Training and experience

I began my midwifery apprenticeship in 1996 under the guidance of Mary Jackson, RN/LM, Anna Bunting, CNM and Alice Levine, CNM in Santa Barbara, California. I had already become certified as a doula and a CNA/ Home Health Aide, based on their requirements. I  enrolled in the National Midwifery Institute in 1997, completing the Heart and Hands program under Elizabeth Davis and studying advanced coursework under midwife Shannon Anton. In order to obtain my first midwifery license, I competed the California Challenge Process, wherein I challenged the Medical Board of California for my right to sit the licensing exam and practice within my state. My initial licensing  under the California Medical Board allowed me to provide well-woman gynecology and family planning services. In preparation for this, I interned at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department's Women's Health, Family Planning and Sexually Transmitted Infections clinics before completing my licensure and going into private practice.

Before moving to Texas in 2009, I practiced home and hospital birth with my midwifery partner Jill Dozier, CNM/NP. We also offered well-woman gynecology services, working with girls and women throughout the life stages - from the teen years, through to the elderly. I also worked in a physician's office providing maternity care and gynecology. I received my first Texas license in 2010 and began working at a birth center. I returned to home birth in 2012.

 I have participated in Community Peer Review in Midwifery since 1998, and attended the CPM Review as an active participant in Nashville, TN in 2010. I have  contributed  Public Comment to every Texas Senate Sunset Review process regarding the agencies that have regulated midwifery in Texas since the time of my arrival here in 2009. In 2013, I became the first midwife to file a Safety and Reliability complaint against a nationally accredited  birth center, and my actions changed the way birth centers are accredited to this day. In 2014, I trained as a Patient Safety Advocate using coursework from Johns Hopkins, University of Florida, UCSF, and intensive self-study. In 2016, I was recognized as an Ethics Mentor though the University of Lucerne on Coursera. I have also provided  patient- safety consultation to attorneys in the Midwifery Licensing Program in Texas at TDLR, upon request.  I have helped organize several midwifery conferences and also been a conference speaker and CEU instructor in California, and in Texas. I have also volunteered as a relief midwife, midwifery instructor, and general volunteer for Midwives for Haiti since 2010.