Kirsten Gardner, MD, FAAP

Dr. Gardner is a Board-certified pediatrician who devoted nearly 25 years of her career to primary care, earning a distinguished reputation in the Los Angeles area for her work. Over the course of her practice, Dr. Gardner began seeing a pronounced increase in the number of patients struggling with psychological issues such as ADHD, depression and anxiety. Many of these patients came in for physical complaints that Dr. Gardner could see were associated with the patient’s mental health, and her experience engaging with these patients and their families to develop comprehensive plans for improving the patient’s psychological health inspired her to open Poppy. As the mother of three children, Dr. Gardner understands that many parents are naturally apprehensive about considering psychiatric care for a child. She knows that beneficial discussions about a child’s mental health care require time and trust, and this is why she designed Poppy to be a relaxed and secure place for exploring ways to help children optimize their mental health.

Dr. Gardner is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine and holds a bachelors’ degree in Economics from UC Berkeley. She completed her pediatric residency at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and served as Chief Resident of her program. After residency, Dr. Gardner and her husband moved to South Carolina, where she worked at a large private practice and served as an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. As a native Californian, she later brought her family back to Los Angeles, taking a position with Kaiser Permanente in Baldwin Park before moving to Descanso Pediatrics in La Cañada in 2009. While at Descanso Pediatrics, Dr. Gardner was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Huntington Foundation Medical Group (HFMG) in Pasadena. She served as HFMG’s chair for Quality Assurance from 2020 – 2023. Dr. Gardner is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Gardner is also recognized as one of the area's 'Top Doctors' in both Los Angeles Magazine and Pasadena Magazine. She and her husband have raised three children in the Los Angeles area along with a host of family pets.