Professional Background
I realize every day that I am blessed to have found Midwifery. It was during an Anthropology class in my undergraduate studies as I was researching the history of assisted childbirth and felt the clarity that Midwifery was my calling. It is a perfect progression of my focus on women’s studies and women’s success as a channel for healthy children and families in societies. After college I worked at the Monroe County Legislature as staff for the Health and Human Services Committee and subcommittees on Women, Infants and Children and incarcerated women, where I met Elizabeth Cooper, CNM, Ed.D – founder and first chief of the URMC Midwifery Group. I taught childbirth education in the city of Rochester and immersed myself in women’s health experiences in Rochester New York and Boulder Colorado on my path to my midwifery education with a Masters of Science in Nursing at Yale University. I graduated in 2001 and worked in psychiatric nursing along the way. I was thrilled to reconnect with Beth Cooper at a Midwifery conference as I graduated from Yale, and moved back to Rochester and started as a faculty member in 2002. Both of my children were birthed with the incredible patience and guidance of my partner Becky Skovgaard, CNM, MSN.
I am now practicing with our ambulatory faculty practice: University Obstetrics and Gynecology since 2010, providing general women’s health care, prenatal and post-partum care, and contraception management. In this practice I have been mentored by specialists and expanded my gynecology practice to include care of adolescent patients, patients with vulvar disease and working with patients during and after cancer treatment. I find great fulfillment in my role as a midwife in this collaborative practice with my skilled and caring MD, PA, NP, nursing and administrative colleagues. It is my pleasure to work with women, empowering them to take care of themselves and their families.