Conference Instructors

                                         Our  Speakers

                                                               "A Heart of Worship"

Alicia Huntley ACNM, CNM

Alicia is in a full-scope midwifery practice.  She works in the office doing gynecology and prenatal and postpartum care and delivers at 3 local hospitals. She is a CNM in Illinois, and has been a CNM since 1996.  Alicia attended the University of Southern California, Las Angeles CA.  She has her Masters in Nursing, and Certificate in Nurse-Midwifery.  She was elected to Sigma Theta Tau, nominated for departmental honors.  She also has a degree in Literature in English, she majored in French language and literature.  Alicia has been published in Midwifery Today, the Birth Kit and several on line publications. She has taught other midwives at various conferences. 

Doran Richards CPM, Founder at Blessing God's Way (BGW), Owner at BGW Full of Grace Yoga (shown with her husband in the photo)

       Doran became a CPM in 2011 and has been practicing for 5 years as a CPM in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  She attended births for 15 years with 9 different preceptors.  Doran is the owner and founder of a ministry for women called Blessing God’s Way - Maidenhood, Maternity, Menopause. Doran wrote a book called: A Celebration of Pregnancy which gives instructions on how to perform a Christian blessingway and how to support women in childbearing.  Doran began Blessings God’s Way in 2001.  She is the author of Maidens by His Design, which a curriculum for young women and their mothers teaching about how their bodies are created to cycle and it is a normal life function.  She recently became a registered Holy Yoga instructor with a specialty in pre-post natal yoga. Doran was the director of  her state-wide midwifery advocacy organization from 2002-2004 called Midwifery Options for Mothers, has taught for CMI, and helps often with her state organization events. Doran has been married 23 years and they have 6 children. 

                                                   

Doreen Lawton  M.Ed, CPM

                             Doreen has a Master's degree in special education, specializing in early intervention, birth-5 years old.  She previously worked with the Georgia Parent Infant Network for Education Services for multi-handicapped and sensory impaired birth-3 year olds and has taught preschool handicapped children both in schools and in the home. She says she has been a doula since before anyone knew there was such a thing, and began apprenticing with a midwife in 1999, trained as a childbirth educator through CAPPA, and has been a CPM since 2009.  Doreen practiced  midwifery for the last 8 years in the rural north Georgia area.  Recently she relocated to the Chattanooga, TN where she works as a midwifery assistant as well as teaching her own brand of interactive childbirth education: {Embracing Birth}, as well as HUG Your baby classes.  She says: I LOVE sharing information learned from HUG Your Baby with new parents and birth professionals.  Doreen was a speaker on that topic at the Chattanooga Birth and Wellness Expo in 2015.  Doreen's love and energy is always such a welcome blessing at conferences.  Doreen has been married for 33 years, and has 6 grown children.

Ireena Keeslar CPM, CBE

Ireena originally was planning on being a elementary art teacher, and went to school for that.  But 6 weeks before she was to graduate, she had her first baby and her life changed! Ireena began her birth work in 1992, after the birth of her 5th baby.   She worked as a assistant in OB assisting during the deliveries.  She usually cared for the babies. She worked for WIC for a short time.   She went on to get her LPN and worked as a LPN from 1993 to 2004.  She worked at 2 different hospitals in OB, and on med-surg and worked in a nursing home as a nurse for a short time.  She began working as a nurse in a  free standing birth center when it first opened in 1997. Soon after that she began her studies to become a midwife.  She became a CPM in 2001. Ireena also taught child birth classes from 1992 and still teaches now and then.  She built a large Amish class, beginning the first year with only one or two couples that were Amish each year, ending up with 6 classes a year with from 25 to 28 couples in each class. I reena has worked in 2 different free standing birth centers, and started 2 other free standing birth centers, all owned by others.  Ireena has worked in the ministry, working with the Lakota Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  She began doing mission work on the reservation in 1993, averaging from one to 3 trips a year.  She retired this ministry a few years ago, now that there are 2 people who live out there full time, that first went thru the ministry that Ireena began.  Ireena has taught at several state midwife conferences, as well as CMI, and does classes for midwifery students from California, to Tennessee. She has served on the board for CMI for several years, and also on the states Midwifery organization several times.  She is has been doing conferences or helping with conferences since she became a midwife.  She has been published in Midwifery Today, the Birth Kit, has had photos published.  One of her photos won second place in a national contest.  She enjoys Vegetable and herbal gardening,  painting (artist), crocheting, knitting, sewing, quilting, camping and photography.  Ireena has been married for 36 years and they have 5 living children, and 5 grand children. She recently earned her Associates in Midwifery degree and plans to finish her bachelors that she has been working on and then go for her masters. 

       

                                                                       

                                                                                 

Jill Futch Whitfield ACNM, CNM

Jill is a Certified Nurse Midwife.  She earned her MSN in Nursing in 1999 from the Armstrong Atlantic State University, and her Post Master's Certificate in Midwifery in 2003 from the Medical University of South Carolina.  Jill works at the The Midwife Group and Birth Center in Savannah, Ga. as a Certified Nurse Midwife. Jill participates in Prenatal Care Plus Program and optional Childbirth education programs for clients and their families.  She organizes and schedules public speaking engagements to women’s groups on topics of interest. She is a regular speaker at Christian Midwives International conferences, as well as other state, regional and nationwide perinatal conferences and seminars. Jill has been married to Richard who we often see manning their Midwifery Mercantile table at conferences.  They have 2 beautiful daughters, and 2 equally beautiful grand daughters.

Laurie Zoyiopoulos CPM

Laurie was a certified midwife through the Michigan Midwives Association (MMA).  She maintained this certification from 1996-2008 until the CM credential was retired by MMA.  She  then went through the extensive process of certification through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) in 2008, and became a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in November of 2008.  She is an apprentice-trained midwife, in private practice since 1994, and has personally attended over 1000 births.  Her apprenticeship spanned 4 and1/2 years, with Patrice Bobier CPM.  Laurie has taught for MMA and CMI in the past. 

Nan Asher DHHS

Nan has a Masters of Liberal Studies with an emphasis on Hearing Assistive Technology

                     and a Bachelors in Health Administration.
    

Nan is the current Treasurer for the Michigan Coalition for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People. She is also a five-time Gubernatorial appointee for the Office of Civil Rights, Advisory Member of Michigan Division on Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Consumer Representative for ASHA's Council for Clinical Specialty Recognition Board; Charter member of Hearing Loss Association of Ann Arbor; Professional member of MI Hands and Voices; HLA-MI, Hearing Technology Resource Specialist; Adapting to Hearing loss and Speech-reading teacher. 

Nan Asher was diagnosed with a bilateral hearing loss at age four and has one sibling with a profound hearing loss. She has worked in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing field for much of her professional career. As the Program Consultant for MI-EHDI, Nan has frequent contact with medical providers and parents, encouraging appropriate follow-up. Nan has spearheaded the Michigan Midwife Project since 2011 and was instrumental in getting all the partnerships together to obtain 15 State of the Art, Portable A-ABR machine that are made accessible for Michigan Midwives who undergo the On-line and Hands-on Hearing Screening training.

     

Nan Asher was diagnosed with a bilateral hearing loss at age four and has one sibling with a profound hearing loss. She has worked in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing field for much of her professional career. As the Program Consultant for MI-EHDI, Nan has frequent contact with medical providers and parents, encouraging appropriate follow-up. Nan has spearheaded the Michigan Midwife Project since 2011 and was instrumental in getting all the partnerships together to obtain 15 State of the Art, Portable A-ABR machine that are made accessible for Michigan Midwives who undergo the On-line and Hands-on Hearing Screening training.