Staff Information
Lorrie Kaplan
Executive Director
Lorrie joined ACNM as Executive Director in May 2007. She has 25 years of experience in health policy, advocacy, communications, publications, and education, including ten years as Executive Director of the National Home Infusion Association, a multi-disciplinary health care association representing pharmacies providing I.V. therapies for home care patients. Lorrie believes passionately in the value and importance of midwifery care in the U.S. and globally. As a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Paraguay she specialized in maternal and child health, partnering with a local auxiliary nurse-midwife. In 1989, she and her husband Bob had a joyous experience with midwifery for the birth of their second child.
Kathleen Przybylski
Executive Assistant
Fausto Miranda
Information Technology Manager
Fausto joined ACNM in September 2006 as the Information Technology Manager. Before joining ACNM, he worked for Merchant Link, LLC a subsidiary of Chase Paymentech. As a Network Administrator III, he provided technical support for various web, database, and security projects.
Kerri Durnell Schuiling CNM, PhD, WHCNP, FACNM
Senior Staff Researcher (Off-Site)
Kerri is a senior staff researcher for ACNM. She accepted this part-time role in April 2003. Her nurse-midwifery certificate is from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing. She earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 2003. She assists the ACNM in the collection, analysis, and communication of important data about its members. Additionally, she is the national office liaison to the ACNM Division of Research and is the ACNM representative on the Interagency Collaborative on Nursing Statistics (ICONS).
Sharon Kirksey-Walcott CMP, CEM
Associate Director of Meeting & Industry Relations
Sharon has been with ACNM since 1999 and in the meetings industry for more than 15 years. She has worked as both an association planner and a government meeting planner. She earned her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 1999, followed by the Certified Exhibition Manager (CEM) in 2005. Sharon is a member of the Professional Convention Management Association and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events. She is the mother of four, three boys and a princess, three of her four births were attended by a midwife.
Andrea Watkins
Meetings Manager
Andrea graduated from Bowie State University with a bachelor's degree in Sociology. She has been working with ACNM and the A.C.N.M. Foundation for the past six years. Andrea coordinates the Annual Meeting including the logistics for meetings, lectures, recognition ceremonies, and other events. She is responsible for entering all donations made to the A.C.N.M. Foundation into the database and for sending out acknowledgements. Andrea travels three to four times a year to provide on-site coordination for Board Meetings, Silent Auctions and events.
George Hamilton
Direcctor for Membership
A native of Philadelphia, PA, George traveled south to Greensboro, NC for college where he earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Guilford College. After college George moved to the Washington, DC area and began a career in non-profit association management. After stops at the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences & Business and Professional Women/USA, George joined ACNM in March 2001 as Membership Manager. Now serving ACNM as Associate Director for Membership, George has ultimate responsibility for aspects of the membership department. His primary day to day functions involve membership retention & marketing, member benefits, and non-dues revenue development. George is excited to celebrate his 7th anniversary on the ACNM staff in March.
Erika Hernandez
Membership Coordinator
Erika Hernandez joined the national office staff in March 2008. She comes to ACNM with solid administrative and data entry skills and the added benefit of a passion for and familiarity with midwifery. Hernandez has previous administrative experience working on the practice side of midwifery at the Maternity Center in Bethesda, MD and is looking forward to learning even more about midwifery in her new role at ACNM! She can be reached at ehernandez@acnm.org.
Leslie Ludka CNM, MSN
Senior Technical Advisor
Leslie began her career in health care in 1979 with an associate's degree in Nursing from Northern Essex Community College. She earned a bachelor's of science in Nursing from Boston University in 1986 and worked as a nurse at a free-standing birth center before becoming a midwife. In 1991, she graduated from the midwifery program at the Yale University School of Nursing. After a year of providing full scope midwifery care to native Hawaiian and rural community women on the island of Molokai, Leslie returned to Boston, where she spent nine years at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the primary teaching facility for Harvard Medical School. At Brigham and Women's, Leslie worked to create the position of Director of Midwifery, and in that role was responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating all aspects of the midwifery practice, maintaining practice statistics, and serving as liaison between nursing and medicine regarding midwifery practice. Since leaving that position, Leslie has been self employed with LML Consulting, providing full-scope clinical midwifery care on a Locum tenens and per diem basis, both nationally and internationally.
Mairi Breen Rothman CNM, MSN
Professional Services Consultant
Mairi received her BSN from Catholic University of America, her CNM from the Frontier School of Midwifery (CNEP Class 6), and her MSN from Case Western Reserve University. Mairi has been a CNM for over 11 years, practicing in a variety of settings including home, birth centers, hospitals, and clinics, and precepting students from many programs. Mairi has been active in the launching and accreditation of two birth centers, and has been an active advocate for midwifery, helping - among other things - to pass legislation to increase women's access to well-woman care in Maryland by expanding choices covered by health insurers to include midwives. Serving women from all walks of life, Mairi is passionate about a woman's right to the safe, thorough, culturally sensitive, high-quality health care that is the hallmark of midwifery. She has traveled to teach workshops for midwives in El Salvador and Honduras, and is currently co-owner of a small home birth practice focusing on uninsured Latina immigrants. Mairi has served ACNM locally as Maryland chapter chair and as legislative liaison, and nationally for six years on the Program Committee. She has led the Heart of Midwifery sessions at our Annual Meetings since 2001, and has also presented on topics including managing low milk-supply and birth center development.
