CWI Staff
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Nicolle L. Gonzales BSN, RN, MSN, CNMFounder and Midwifery DirectorDiné - NavajoShe/Her/Hers
Nicolle L. Gonzales received her Bachelor’s of Nursing and her Masters of Nurse-Midwifery at the University of New Mexico. She is a member of the American College of Nurse Midwives and is certified with the American Midwifery Certification Board. She has over 12 years’ experience as a nurse and has worked as a Nurse-Midwife doing full-scope midwifery for the last 10 years.
Through the years, she has worked on several community projects around birth equity and she has served as the founding board president and vice board president of two birth centers in NM. In addition to attending births, Nicolle was a contributing author to the “American Indian Health and Nursing” in 2015 and is a contributing writer for the Indigenous Goddess Gang online magazine, where she discusses indigenous birth, midwifery, ceremony, reproductive justice, and indigenous feminism. |
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Marinah V. Farrell Midwife, LM, CPMExecutive DirectorChicanx/Indigenous MexicanShe/Her/Ella
Marinah V. Farrell identifies as a first generation two-spirit Chicanx/Indigenous daughter of a medicine woman from Chihuahua, Mexico, and mother to mixed race children including Mexican, Pascua Yaqui and Irish/English descent.
Marinah is active in multiple public health initiatives and coalitions within her community and at the national and international levels. Her background includes diverse activism such as street level medic work and immigration activism in Arizona, clinical/government policy work in Mexico and Africa, organizational development and facilitation in the U.S and Mexico with various non-profits, AI/AN/indigenous health justice work, and as a founding board member of a free clinic for immigrant families, Phoenix Allies for Community Health. Marinah is passionate about advocating for traditional and community healers and has worked as a staff midwife for birth centers and medical facilities internationally, as a program coordinator for traditional midwives, as an educator, and a policy/advocacy expert on midwifery. She owns and operates a long-standing homebirth practice, is licensed in both Arizona and New Mexico, and is the founder of Parteras de Maiz, dedicated to traditional birth work and health justice. Marinah is currently serving as a board member for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice and an Advisory Board member for Birth Detroit. Marinah makes delicious tostadas and salsa, loves to host parties, married to her hero and is mama and gigi to 5 incredible humans and their babies. |
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J. Michelle Gober CPMCWI MidwifeMichelle began working alongside midwives in 2006 in an administrative capacity at MEAC (Midwifery Education Accreditation Council). She was invited to attend births with the midwives and trained as a doula and birth assistant in Flagstaff, AZ. It was there she found her calling to become a midwife and enrolled in school at National College for Midwifery. Michelle gained her Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in 2013, and is currently licensed to practice midwifery in her home state of Texas.
Michelle has practiced as a birth center and home birth midwife in Washington State and The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, Michelle is a Certified Sacred Birth Counselor and Mentor, that supports the spiritual, emotional, and physical well being of her clients and birth team. |
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Carolina Nkouaga MPH, LMCWI MidwifeCarolina Nkouaga is a public health consultant and a community midwife. She currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for National College of Midwifery and as a consultant to the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, the Center for Health Innovation, and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council and has previously served on the New Mexico Department of Health Licensed Midwife Advisory Board, the Beyond Flexner Alliance, and Cien Aguas International School Governing Council. For over a decade, she served as the Director of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office for Community Health, where she collaborated on the development of the health extension model and various community health worker initiatives, as well as working with community partners to improve health and health equity in the state of New Mexico. She currently serves families in central New Mexico during the prenatal, birth and postpartum period, holding space and honoring their traditions as they welcome a new life. She draws on her experience of working in indigenous communities throughout Latin America on community development projects, as well as the Bahá’í principles of unity and service, to guide her work. With ties to Costa Rica and Cameroon, the family home that she shares with her awesome husband and two phenomenal daughters is often filled with the sounds of drums and singing.
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Jasmine Barnes BS, CD, PCDSocial Media SpecialistAfrican-AmericanShe/Her/Hers
Jasmine Barnes is currently a graduate student at Grand Canyon University. She received her BS in both Psychology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. Jasmine has worked as a social worker, working to reunite families within the foster care system, and most recently she has worked in schools K-12 overseeing after-school programs in a marginalized area of San Diego. She plans to be a school counselor after completing her master’s.
After learning about the discrepancies BIPOC experience within the medical industrial complex, especially the death rate of black woman giving birth, Jasmine was inspired to become a Birth and Postpartum Doula and provide support to those who are most in need. Shortly after becoming a doula, She volunteered with Operation Doula, a program designed to support military families whose partners may be deployed or otherwise unable to support during births. Jasmine continues to provide volunteer or pay-what-you-can doula services to the women in her community. Jasmine splits her time between educational work and birth work, but hardly considers either work because she loves and enjoys her experiences in both immensely! |
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Indra Lusero JD, MAPolicy ConsultantLatinxThey/Them
Indra Lusero is founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association. Indra's family has been in the Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado area for generations. As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent rooted in this region, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins and our role in leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world.
Indra helped pass legislation in Colorado to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated women during pregnancy and birth, to improve midwifery and birth center regulations, and to create more humane policies for families impacted by substance use. Indra also spearheaded the creation of "Birth Rights: A resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labor and birth." |
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Mariah Holiday BSExecutive AssistantDinéShe/Her/Asdzą́ą́nMy name is Mariah Holiday, my roots stem from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe. Throughout the Diné (Navajo) community we understand each other’s background by introducing ourselves with our four birth-given clans. I am Red Running into Water Clan (Nóóda’í Dine’é Táchii’nii) and born for the Black Sheep Clan (Díbéłzhíní) and my maternal grandfather is of the Many Goats People Clan (Tł’izí lání) and my paternal grandfather is of the Folded Arm People Clan (Bit’ahnii).
I graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor’s of Environmental Science from Northwest Indian College. Since then I have been immersing myself within tribal communities encouraging cultural revitalization and understanding our responsibility to our relationship with the land. I have been fortunate and honored to have been able to work with Coast Salish and First Nations Tribes within their traditional homelands. I have assisted with research and revitalization of ancestral Clam Gardening beds, in which they harvest their traditional foods for potlucks. My experiences and shared teachings from the communities I have associated myself with has helped mold my ever growing philosophy and mission in life. Currently, I am fulfilling my mission to support my community. I am an aspiring Doula, working to provide affordable doula assistance and services to Indigenous mothers and families in rural areas within the Navajo Nation. Through this service, I am striving to reconnect traditional medicines/values to the spiritual phenomenon of a birth. In my free time I love to be outdoors, reading in a hammock, lounging with my cat, or being in the presence of my family. |
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Crissy Williams BAOffice ManagerShe/Her/HersCrissy received her BA in Psychology from Arizona State University in 2008. She has been trained and certified as a birth and postpartum doula, and has also assisted with home births. Crissy also has 20+ years of experience as an office manager for various organizations, as well as a midwifery clinic.
Crissy loves to travel and learn about different cultures. |
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Julia Hall a.k.a Hoki Pah BANutritional Support and Birth AssistantPueblo/ AnishinaabeJulia Wall also known as Hoki-Pah, is a Pueblo/ Anishinaabe woman continuously exploring the intersection between land based sovereignty and reproductive justice. Julia is a mother to 7 year old Orion Rain and is grateful to have such an incredible teacher. Most of her life was spent living in the Pueblo of Jemez and learning from her grandmother Rose Fragua. In 2017, Hoki-Pah completed her undergraduate at the Institute of American Indian Arts with a BA in Indigenous Liberal Studies and a certificate in business. Julia is currently a Masters candidate at the University of Saskatchewan and is majoring in Indigenous Land Education.
Julia’s work in land based architecture, mainly the medium of adobe, or earthen bricks has been her inspiration and convergence point of Indigenous Land Based Education and Reproductive Justice. Currently under the name Adobe Doula, Julia provides full spectrum doula services for expecting parents in central New Mexico. Hoki-Pah looks to combine the core values of Indigenous Land Education and Reproductive Justice to create a curriculum that centers healthy land - healthy family for all stages of life. |
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Kimberly Moore IBCLCLactation ConsultantNavajo/Diné Kim is born from Naakaii Diné (Mexican People) and from Tsi’naajinii (Black Streak People) clans. Born in Tuba City, maternally from Tolani Lake, AZ located in the southwestern area of the Navajo Nation. Growing up on and off the Navajo Nation, and residing in various tribal communities throughout her life, Kim is passionate about utilizing her education and experience to promote healthy living through kinship values.
Kim is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and has over 10 years of experience in peer-counseling, clinical and educational lactation. Kim’s work has been inclusive of tribal and culturally diverse communities serving the needs of prenatal, newborns, and post-partum mothers and families. She is a Co-Instructor for the Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor training course providing cultural breastfeeding and clinical education to those that can serve their community throughout Turtle Island. She also has independently worked with Changing Woman Initiative assisting families with breastfeeding support out of New Mexico. She is also serving her second term on the United States Breastfeeding Committee Board of Directors. Currently, Kim continues to work at ValleyWise Health Medical Center as a hospital lactation consultant for eight years and is serving the front lines assisting families and COVID mothers during the pandemic with breastfeeding and hospital policies. In December 2020, she implemented the first Arizona Lactation Mentorship Pilot Program at Valleywise Hospital mentoring three interns. This provides the students access to clinical lactation hours to create strategic initiatives to bring BIPOC diversity, equity and inclusion to the field of lactation. Currently a member of the Advisory Council Committee for the Navajo Nation Breastfeeding Coalition and the Urban Dine’ Community Representative for the Phoenix area. This new role will include breastfeeding home visits and telehealth lactation support serving the BIPOC community. Kim's extensive experience in this field has led to opportunities in consulting, which along with her husband synthesized their consulting business in Tribal Indemnity. Within three years, Tribal Indemnity has assumed responsibility of complex projects and strategic planning with one of the largest Tribes in Arizona. She recently established her own small business, Indigenous Breastfeeding Az, dba. Providing lactation support, community building and collaboration. Kim enjoys spending time with her husband of twenty-four years and three daughters of whom she breastfed until they were 2 years old. She also loves early morning runs, hiking, boxing and yoga. |
