Speakers

Csilla Andor, MSW, LCSW , is Executive Director of WellMama, Inc. Maternal Mental Health and Support Services. Csilla is an Oregon state coordinator for Postpartum Support International, and is the co-chair of the Lane County Perinatal Mood Disorders Consortium. She dedicated her psychotherapy career to a specialty in reproductive health related concerns after her own experience with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Her clinical focus includes pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, perinatal loss, infertility and adoption.

Kimberly Bepler, CPD, ICPE, CLE is a Certified Postpartum Doula (CAPPA and DONA), a Certified Postnatal Educator (ICEA), and a Certified Postpartum Doula Trainer (CAPPA). She received her Lactation Specialist and Educator training from Evergreen Hospital. She has been working with postpartum families for over eight years, and has a passion for the newborn and the new family. Kimberly founded ABC Doula Service in 2001, and has seen the company grow to serving over 450 families in the Portland metro area. Kimberly also teaches breastfeeding, newborn care, new mom support groups, and twin/triplet classes within the Providence Health System, and offers doula trainings through CAPPA and Birthingway College of Midwifery.

Madrona Bourdeau CPM, LDM lives her life with intention and compassion as a practicing midwife for over thirty years. She started her path to midwifery in 1976 with the births of her three children, two of whom were born at home. Like most of the midwives of her era, her education was through self study, workshops and apprenticeship. She completed her apprenticeship in 1983 and worked on legislation until she moved to Oregon in 1988. She is a NARM Qualified Evaluator.

Melissa Cheyney, Ph.D., CPM, LDM is an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University. She is the author of thebook Born at Home: The Biological, Cultural and Political Dimensions of Maternity Care in the United States (Wadsworth) and her research was recently featured in a Time Magazine article. In addition to teaching, she has a home birth practice in Oregon.

Wendy Davis, Ph.D, has a counseling and consulting practice, specializing in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum mental health and recovery.  She was the Founding Director of Baby Blues Connection mom-to-mom support organization in 1994, and now serves as their clinical adviser and volunteer trainer.  She is the Program Director and Oregon support coordinator for Postpartum Support International.  She provides training and consultation in governmental, clinical, and community settings and enjoys working with diverse communities to develop sustainable perinatal mental health networks.  

Andrea Dixon, CNM, From the first NAPSAC group of Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 70’s, studying midwifery in Boulder, Colorado, and becoming a CNM in 1987, Andrea has covered nearly all the bases in the world of Midwifery. She was the sole proprietor of Family Way Midwifery in Mt. Shasta, California from 1988-1995 while managing a midwife service for the Redding Birth Center, California. She has served women in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Missouri, and Indianapolis. She serves as a current Board Member for Indiana Midwives Association.

Sharon Craig Economides, BA, CPM, MSc, IBCLC, was born at home with a midwife, she has worked as a homebirth midwife, in a birth center, and in hospital settings in Russia, Haiti, the Philippines, Afghanistan and California.  She received her Masters degree in Midwifery through the University of Sheffield in the UK. She is a freelance writer for Midwifery Today, Sojourners, Pakistan's The Friday Times and other publications. She works with Awakenings Birth Services, a traditional midwifery and homebirth service in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on the faculty at Aviva Institute. She is a NARM Qualified Evaluator.

Jill Edwards, ND is a midwife and naturopathic physician with the Vibrant Family Medicine in Gresham, Oregon. She also conducts clinical research at the Helfgott Research Institute. See her an article in recent issue of Fit Pregnancy about aromatherapy in pregnancy. She currently is continuing her research education at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with the two year certificate program: Human Investigation Program.

Virginia (Ginger) Frazer, ND, LM graduated from Bastyr University, receiving her doctorate in naturopathic medicine.  In 1993, she received her midwifery certificate after precepting in the Seattle area.  Ginger received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at University of California at Santa Cruz and her BS degree in human health sciences from Bastyr University. She currently runs an independent practice in natural family medicine.  She and her partner deliver babies in a community that covers a wide geographic area, which is a  city/agricultural desert region on the Columbia River.

Alesha Fox, MS has over seven years experience working in quality assurance in the field of education. Alesha has presented information regarding accreditation to the Public Policy graduate students and the University of Oregon and is currently the Administrative Director of Aviva Institute.

Bonnie Gruenberg, MSN, CNM, CRNP is a practicing midwife, writer, artist and photographer. She is the author of Hoof Prints in the Sand, Wild Horses of the Atlantic Coast (Eclipse Press, 2002), Essentials of Prehospital Maternity Care (Prentice Hall, 2005), and Birth Emergency Skills Training (B.E.S.T.) Manual for out-of-hospital birth providers (2008). She has practiced in urban high-tech hospitals as well as the lamp-lit Amish bedrooms of rural Pennsylvania. She currently practices midwifery in central Pennsylvania, caring for an underserved, culturally diverse inner city population.

Jesse Remer Henderson BCD, PCD, CBDT, LCCE Mother Tree Birth Services. She is a Lamaze certified educator and a certified DONA trainer. She has supported hundreds of families in out-of-hospital settings. She has worked in the Legacy Health System, Adventist Medical Center, Zenana Spa and Wellness Center and Loving Touch Classroom. Her teaching specialty includes Natural Pain Coping Techniques, Comfort Massage, Comfort Positions for Labor.

Erin Hildebrandt is a wife, mother,activist, artist, legally registered Oregon medical marijuana patient, public speaker, and an internationally published writer. She co-founded Parents Ending Prohibition, and her writing has been printed in Mothering Magazine, New York's Newsday, and Canada's National Post, among many others. Erin has been interviewed for a front page story in USA Today, and she has been published in the American Bar Association Journal.

Edwin Hoffman-Smith, PhD, ND, earned a PhD in biology from Case Western Reserve University in 1971 and graduated from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1979. His naturopathic family practice includes attending home and birth center births. He has organized two parenting conferences and teaches a monthly parenting class. For the past five years, he has taught a monthly workshop on the pros and cons of routine
childhood vaccinations which is the subject of his conference presentation.

Lisa Johnson, MA, IBCLC, RLC, LCCE has her Master’s in Human Development with a specialization in Lactation Consulting from Pacific Oaks College and the Lactation Institute. She has been a Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 2007. Lisa is also a certified childbirth educator. Her primary lactation focus has been helping teen moms breastfeed. She also has a special interest in ankyloglossia, and spent time with a Pediatric surgeon researching a new way to perform frenotomies. She currently is working as a Lactation Consultant for Legacy Health System.

Crystal Mattox, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist working in the Portland area for 5 years. She specializes in helping to understand and heal the emotional and psychological effects that varied kinds of trauma have on personal identity and intimate relationships. She enjoys teaching and speaking on subjects related to helping people understand and make meaning of difficult events in a life enhancing way.

Hope Medford, CPM graduated from the National College of Midwifery in 1999 and became a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in 2000. Hope is consistently seeking knowledge in natural birth, often looking to blend the wisdom of modern medicine and world traditions. She has worked with the African Birth Collective, attending births alongside African Midwives and teaching students in a birth center in Senegal, West Africa. She has also travelled and exchanged knowledge with midwives, nurses, and birth assistants in Peru, Brazil, and South Africa to learn about their countries' birth practices. She has a home birth practice with Mothertree Birth in Portland, Oregon.

Andi Markell, RD, has been a dietitian since 2000. She was the first neonatal dietitian at Legacy Emanuel Health Center and has been responsible for creating the nutrition program in the NICU and co-established the Nutrition & Lactation Follow Up Service an outpatient service for babies who discharge from the NICU on fortified breastmilk feeds. She continues to work clinically in the NICU as well as non-clinically as the Lead Neonatal and Pediatric Dietitian at Emanuel.

Margi Munson, IBCLC, RLC was trained at the Lactation Institute in Los Angeles from 1983-85, and was among the 254 candidates that sat for the first IBCLC exam in 1985. Currently, she is the supervisor for Legacy Health System Lactation Services and as a Lactation Consultant. At Legacy, she was instrumental in the establishment of the unique Nutrition/Lactation Follow up Service that is provided to the graduates of the NICU..

Cynthia Luxford, CPM, LDEM, has been practicing midwifery since 1988 on the Central Oregon Coast, where she also has a Licensed Freestanding Birth Center, Home Sweet Home Birth. She trains midwives through apprenticeships as a preceptor for Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, Oregon, National College of Midwives in Taos, New Mexico and Aviva Institute. She currently holds a position on the Oregon State Board of Midwifery.

Doris Onnis, RN, IBCLC, RLC has been a practicing nurse for 30 years and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1997.  She has been involved with Maternal-Child Health including Neonatal ICU, Newborn nursery, Postpartum care, and Home Health for Maternal-Child postpartum follow-up. Doris supervises the Lactation Program for Providence St. Vincent Hospital as well as the Postpartum Care Center.  In this role she teaches RNs and Lactation Consultants advanced practice breastfeeding education as well as managing patient care.  Since 1995, Doris has been involved with the growth and development of breastfeeding programs at Providence St. Vincent.  In 2006, BabySteps Consulting, LLC was developed by Doris.  This service was designed to provide lactation consultations in the comfort of a family's home.  All of these activities are supported by her wonderful husband and four children.

Sylvia Bortin Patience, CNM, MSN, FPN, has practiced midwifery since 1976, when she began as an apprentice trained home birth midwife in Idaho. In 1984, she was certified as a Nurse Midwife from Stanford University and licensed in California. She received her Masters Degree in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco and her Family Nurse Practitioner with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, from the Boise State University.   She is on the faculty at Aviva Institute.

Tamy Roloff LM, CPM, CD started attending births in 1984. She became a La Leche League Leader in 1995, a DONA certified doula in 1998, a Certified Childbirth Educator with ICEA in 2000, and a DONA Approved Doula Trainer in 2003, and graduated from Seattle Midwifery School in 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Eastern Washington University. She lives and practices in Long Beach, Washington. She trains doulas both through DONA and Aviva Institute where she serves on the faculty.

Jodi Selander created PlacentaBenefits.info in 2006 to raise awareness of the benefits of using the placenta for postpartum recovery. She then developed the Placenta Encapsulation Specialist Training & Certification Course to help professionals provide safe, quality placenta encapsulation services to new mothers. She is the author of the upcoming book entitled The Postpartum Survival Guide. Jodi is currently involved in placenta research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Daphne Singingtree, CPM is the author of the Birthsong Midwifery Workbook, Emergency Guide to Obstetric Complications, and Training Midwives: A Guide for Preceptors. She has been practicing and teaching midwives since 1974.   She is the founder and Academic Director of Aviva Institute. She has a Bachelor in Organizational Management from Ashford University where she currently working on her Masters in Education with a concentration on Technology Leadership.

Rose St. John is author of Fathers at Birth: Your Role in Bringing Your Child into the World and is committed to offering men a strong sense of place in the birthing process. The book was highly recommended by Mothering Magazine and endorsed by Barbara Harper, who said it is, "the best doula book ever written." St. John is a mother, doula, prenatal/postnatal and couples yoga instructor, and created a birth preparation program based on yogic principles. Please visit her website here.

Meg Stalnaker, ICBLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and has been working with breastfeeding families since 1991. Meg works with Beyond Birth Lactation Services at Zenana Spa and Wellness Center and has taught Childbirth and Newborn Care and Breastfeeding classes for the Providence Health System for 16 years. Meg also practiced as a Homebirth Midwife for 13 years and attended Birthingway Midwifery School. As a mother of 3, Meg is continually inspired by the journey that birth, breastfeeding and parenting takes us on and the lessons that we learn from these experiences.

Alisa Weiss, ICCE-CPE, CD(DONA) , originally trained as a Bradley educator, has since earned certifications as an ICEA childbirth and postnatal educator, lactation educator, labor and postpartum doula. Alisa currently teaches a wide variety of prenatal classes for three hospital systems in the Portland/Vancouver area. She is a passionate, innovative educator with dynamic ideas for meeting the needs of this generation. As a pioneer in the home birthing, home schooling community, Alisa will challenge and inspire you. Married for 37 years with six sons and one daughter, she brings a wealth of experiences and humor to her presentations.

Dixie Whetsell, MS, IBCLC, RLCis an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who has been working with breastfeeding families since 1992. She has a Master’s degree in Health Education from the University of Oregon. Dixie has experience working as a lactation consultant in both private practice and in a hospital setting. She also instructs lactation training courses. She has served as a breastfeeding consultant with county and state WIC programs. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the International Lactation Consultant Association. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank