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ACNM Congratulates Its New 2017 Fellows

Fellowship in the American College of Nurse-Midwives (FACNM) is an honor bestowed upon those midwives whose demonstrated leadership, clinical excellence, outstanding scholarship, and professional achievement have merited special recognition both within and outside of the midwifery profession. FACNM represents the commitment of the ACNM to honor our own. In light of the vast wealth of expertise and collective wisdom represented within the body of Fellows, its mission is to serve the ACNM in a consultative and advisory capacity. 

The 2017 ceremony, held during the Opening Premier Session of the ACNM 62nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition honored 19 new Fellows  and one Fellow from last year who was not available at our 2016 meeting.   

Maria Christina Johnson, CNM. MS, FACNM was elected a Fellow last year but was unable to attend the Annual Meeting.  Tina is the Interim Director of Midwifery Practice and Education Global Outreach at ACNM and has served as the Maryland Affiliate Chair,  and Legislative Liaison and as a Practice Director.

Jill Alliman, CNM, DNP has been a birth center midwife in rural Tennessee for 26 years.  She is a past president of AABC. She is on the faculty at Frontier Nursing University.   Her goal is to improve access to birth center care for women with Medicaid and CHIP coverage. 

Rebecca Bagley, CNM, DNP has been the director of the East Carolina University midwifery program since 2007. She is a Senior site visitor for ACME. She serves as the only CNM on the board of the Association of Professors of Gynecology & Obstetrics. A longtime active member of the North Carolina Affiliate she played an integral role in shaping North Carolina's midwifery policies

Margaret Beal, CNM, PhD has had a career that has included clinical practice, midwifery and women's health education, scholarly work and public service. She served as the chair of the Division of Education and was the first midwife with a gubernatorial appointment to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing.

Ruth Boone, CNM, DNP established  the 1st nurse-midwifery service at Womack Army Medical Center, the longest, continuously running, full scope midwifery service in Army; it was  chosen as #1 site for residency among Army medicalstudents. She is the only CNM appointed to NC Governor's Commission on Reduction of Infant Mortality. She has served as ACNM Continuing Education Committee chair. 

Debora Dole, CNM, PhD  is a senior site visitor for ACME.  She started first midwifery practice in Butler County, Ohio introducing midwifery care to women who had few options. She developed a community mothering support network in an inner city public housing neighborhood for mostly African American women & young children.  

Kate Fouquier, CNM, PhD  is a past chair of the ACNM Program committee and the continuing education committee. She has opened 2 midwifery practices and served as the director of a third practice and is active in the Mississippi affiliate. She is currently an associate professor of nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical center. 

Sherilyn Gibbs, CNM, DNP, RNC-OB works to engage ACNM membership at local, state, and national levels with a practical approach to marketing midwifery through Our Moment of Truth campaign. She is an active member of the Membership & Marketing Committee and is the Maryland Affiliate Legislative Committee. She was awarded the Maryland General Hospital 2013 Excellence in Advanced Practice Nursing Award and 2015 A.C.N.M. Foundation W. Newton Long Award.

Jennifer Jagger, CNM, MSN, WHNP is the current chair of the Midwives-PAC. She has served as Secretary of NYSALM and is founder and current co-chair of the OR Affiliate Special Project Grants Committee. She is a Georgetown faculty member and co-innovator of "Hill Day," an experiential-based learning activity focused on lobbying Congress. She has worked internationally on various maternal health projects, and is an expert on the New Zealand model of maternity care.

Lucia Jenkusky, CNM, MS, C-EFM  is Co-Founder and Director of Birth and Beyond Midwifery Practice, PLLC in Oneonta, NY (2001-2007). She is the first midwife credentialed at Nationwide Children's Hospital where she started the first Centering Pregnancy group at NCH. She is the resident Director for the Ohio State University Honduras Study Abroad Program. Lucia is passionate about educating midwives for the future, adolescent sexual health and pregnancy, Centering Pregnancy and global health/health care in Honduras.

Karen Jefferson, CM, LM is the President of the NY Affiliate NYSALM and Chair of ACNM Committee for Advancement of Midwifery Practice. She is a founding board member of the Foundation for Haitian Midwives, which in collaboration with the Haitian Midwifery Association and UNFPA provides continuing education for Haitian midwives. Her goals include scaling up midwifery in the U.S. by promoting multiple paths to graduate midwifery education.

Susan Krause, CNM, MSN is the current director of the Baystate Midwifery Education program. She participates in the Inter-Professional Education curriculum development with ACNM/ACOG Workgroup from which came the article: "Precepting Challenge: Helping the student Attain the Affective Skills of a Good Midwife," JMWH, 2016.

Mayri Leslie, CNM, MSN, EdD is the director of the MSN Concentration in Nurse-Midwifery at George Washington University in a collaborative program with Shenandoah University. She is a past ACNM Kitty Ernst young whippersnapper award winner. Her current research  interests are delayed cord clamping, incorporation of evidence into practice, hypertension in pregnancy and its relationship to future cardiovascular disease.

Carrie Neerland, CNM, MS, EdD serves as chair of the ACNM's Membership and Marketing committee and is a site co-leader for the ACNM's Reducing Primary Cesareans project. Currently she is co-president of the Minnesota affiliate.  

Ann Forster Page, CNM, DNP is the Director of the U of Minnesota CNM fully integrated academic service. She serves on the ACNM's Reducing Primary C/S Project steering committee  and is the First President (co) of MN ACNM Affiliate, having led the transition from Chapter to Affiliate. 

Dana Perlman, CNM, MSN is the program Director at the Midwifery Institute at Philadelphia University. A past chapter president, she co-founded the Pennsylvania Affiliate and was instrumental in negotiating prescriptive authority regulations. As Vice-Chair of the Committee for the Advancement of Midwifery Practice, Dana is working to increase the midwifery workforce.

Lesley Rathbun, CNM, FNP, MSN is the first and only CNM owner of a birth center in South Carolina.  She has served 2 terms as president of the American Association of Birth Centers and has lobbied for and promoted the benefits of CNMS and birth centers in the media and in legislative arenas.

Pamela Reis, CNM, PhD, NNP-BC is an Assistant Professor at East Carolina University College of Nursing in the Midwifery and PhD programs.  She is a commissioner on the ACME Board of Commissioner She is co-chair of the ACNM Program Committee and serves of the Division of Research, the ACNM-ACOG IPE workgroup.  She is on the Board of Directors of the NC Affiliate.

Melissa Saftner, CNM, PhD is an Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, teaching in the Midwifery program and providing care to women in Duluth, MN. She has served ACNM on the Clinical Practice and Documents section, the Sleep & Safety Task Force and as an ACME site visitor.

Melanie Sumersille, CNM is an AMCB External Reviewer. As she criss-crossed the country, she saw firsthand how health literacy improves outcomes for women and their families and works to that end. 



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