Midwives Make a Difference
ACNM BOARD
Midwifery Is The Answer!
Karie Stewart
President
Karie Stewart
President
Karie E. Stewart is a full-scope midwife practicing on the south side of Chicago with the University of Illinois Miles Square and Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. She is the former Director of Midwifery Services at the University of Chicago Medical Center and the President of the American College of Nurse-Midwifery Illinois Affiliate Board. Karie is also the founder of Melanated Midwives, a nonprofit organization that addresses Black Maternal health disparities and Maternal Health Deserts through the creation and implementation of evidence-based research while also providing family planning, prenatal, postpartum, and mental health education sessions within the community. Currently she is the co-Principal Investigator, on a 7M grant funded by PCORI to examine Black Midwives for Black Women: Maternity Care to Improve Trust and Attenuate Structural Racism over the next 5 years. Her goal within this project is to highlight the importance of the collective use of racial concordant midwifery care, group prenatal care, care coordination, and doula home visits during the postpartum period to address the Black Maternal Health Crisis.
Erin Farah
Vice President
BETSY MCKELVEY
Treasurer
Betsy McKelvey is in her second term as treasurer of the Illinois Affiliate of ACNM. Betsy has a BS in Accounting from Michigan State University, a BSN from Loyola University, and an MSN in Nurse Midwifery from UIC. She had been working at Erie Family Health Center for 23+ years. She will be retiring at the end of the year.
Kirby Adlam
Corresponding Secretary
Kirby Adlam has been on the board as the Vice President, Member at Large, and now as Corresponding Secretary, and she loves helping others through the work ACNM does. She received her BSN from Loyola University and her MSN and PhD at UIC College of Nursing. She worked at U of C in Chicago as a nurse for 6 years prior to working as a full-scope midwife. She has now been working in the UIC midwife practice for over 11 years. She became a full-time clinical assistant professor at the UIC College of Nursing in 2022. She has a love and passion for midwifery. Outside of that, she loves spending time with her daughter.
Recording Secretary
Jennifer Poell
Jeni Poell found midwifery while working at a reproductive health clinic after finishing her undergraduate degree in Women's Studies. She has worked as a full-scope midwife in Chicago community health centers for the past 13+ years. She is currently the Reproductive Health Lead for the APRN fellowship at Erie Family Health Centers. Her care is informed by her commitment to feminism, social justice, and human rights.
Nominating Committee
Kathleen Britten
Kathleen Britten is a Certified Nurse Midwife in Chicago. She graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago in May of 2022. Her mission is to be a part of making midwifery more accessible to all people, and especially the medically underserved. She is experienced with and passionate about out-of-hospital birth. Aside from how excited she is to be midwife, Kathleen enjoys spending time outdoors, cooking dinner, bicycling around the city and being with her family and puppies.
Nominating Committee
Jenny Baxter
I am a Frontier grad and have been a midwife since 2004. I currently work as a full-scope midwife at Rush Copley in Aurora and moonlight once or twice a month doing deliveries for Erie Family Health Center in Chicago. I am married with four adult children, 2 dogs, and a cat. When not working, I love to garden and exercise. This is my third year on the Nominating Committee. In my profile picture, I am holding baby Will, my 1000th catch!
Natalie Parker, DNP, WHNP-BC, CNM
Nominating Committee
Natalie Parker, DNP, WHNP-BC, CNM recently added midwifery to her scope of patient care after graduating from UIC in August 2022. It has been a lifelong goal for Natalie to be a midwife and she is excited to start caring for birthing people at Erie Family Health Centers in Chicago. Natalie has a passion for equity in care, health promotion and wellness for all people in traditional and non-traditional birthing practices. She has a passion for learning about and understanding biases and racism in order to promote equity in her daily patient care.
Natalie currently serves as a Nominating Committee Member on the Board of the Illinois Affiliate of ACNM. When she is not caring for birthing people she enjoys spending time on the water in her kayak, hiking with her dogs, and being a mom to two girls and Nana to her grandson.
Angelique Muhammad MSN, RN, IBCLC
Student Representative
Angelique MSN, RN, IBCLC Student Representative
Is a 2nd year DNP Nurse Midwifery Student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Angelique intends to one day provide holistic midwifery care to birthing families who desire an integration of Christian modalities. July 2022 Angelique spent a whole month in Rwanda, Africa as the Global Maternal Child Health nurse midwifery student! To know Angelique on a personal level means you know she is a vegetarian, MOB mom (mother of boys), and enjoys solitude and traveling to Florida where she can hang out under palm trees.