My desire to become a nurse-midwife started at a young age. I had the opportunity to watch my mother, also a nurse-midwife, first in South Africa and later in a freestanding birth Center in Bethesda, Maryland, care for women throughout labor and birth in ways that would leave a lasting impression. As the daughter of a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, I grew up in South Africa and traveled extensively throughout Africa and Europe as a young person. My family later settled in Northern Virginia, where many of them live today. 

 I obtained my bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. After working several years as a nurse in both the neonatal intensive care and labor and delivery units, I obtained my Masters in Nurse-Midwifery from the University of Illinois at Chicago, after which I passed the American Midwifery Certification Board examination to qualify as a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM). Chris and I worked together in an integrated physician–midwifery practice for almost 10 years in southwest Georgia. There, I was the first hospital-based nurse-midwife to work in the community, paving the way for many others that followed.  

Chris and I met in Charlottesville, Virginia where we married in 1994. I am the mother of five children, Ian, Colin and Mackenzie, Alima, and Masalay, and a very proud “Gamma” to Frances, Damian, and Magdalena. I took a few years of “downtime” from midwifery to homeschool my oldest 3 children. My youngest two, Alima and Masalay, are adoptees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who joined the family in the summer of 2016 after a long, difficult journey. I am a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, where I participate as a Eucharistic Minister among other lay ministries. I have enjoyed extensive work with Northeast Indiana Right to Life (formerly Allen County Right to Life) and other organizations to champion life whenever possible. I am passionate about education, seeing knowledge as the key to good decision-making. Every woman has the right to good, transparent information about her childbirth choices. A great midwife and a great teacher are one and the same; which is why I enjoyed homeschooling so much. It’s a lot like being a midwife – there’s nothing more exciting than seeing people utilize what they’ve learned. 

I am thrilled to have returned to clinical practice and the Fertility and Midwifery Care Center. In 2019, Chris and I opened The Holy Family Birth Center. It was a labor of love, and I could not be happier to bring birth as it was intended to the patients of FMCC.