I am the Founder, President, and CEO of Safe Mothers, Safe Babies, a nonprofit organization working in Uganda to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality through participatory means. I graduated in 2009 from Vassar College with a BA and Departmental Honors in Political Science. I received Departmental Honors for writing a 100-page thesis exploring the relationship between failing development projects and the non-participatory process of their design, using international reproductive healthcare as a case study. In my research, I analyzed my own work as founder of the collegiate-based “Vassar Uganda Project,” (SAFE's predecessor), through which I realized that some of my own projects were not as successful as they could have been because they hadn't effectively engaged the target recipients. Understanding this gap is why I evolved that collegiate-based organization to become Safe Mothers, Safe Babies, and what shaped its methodology of participatory development.
I have been honored to receive the following honors as a result of my work with these two organizations: (1) Principle writer and implementing agent for 2011 $8,000 matching grant from Humless, Inc. and anonymous foundation. (2) Awarded a 2011 Do Something Seed Grant. (3) Selected as a mentee for the winter 2011 Do Something Mentorship Program. (4) Principle writer for 2011 $35,000 matching grant from Rotary International. (5) Awarded an 2009 Compton Mentor Fellowship in the amount of $18,000. (6) Honored to speak at the following invitation-only venues: the United Nations for Rotary International UN Day, the FDR Library for the 60th Commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Radio Rotary”—the Rotary International radio show broadcast internationally, and the John Flowers Radio Show. I was also featured in the Rotary World Magazine in 6 languages, and in the 2009 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances.
I currently live in Provo, Utah with my husband and best friend, Richard (also a SAFE volunteer), and my 17-month-old son Jacob, who have further strengthened my passion for restoring pregnancy, childbirth, childhood, and parenthood as protected times of growth and development!
