About BFF
Birth Future Foundation was founded in 2020 by a collective of activists who are revolutionizing philanthropy and grantmaking to realize a liberated birth future. As Birth Future Foundation works towards incorporation and becoming a recognized non-profit, we are proud to be fiscally sponsored by Elephant Circle, a Colorado-based birth justice 501c3 non-profit.
BFF Vision
Families deserve safe, compassionate, culturally congruent midwifery care free from racism, neglect, and abuse. BFF holds a liberated vision for our birth future.
A birth future where midwifery care is accessible and equitable.
A birth future where Black, Brown, and Indigenous birthing people and their babies survive and thrive.
A birth future where LGBTQIA+ parents are treated with respect and dignity in childbirth.
A birth future where the path to becoming a midwife is free of racism and oppression.
BFF Mission
Support structural change towards racially just and equitable access to midwifery care and the midwifery profession. Implement equitable and ethical grantmaking and programming.
Read about BFF’s approach to grantmaking here.
Meet BFF
Each of the BFF leaders brings a unique perspective to the work we do. We are midwives, doulas, midwifery clients, founders of community based organizations, policy advocates, and community leaders. We are Black women who have been leading local and national birth justice work and white women who are committed to doing the internal and external work to operationalize equity. We are in community with midwives and birthing people who identify as Indigenous, queer, transgender, nonbinary, and disabled. We are collectively invested in liberation, both by dismantling oppression in existing systems and by building entirely new systems with equity at the foundation.
Tanya Smith-Johnson
Executive Director, co-founder
Tanya Smith-Johnson is a mother of six, homeschooler, Naval Hospital Corps veteran, advocate for full spectrum reproductive health care and justice, birth equity and the improvement of health outcomes especially for Black, Native and Indigenous people. In addition to being Executive Director of Birth Future Foundation, Tanya is a Certified Professional Midwife, Board President of Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and the President of the National College of Midwifery, a direct entry midwifery school for midwives who practice traditional midwifery and out of hospital birth.
Tanya is a fierce leader, strategist and creative thinker. She brings new life and energy to any project or organization she is a part of. She is a critical thinker, program developer, and maternal health specialist. She brings expertise in grassroots strategizing and outreach, consumer education and legislative advocacy in several states. She is skilled at connecting the big picture and grassroots, as it helps to educate and inform how midwives can be implemented in local, county, state systems, institutions and organizational frameworks.
Tanya has held many roles in advocacy and leadership including: president of California Families for Access to Midwives; Vice President of the Midwives Alliance of Hawaii; Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery; Policy Director and Community Based Doula Program Director at Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii; Director of Outreach, Advocacy and Education for The Big Push for Midwives; BirthPlace Lab’s Global Perinatal Task Force; and member of the Hawaii Women’s Coalition and the Hawaii Commission on the Status of Women where she co-authored the nation’s first Feminist Economic Recovery Plan in response to Covid-19.
Tanya has 30 years of medical experience working in military medicine as well as various birth centers and community birth settings providing medical and midwifery care. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and Master of Science in Medical Science from Hampton University. She currently resides in Mississippi with her husband of 24 years and six children.
Chanel L. Porchia-Albert
co-founder
Chanel L. Porchia-Albert is the founder of Ancient Song Doula Services, a reproductive health organization focused on providing resources and full spectrum doula services to women of color and marginalized communities. Her work within infant and maternal health has led her across the globe to Uganda where she served as a maternal health strategist in rural war town areas to address the lack of resources to birthing mothers. She is a certified lactation counselor, midwifery assistant, and vegan chef and has served on various advisory boards throughout the country. Currently, she serves as a consultant for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene engaging providers in birth justice and serves on the advisory board at Ariadne Labs at Harvard Medical School. She is a former board member of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery. When she is not teaching or facilitation workshops, you can find her spending time with her six children.
RaShaunda Lugrand
co-founder
RaShaunda is the founding visionary of the InTune Mother Society, and a former board member of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery. A wife of 14 years and a mother of four male children, who were all honebirthed, breastfeed, and homeschooled. RaShaunda is focused on assisting childbearing families with having safe, intuitive, and positive birth outcomes. She supports the tradition of undisturbed childbirth and offers a therapeutic approach to community-based perinatal wellness.
RaShaunda is a student of Biocultural Anthropology, pursuing her Graduate Degree at Oregon State University. She holds multiple certifications and runs a recruiting, training, and workforce development agency in Midwest City, Oklahoma. As a Neurolinguistic Practitioner, Birth Coach/Consultant, Holistic Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Educator, Postpartum Care Provider, and advocate for Healing Justice, RaShaunda has a strong desire to reduce racial inequities in reproductive health and wellness at a local, national, and international level. She has over 10 years of experience as an independent contractor and Perinatal Wellness Consultant. Her mission is to build a thriving workforce to expand access to holistic reproductive health options for all. As the Owner of Beehive Birth Consulting, a Holistic Family Planning Center she serves teens, women, families and veterans, through a collective care model.
Emily Anesta
co-founder
Emily is a consumer advocate for safe, accessible perinatal care, especially access to midwives for everyone. Emily served as a board member and then president of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery from 2017-2020 where she partnered with the Executive Director and Board to guide the organization through a shift in focus to center racial justice in midwifery and birth and equitable approaches to fundraising and grantmaking.
Emily co-founded the Bay State Birth Coalition in 2016 to advocate for policies to expand access to midwives and out-of-hospital birth in Massachusetts. Emily is also a co-founder of the Birth Equity and Justice Massachusetts. Emily was an Executive Producer of “Why Not Home,” a 2016 documentary about home birth in the U.S.
Emily birthed her two children at home attended by midwives and was herself born at home with a midwife. Emily has a Master and Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering. For over a decade, she led technology research and development projects at MIT.
Lauren Brown
co-founder
Lauren Brown became enthralled with birth at an early age. While earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology she felt a strong calling to get trained as a doula through The Doulas of North America. During her senior year in college she volunteered as a doula and discovered her passion for women's health. She learned the importance of having an advocate and maintaining autonomy during childbirth and felt very honored to be serving in that role. She has been a birth doula since 2007 and has helped support over 550 families in the Bay Area.
Birthwork has been an ongoing journey for her and in 2008 she decided to augment her doula practice and enrolled in Alive and Well! The Institute of Conscious Bodywork. Through her experience in supporting pregnant people, she knew how effective loving touch can be when providing comfort during birth and also saw it as a great way to connect with clients. She strongly believes in providing holistic care to her clients.
In 2011, Lauren continued her journey by enrolling in the National Midwifery Institute and went on to be trained as a homebirth midwife in San Francisco. She graduated from NMI in 2014. Since graduating Lauren has found her passion for teaching and has created three childbirth education courses, "Pregnant! Now What?", San Francisco Birth Center's Childbirth Prep Intensive Skills Course and a five week childbirth education class that is specifically designed to prepare people for a homebirth. Lauren now works as a midwife's assistant, birth and postpartum doula, bodyworker, childbirth educator and birth photographer. Lauren was a board member of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery from 2016-2020 and is grateful for the opportunity to create a new space with BFF.
Megan Kennedy
co-founder
Megan is a birth and women’s health advocate who found her own journey to motherhood incredibly enlightening and empowering. Thanks to her community of caring midwifes, doulas, and birth educators, her mind and story were forever altered during her first pregnancy and the birth of her daughter in the comfort of her own home. She witnessed other mothers experience contrasting journeys and was motivated to help others have better birth outcomes. Megan is the former treasurer of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery.
Megan currently works as an innovation coach in Silicon Valley and is a certified public accountant, specializing in nonprofits. She brings over ten years of experience advising businesses in accounting, management, and innovation. Her goal is to increase awareness and access to the midwifery community to help women and families experience the benefits that follow.
Audra Post
co-founder
Audra’s love and passion for midwifery is a culmination of her deep-rooted dedication to holistic-based service. When she learned about the midwifery model of care, it resonated with her desire to promote empowerment and incorporate humanity within health care. Audra trained as an apprentice at a birth center in Michigan, studied at the Michigan School of Traditional Midwifery, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery from the Midwives College of Utah. Audra’s love of shared learning has found a calling in the classroom and she now serves as a faculty member at the Midwives College of Utah. Through her academic work, she hopes to foster evidence-based, holistic, and inclusive providers. Audra is a former board member and secretary of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery.
BFFs Emeritus
We have tremendous appreciation for those co-conspirators who have stepped back from the day-to-day work at BFF, but continue to be our champions and friends.
Janis Gildin, CPM
Co-founder
Kirsten Kowalski-Lane, CNM
Co-founder