap-around support that breaks the cycle of generational poverty and ensures that families have what they need to thrive.