Stacey Marie Kerr, MD, is a family physician and the author of a recently published book: Homebirth in the Hospital - Integrating Natural Childbirth with Modern Medicine. Dr. Kerr has provided family-centered childbirth experiences for her patients for over fifteen years, and knowing these babies since they were just a heartbeat inside their mother has been the greatest joy of her professional life.

During the 1970s and early `80s, Dr. Kerr lived on The Farm, an intentional spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee, that was known for its midwifery skills. While there, she collected statistics for Ina May Gaskin's groundbreaking book, Spiritual Midwifery, which revealed that women at The Farm had a remarkably low rate of Cesarean or other technical intervention and a high rate of healthy babies. Watching these skilled midwives, as well as an older country doctor who provided a style of personal care rarely seen in these days of large clinics and HMOs, Dr. Kerr became inspired to become a physician.

Dr. Kerr has two children, both natural childbirths. Her first was born at a birthing center in central Missouri and the second was born at home on The Farm in Summertown Tennessee. In addition to her two grown daughters she now has a grown grandson and a growing granddaughter.That's a lot of growth!

Dr. Kerr graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1971 with a BS and a credential in elementary and special education. She taught on The Farm and worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents at Fulton State Hospital in Fulton, Missouri, in the 1970s and early `80s.

In 1989, at the age of 39, Dr. Kerr graduated with an MD from the University of California, Davis, Medical School. She completed her residency and earned her Board Certification in Family Medicine in 1992, probably the first grandmother to graduate from the Santa Rosa UCSF residency program.

Dr. Kerr writes about current issues in medical practice and has published extensively in medical journals, including JAMA, California Family Physician, and Sonoma Medicine. She writes a monthly health column for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. She has been active in outreach to the medically under-served through her private practice, providing free medical care to patients who have no insurance coverage, and providing medical information at minimal cost through her Web site (www.the-doctors-inn.com). She has served in leadership roles in medical societies, including two years as State Chair of the Public Outreach Committee for the California Academy of Family Physicians, and two years as chair of the credentialing committee at her local hospital, a position that allowed her to credential midwives for hospital staff privileges. Dr. Kerr's passion outside of medicine and writing is her cobalt blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle. She currently lives in Santa Rosa, California.


2009

Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin and Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, is a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology of reproduction. An international speaker and researcher, she is author of over 80 articles and of Birth as an American Rite of PassageFrom Doctor to Healer: The Transformative Journey (1998); and co-editor of eight collections, including Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1997); Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots (1998); and Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change (2006). Birth Models That Work, an edited collection that  highlights excellent models of birth care around the world, has just come out from the University of California Press. Her research on global trends and transformations in childbirth, obstetrics, and midwifery is ongoing. Robbie speaks regularly at national and international childbirth, obstetrical, and midwifery conferences around the world. She currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Board of the North American Registry of Midwives, Editor for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI): 10 Steps to Optimal Maternity Care (www.imbci.org), and Board Member of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization. Visit her website at www.davis-floyd.com 

2008

Cara Muhlhahn, CNM is the featured midwife in Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein's documentary The Business of Being Born. She is a dynamic, energetic speaker who is passionate about birth! Cara graduated from the Columbia University School of Nursing and SUNY Downstate Health Science Center in Brooklyn's Midwifery Education Program. She received her Certificate of Nurse-Midwifery in 1991. Cara has practiced in the hospital and birth center settings and currently runs Cara Muhlhahn Midwifery. She lives in Manhattan with her son Liam. Visit her website at www.cmmidwifery.com 

2007

Juliana van Olphen Fehr, CNM, PhD, FACNM Juliana is the author of Diary of a Midwife: The Power of Positive Childbearing, and has been a homebirth midwife for 13 years. She is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the graduate midwifery program at Shenandoah University and has served on the Board of Nursing, the Governor’s Obstetrical Crisis Task Force, and is one of MOM's (Midwifery Options for Mothers) founding members. Juliana is currently the Director of the state of Virginia pilot project to improve prenatal, obstetric and pediatric care in rural areas of Virginia , and we are thrilled to welcome her to our podium!

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