Mission
The Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery (FAM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to midwifery in North America through education, research and public policy.
Consistent independent research shows that expanding the midwives model of care in North America improves maternal and infant health outcomes, reduces unnecessary and costly medical interventions, and increases patient satisfaction.
FAM receives its support from foundations, midwives, and those individuals who embrace the midwives model of care.
FAM Board members: (Front Row) Maggie Bennett, Priya Morganstern, Linda McHale (Back Row) Marie Meakin, BJ Mackinnon, Michelle Medlin, Sherry DeVries, Karen Webster
History
The Foundation For the Advancement of Midwifery (FAM) was formed in 1998 with the original purpose of providing a 501(c) 3 organization for interested individuals to donate to projects of The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA). Very quickly, however, FAM developed its own identity as an organization with a broad vision of what is needed to advance midwifery in the United States through research, education, and public policy.
FAM has granted nearly $250,000 to more than 20 programs after its first grant in 2003. Program areas that have been funded include critical research on the midwifery model of care and training programs for those serving vulnerable populations of birthing women.
See [ Projects Funded ] for more information.
The FAM board consists of eight volunteer members, five midwives and three consumers. In 2009, the FAM board contracted a project director, Robin Hutson, to continue the growth of the foundation’s program support and meet the increased funding demands for midwifery education and public policy.
Our Board
Maggie Bennett
Maggie Bennett is an artist as well as a midwife. She began her midwifery career in 1975, overlapping her study and practice of midwifery with her teaching career. She has a private homebirth practice in Monterey, CA and has trained several practicing midwives.
Maggie has been active in midwifery politics on the local, state, and national levels for more than thirty years. She was the Chairwoman of California Association of Midwives when that state passed legislation to license midwives. She has served several terms on the Board of Directors of the Midwives Alliance of North America, and has been honored with the Sage Femme, the highest accolade MANA bestows for her participation, wisdom, and vision for midwifery.
Maggie brings to the FAM Board her creativity, expertise in policy-making, and her enthusiasm for the future of midwifery care in the U.S. Maggie received her BFA from the University of Illinois, has two children, and lives in Seaside, California.
Sherry DeVries
Sherry DeVries, CPM, LM, CNM is a midwife, mother, midwifery educator and birth activist. Sherry has been attending homebirths since the mid 1980s. She currently serves on the Midwives Alliance Board of Directors as the Region 4 representative.
Sherry is currently teaching and developing a one of a kind Direct Entry Midwife program at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Wisconsin for the purpose of educating new and aspiring midwives.
Sherry has four children and lives in Fennimore, Wisconsin.
BJ Mackinnon
BJ Mackinnon, CPM, CNM, MS, serves the foundation board in the capacity of dreamer – “If we can dream it, we can do it!“ Foundation work inspires her. She thrives on granting money to the projects that support the midwifery model of care.
Her expertise comes from years of organizational work through the Midwives Alliance of North America, her state midwifery organizations, and avid personal enthusiasm.
BJ has been a midwife since 1982 and became involved in fundraising and grant making due to her interests and satisfaction in seeing every dollar count in relation to the midwifery model of care. BJ is married with four children and two home-schooled grandchildren and lives on her vineyard in Brimfield, MA.
Marie Meakin
Marie Meakin, RN, BSN, CD, CBE, has been working as a nurse in Maternal–Child Health since 1989. She has been involved in legislation to change healthcare policy as well as fundraising.
Since joining the crusade to change maternity care in 2001, she owned her own childbirth education and doula business, taught nursing students in obstetrics, and has experienced birth at home and hospital.
Marie brings a passion for change and a consumer-oriented focus to the Foundation with a special interest in creative fundraising. Marie is married with two children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Michelle Medlin
Michelle Medlin, BSChE, MBA, earned her degrees at Purdue University and Wilmington College in Delaware. Her life as a chemical engineer consisted of working as a contractor to the U.S. Army designing plants to destroy agents of chemical warfare and then designed and managed a chemical database/website for a national laboratory.
Michelle’s advocacy in the midwifery arena began in 2005 with her letter writing campaign used during the 2005 MANA rally in Boulder. The importance of informing women about the benefits of midwifery became evident after her own childbirth experiences and developed into a reality when she joined the FAM Board as Treasurer.
Michelle is married with two children and lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Priya Morganstern
Priya Morganstern, J.D., specializes in the law of tax-exempt organizations. She has been involved in women’s health and midwifery education and advocacy since 1982 as a founding member of Long Island (NY) Childbirth Alternatives and the Massachusetts Friends of Midwives, and later as president of Connecticut Friends of Midwives.
She taught medical students for a number of years as part of a woman–run gynecological teaching program and was a contributing editor of “The Whole Birth Catalog” published in 1983.
Priya currently directs the Pro Bono Partnership, Inc., a legal aid program based in Hartford, CT that uses volunteer attorneys to provide free legal assistance to nonprofit organizations serving the public interest, and which is funded by local corporations, law firms, and foundations.
Priya also serves on the Board of the Connecticut Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and is a member of the Social Action Committee of her synagogue.
Priya is married with one daughter and lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.
Karen Webster
Karen Webster, CPM, LM, has a home birth practice and has been involved in birth and women’s health since 1979. She served on the MANA Board of Directors as the Region 2 Representative for six years and is the MANA Regional Conference chair.
Karen is committed to “growing more midwives” and is a preceptor for both the National College of Midwifery & Birthwise Midwifery School.
Karen has worked actively on midwifery related legislation efforts in four states. She is a charter member of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives and has been a MANA member since 1985.
She has been involved in the planning of at least nine midwifery conferences and brings her unique organizational skills to the FAM Board, along with her desire to make midwifery care accessible to all women.
Karen is married with eight children, and seven home–born grandchildren; she lives in Elkton, Maryland.
Robin Hutson
Robin Hutson [ Project Director ] joins FAM after fifteen years in the magazine publishing industry, last serving for six years as the Publisher of The American Prospect, a nonprofit political magazine and website.
During her pregnancy and prenatal care with Certified Professional Midwives and Certified Nurse Midwives, Robin planned to shift her career from nonprofit media to childbirth reform, specifically committed to increasing access to midwives in all birth settings.
Robin has volunteered for BOLD (Birth On Labor Day), the Massachusetts Friends of Midwives, the Massachusetts Coalition for Midwifery, and the Birth Network of Greater Boston.
She launched a Birth Circle program in Massachusetts that meets across the state, convening past, present, and potential midwifery clients for support and information.
She and her husband have one daughter born at home and live in Boston.