Keisha Goode, PhD, will become the first-ever public member of the NACPM board during our April meeting in Washington, D.C. From our study of the International Confederation of Midwives Global Standards and guidance for midwifery associations, NACPM has come to understand more deeply the importance of including a variety of public voices in our work and in the development of the profession. We are excited to take an important step by welcoming Keisha to our team.

Keisha is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at The State University of New York College at Old Westbury. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from The City University of New York Graduate Center, a M.A. in Women's Studies from The George Washington University and a B.A. in English from The University of Maryland, College Park. Her primary research area is Medical Sociology with specific attention to the medicalization of childbirth and the historical and contemporary complexities of black midwifery in the United States. Other research areas include Sociology of Education and an emerging interest in Sociology of Media. Her work is grounded in sociological and feminist theory. She is completing a book proposal for the publication of her dissertation research: Birthing, Blackness and The Body: Black Midwives and Experiential Continuities of Institutional Racism. 

"I am excited to join the NACPM board because I am so proud of the work NACPM has done and continues to do to increase and diversity the CPM work force in our country. I look forward to supporting policy initiatives for the development of a stable and sustainable workforce of midwives adequate to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse U.S. population." 

Keisha became an NACPM representative to the US MERA Direct Assessment Education Task Force in January of this year, along with other NACPM representatives Mary Lawlor and Nancy Anderson, an NACPM consultant for work force diversification and development.