MIDWIFERY EDUCATION ACCREDITATION COUNCIL (MEAC) - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Clinical Support
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Public Health Consultant
Carolina Nkouaga is a public health consultant and a community midwife. For over a decade, she served as the Director of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office for Community Health, where she collaborated on the development of the health extension model and various community health worker initiatives, as well as working with community partners to improve the health and health equity in the state of New Mexico more than any other state. She currently serves families in central New Mexico during the prenatal, birth and postpartum period, holding space and honoring their traditions as they welcome a new life. She draws on her experience of working in indigenous communities throughout Latin America on community development projects, as well as the Bahá'í principles of unity and service, to guide her work. With ties to Costa Rica and Cameroon, the family home that she shares with her awesome husband and two phenomenal daughters is often filled with the sounds of drums and singing.
Beloved midwife, Elizabeth Gilmore has passed over...
Elizabeth Gilmore founded the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center in 1978 with Tish Demmin and was the administrator and clinical and academic midwife until her retirement in 2001. She supervised the births of thouands of Taos babies and taught over 40 students who became licensed and certified and went on to provide midwifery care not only in New Mexico, but all over the USA and in several foreign countries.
She got the birth center accredited nationally, founded the degree-granting National College of Midwifery over which she still presides as President, and co-founded the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council. Focusing on the reduction of maternal and infant risk, Elizabeth's work brought the center many honors for safety and achievement. She was very proud that the Taos community continues to partner with the Center for this purpose!
Monica Esparza has extensive experience working in the Non-profit world. She is deeply connected and involved with her community. Her passion is fueled by reconnecting with her culture and roots as a Mexican born Latinx. Monica is a Certified Lactation Counselor and trained Community Interpreter. She completed the HealthConnect One Birth Equity Leadership Academy Cohort, and the 2020 Women of Color Non-Profit Leadership Initiative. She serves on the BELA Advisory Committee and is a recipient of the 2020 HealthConnect One 2020 Community Health Worker of the Year award. Monica is a dedicated community grassroots organizer and advocate. She is also a mother, child, sister, neighbor, and friend who lives with her two beautiful children and husband in the South Valley of Albuquerque, NM.