NARM Board Members

Ida Darragh, LM, CPM

Executive Director

Ida Darragh has been a Certified Professional Midwife since 1996 and a licensed midwife in Arkansas since 1985. She has worked in various capacities with NARM since 1996, including serving terms on the board and is currently the Executive Director. She also oversees test development, including leading workshops around the country for writing new exam questions.

Kim Pekin, CPM

chairperson

Kim Pekin is a Licensed Midwife, Registered Nurse, and owns two CABC-accredited birth centers in Virginia. She has been a CPM since 2009 and a NARM Board member since 2015. Kim has served as the chair of the Virginia Board of Medicine’s Midwifery Advisory Board, is a former CABC Commissioner, and currently serves as a member of the Virginia Newborn Screening Advisory Council. She is NARM’s Director of Professional Development. Kim and her husband Barry have seven children and live in the Northern Virginia/DC suburbs.

Rachel Fox-Tierney, CPM, LM

vice-chairperson

Rachel Fox-Tierney is a CPM and California State Licensed Midwife. She attended home births as part of group midwifery practice from 2005-2021. In January 2022, she became the Clinical Director of a local birth center. She has served as a regional representative for the California Association of Midwives and Medical Director for the non-profit, A Heart to Hold. She is a member of the Yolo County Fetal Infant Mortality Review team. She has been on the NARM Board since January 2019 as the Electronic Communications Coordinator.

Carol Nelson, LM, CPM, AASM

Treasurer

Carol has been attending home births since 1972. She is the director of The Farm Midwifery Center in Summertown, TN. She has been actively involved with midwifery politics since 1977. Carol received her Certified Professional Midwife credential in 1995. She was actively involved in the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Certification Task Force meetings and was the chair of the NARM preapproval committee. She has worked on item writing and test development of the NARM Written Exam, Skills Assessment, and Qualified Evaluator training, and has been involved in the 1995, 2001, 2008, and 2016 Job Analysis. She has been on the NARM Board serving as the Treasurer since 1997 and Director of Applications since 2003. She is co-chair of the Innovations in Maternity Health Services Committee of the Maternal Child Health Section of American Public Health Association. She served on the Tennessee Council of Certified Professional Midwives, from 2000 to 2015. Carol received the prestigious MANA Sage Femme Award in 2016.  Carol is co-founder and President of the College of Traditional Midwifery (CTM), the first competency-based midwifery education program in the United States.

Debbie Pulley, CPM

Secretary

Debbie has had a home birth practice in Atlanta, Georgia since 1982. Shortly after receiving her CPM certification in 1995, she started working with NARM in the Applications Department. She now serves on the NARM Board as Secretary and is Director of Public Education & Advocacy. Debbie serves as one of the two NARM representatives to the US MERA Steering Committee.

Debbie began attending births in 1970 while living in Hong Kong. She moved to Atlanta in 1971 and married Don in 1973. They have two children, three wonderful grandchildren, and a beautiful great granddaughter.

Miriam Atma Khalsa, CPM-retired, LM

policies & procedures

Miriam attended homebirths in Massachusetts from 1981 through 2013. She was a founding member of the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance (MMA) and served on its board in various positions for eighteen years. She co-chaired the MMA Legislative Committee, represented MMA on the Partners in Perinatal Health board for fourteen years, and served as an instructor for the MMA Basic Course in Midwifery Skills.

She has been on the Board of the North American Registry of Midwives since January 2007 serving as Director of Policy and Procedures and as Chair. Miriam moved back to her home state of California in 2013 and became a Licensed Midwife through the California Challenge. She is a volunteer firefighter in her small northern California community and volunteers as an EMT for a rural ambulance service. Both of her children were born at home with the help of midwives.

Mary Anne Richardson, CPM-TN, RN, EMT

Accountability

Mary Anne Richardson CPM-TN, RN, EMT, has been a midwife since 1998. She is the founder of Tender Beginnings Birth Services LLC a practice offering midwifery and monitrice services

Mary Anne has served two terms as the President of the TMA (Tennessee Midwives Association) as well as other positions on the TMA board and still serves the TMA as a legislative liaison. As a legislative liaison she worked tirelessly, along with other midwives, to legalize CPM/Home birth midwifery in the state of Tennessee by successfully lobbying for three different bills through the state Legislature.

She has served two terms on the Council of Certified Professional Midwives, a division of the Department of Health state of Tennessee as Vice-Chairperson and the Chairperson. Currently she serves as the consultant to the Council of Certified Professional Midwives reviewing complaints to the Council. Mary Anne currently sits on the board of NARM (North America Registry of Midwives) as the Director of Accountability.

While caring for families as a midwife and monitrice, she maintains three TN State licenses and she is currently active in providing education to other midwives and students to improve midwifery care for mothers and babies across the country. She has presented courses to students in local universities and colleges about midwifery. She was honored to serve as the Keynote presenter at a “Empower Your Birth Conference.” She has developed and presented courses for midwifery students and midwives, some of which have been accredited by MEAC (Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council) and a presentation at MANA (Midwives Alliance of North America) an international midwifery conference.

Adrian Feldhusen, NHCM, CPM

Adrian is a Certified Professional Midwife and New Hampshire Certified Midwife who lives in Southern New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Adrian has been involved with birthing families since 1992 as a midwife, doula, childbirth educator, and breastfeeding counselor.

She is the founder and owner of The Birth Cottage of Milford. Adrian trained at The Birth Center in Dearborn, Michigan and also at Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, both of which served diverse cultural and ethnic populations of childbearing families. During her studies for a BS in Community and Human Services with a Concentration in Maternal and Perinatal Health through the State University of New York, Adrian’s work was featured in a variety of publications.

Adrian was appointed by the Governor to sit on the NH Midwifery Council, the state’s and was licensing and regulatory board, and was the Chair of the Council for 10 years. She has been instrumental in lobbying for legislation regarding insurance reimbursement for midwives in the state. Adrian also served on the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) as a board member for 6 years. Adrian is an adjunct faculty member of Birthwise Midwifery School, and continues to teach her art to others.

Jacqueline K. Hammack, JD

Consumer Member

Jacqueline is a lawyer and doula working to advance birth justice. By bridging her legal knowledge with her passion for birth, Jacqueline brings a unique perspective to the problems that plague the perinatal healthcare system in the United States. Grounded in a reproductive justice framework, Jacqueline’s work supports and promotes the human rights of pregnant, birthing, and lactating individuals.

In addition to serving as the Public Member on the NARM board, Jacqueline serves on the board of the Birth Rights Bar Association, the Mississippi Center for Birth and Breastfeeding Equity, and Better Birth Mississippi. She was a Class 2 fellow in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network with the Center for Creative Leadership®, an inaugural fellow of the Mississippi Women’s Policy Institute, and a member of The Mississippi Bar’s Leadership Forum Class of 2020.

Jacqueline is a Madriella trained doula and a graduate of Tulane University Law School, Jackson State University, and Holmes Community College. She lives on Choctaw land in South Mississippi with her two children, spouse of two decades, and Silent Generation mother-in-law.