Carissa has a passion for women’s health and birth that has been the guiding force of her career for more than 20 years. She worked as a peer educator, health and sexuality teacher, lay health-worker, labor support and postpartum doula and an administrator for the largest doula organization in Chicagoland. She planned a homebirth with Gentle Birth Care, but gave birth to her first child by cesarean in 2012. Because of this wildly transformative experience, she sat on the board of the non-profit “Homebirth Cesarean” and continues to offer support to other women who experienced surgical birth after planning for a homebirth experience. She also had a VBAC in 2015, with her second child. As an administrator at Gentle Birth Care, Carissa combines her first and most true love, women’s health and birth with her penchant for all things office, organization and strategic planning.