I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, just across the park from where I now live with my eleven-year-old daughter. I graduated from Earlham College in 1998 with a degree in women’s studies, and discovered birth work a few years after graduation. I have supported hundreds of families as a birth doula and childbirth educator, and have trained nearly 150 doulas. In addition to my private practice, I worked for four years as a nonprofit program coordinator and doula supervisor, mentoring community-based and volunteer doulas in providing birth support and education services to low-income and marginalized families. I have facilitated peer support groups for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and pregnancy loss, and provide one-on-one birth planning and processing consultation services. In the summer of 2020, I joined the Healthcare Journeys Lab at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics as a research consultant, and am currently spearheading a project about virtual birth support during the pandemic. I started the Master of Social Work program at IU in June of 2021, with the goal of continuing to support new families through a new lens and with a new set of skills. When I'm not thinking about pregnancy, birth, and parenting, I like to hang out with my daughter, laugh with friends, knit, read novels, write, practice yoga and CrossFit, and bask in sunny windows alongside my cat.