Our Advisors
We are supported by a growing network of like-minded midwives and medical professionals with the desire to help birth a New Earth.
RICKI LAKE, FILM MAKER
Ricki Lake is an American actress, television presenter and producer known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray. At the age of 24, Lake became one of the youngest daily talk show hosts in history with the debut of “The Ricki Lake Show.” Lake has become an integral figure in the birthing community, having served for many years on the board of Choices in Childbirth, a nonprofit organization that strives to improve maternity care all over the world.
DAVID HAYES, MD
OB/GYN specializing in breech birth. He has attended thousands of births, including well over 100 home births in Western North Carolina since 2005. He is a faculty preceptor with the National College of Midwifery. In addition to his home birth practice he has worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) as an obstetrician/ gynecologist and as a Medical Team Leader in high risk obstetrics and vesico-vaginal fistula repair programs in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka.
DR. RIXA FREEZE, PHD
Dr. Rixa Freeze, PhD, is the founder of Breech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy. Breech Without Borders helps information cross linguistic, geographic, and knowledge borders by translating existing material about breech into multiple languages, supporting breech research, publication, conferences, lectures, and training workshops and making information about breech more accessible and understandable to both health care providers and to the public.
CHARLES EISENSTEIN, SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER
Charles Eisenstein is a philosopher, teacher and writer. He is the author of The Ascent of Humanity (2007), Sacred Economics (2011, revised 2020), The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible (2013) and Climate — A New Story (2018).
BLYSS YOUNG, MIDWIFE
Blyss Young is a mother a traditional spiritual midwife, sacred facilitator, energy healer and yogi. At the heart of all of her work is a deeply rooted belief in the brilliant design of the human body and the symbiotic relationship between mother and baby. She continues to strive to support the sacredness of birth as a rite of passage, in the hopes to resurrect lost traditions that can bring connection to our high tech low touch lives.
KIMBERLY VAN DER BEEK, MOTHER, HOME BIRTH ADVOCATE
Kimberly Van Der Beek is a mother of six and a passionate home birth advocate.
HEHE STEWART, DOULA
HeHe Stewart is a Family Life Educator with 10 years of experience in supporting families. She is an Infant Feeding Specialist and a Birth/Postpartum Doula. Her passion is helping pregnant women prepare for their birth with research-backed education and expert support to have an informed and confident birth, in a judgement free environment, where they are heard and encouraged to birth in the position that is right for them.
LINDSEY MEEHLEIS, MIDWIFE
Lindsey Meehleis is a mom and traditional spiritual midwife who has been serving childbearing women through birth, lactation and emotionally through trauma release work since 2004. She works in Southern California and has had the pure honor of witnessing over 1300 births. She believes that “great grandma wisdom” is one of the most essential rememberings to tap back into during each rite of passage that we weave through as women in our lifetimes.
BRITTANY ROSS, AUTHOR, BUSINESS OWNER
Brittany Ross is an Author, business owner, aspiring Indie Birth Doula, holistic wellness advocate, and certified yoga guide. She is the CEO and founder of the anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Mission 108, which runs a safe home in India for girls rescued out of sex trafficking. She is a mother, wife, creator, and constant spiritual seeker. She is passionate about empowering women to reclaim their power (especially in birth and wellness).
JENNIFER SUMMERFELDT, MACP, CCC, PERINATAL THERAPIST
Jennifer holds an MA in Counselling Psychology and has nearly two decades of experience in maternal health and psychology. In addition to being a counsellor and a coach, Jennifer has also been a childbirth advocate, maternal educator, doula, midwifery apprentice, and published writer. She uses her expertise and voice to help advance the dialogue on motherhood, mental health, and healing.
VALERIE JAKOBSEN, CHINESE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER
After spending over five years of intense study in a post-graduate program for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Valerie felt inspired to pull together as many holistic healing tools and wisdom traditions as she could. She believes that it is our birthright to understand and master our own bodies and multidimensional selves. With an in-depth understanding of the physical, emotional, and energetic bodies, Valerie works to facilitate a return to wholeness and self-trust with each of her one-on-one consultations and self-led courses. She believes in the infinite wisdom that exists within each individual.
JULIE A. LABENZ, ATTORNEY
Julie graduated from Vanderbilt University, magna cum laude, in 2002 and obtained her law degree from the Arizona State University College of Law. In 2006, she became licensed to practice law in Arizona.
For the first three years of her career, she worked as a criminal prosecutor before going into private practice in a small town handling a wide variety of legal matters. One case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court with her arguments prevailing at every level of the legal process.
Her homebirth served as her initiation to fully step into her divine feminine power. After her homebirth, she now knows and embodies that she is autonomy. She knows that she can face her fears. She knows that the Universe will divinely guide her. She is now fully dedicated to being in full alignment with her soul.
She brings all of this experience, understanding and soul growth to her law practice in which she helps people through the legal rite of passage known as divorce.
ARIELA KNOLES, WRITER
Ariela Knoles writes essays, poetry, short stories and screenplays. She’s a writer and editor of a new collaborative journal for moms called First Word is Ma. Before settling down in Flagstaff, Ariela had an acting career in national and international TV commercials, and worked in post-production of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Now her career is in raising two boys and writing about her discoveries and convictions of being a mom. After having two beautiful births with Maryn Green by her side and taking the 13 Moons course, Ariela is very passionate about women taking their most life-changing event into their own hands.
PATTI QUINTERO, BIRTH DOULA & BUSINESS OWNER
Patti Quintero is the founder and CEO of Uma Mother. She is a mother of two, and has been a teacher of Yoga and Meditation for the last two decades. It was through Patti’s own journey through Pregnancy into Motherhood that she discovered the importance of these essential practices that nurture vitality, presence, joy and access to a source of inner guidance which is an invaluable foundation for every mother. Since then she has also worked as a Birth Doula and child birth educator supporting families through a pivotal and transformative chapter of life. Patti has served as a mentor for hundreds of mothers over the years and cultivated a devoted community in the Los Angeles area. Through her company Uma Mother, Patti offers classes and workshops focused on stress release and consciousness expansion including Yoga, Movement, Vedic Meditation and community support. This summer she will be launching her online platform of on-demand and live classes to reach mothers around the world.
AYLA BARMMER, MS, RD, LDN
Ayla Barmmer is the Founder & CEO of FullWell, which specializes in pregnancy and fertility health products. She is a Registered Dietitian trained in integrative and functional medicine. Ayla owns and operates Boston Functional Nutrition, an integrative and functional nutrition practice specializing in women’s health. She is also the co-founder of the Women’s Health Nutrition Academy, an online academy delivering cutting edge, evidence-based continuing education for healthcare practitioners.
KRISTINE LAURIA, CPM, INTERNATIONAL MIDWIFE, BREECH SPECIALIST
Kristine has been practicing for 33 years as a CPM and LM and has worked internationally for over 20 years. She currently works with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) providing humanitarian aid in developing countries. She specializes in high risk obstetrics in low resource settings. When Kristine is home, she teaches virtual AP midwifery classes through Midwifery Wisdom Collective and she also facilitates master classes with Breech Without Borders. She provides expert witness testimony in court cases involving breech birth. Kristine has attended over 5,000 births, the majority out of hospital and has attended 516 breeches, 387 sets of twins and 7 sets of triplets to date. She is a staunch advocate for autonomy in women’s health and for physiologic birth.
JASON LEISTER, CO-FOUNDER OF FREEDOMWORKS
Jason Leister is the co-founder of FreedomWorks PCA, an organization that helps business owners of all shapes and sizes move their work out of the confines of the public system and into the protected jurisdiction of a private membership association. He is the father of 10 and envisions a world where no man professes to have authority over another.
FELICIA SOKOL, DOULA AND CHILDBIRTH EDUCATOR
Felicia Sokol is a doula, birth keeper, birth coach, fertility coach, and wombworker. She’s supported dozens of births and birthing women + their partners + their families. She has also supported people dealing with loss. She believes the line between birth and death is quite thin and that both must be honored and loved. She is a certified birth worker supporting Hypnobirthing with completion of a Spinning Babies intensive. She completed the year-long intensive birthkeeper’s course of Holistic Midwifery at Da A Luz Midwifery School.
REBECCA LASKY COHEN, MD
Rebecca Lasky Cohen, MD is a holistic women’s healthcare physician specializing in pelvic wellbeing throughout all stages of women’s lives. She has spent the last 30 years dedicated to working with women and has had extensive training in midwifery, family medicine, obstetrics, energetic and physical modalities and traditional healing practices from throughout the world. She is mother to nine children and is devoted to orienting women to their own inner-knowing as they thrive in sovereignty, fully realizing their vibrant health and creative potential. Her practice, Full Circle Holistic, seeks to guide women to reclaim their womb wisdom and honor the sacredness of their bodies.