Course Instructors
Carolyn Gegor, CNM, MS, FACNM
Carolyn Gegor’s an alumnae of Georgetown University as a CNM. Her midwifery clinical practice took place at The Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland. As an educator, Ms Gegor was the Program Director for the Georgetown University’s Nurse-Midwifery & WHNP Program. She has been a co-author and editor of Varney’s Midwifery.
Ultrasound remained a part of her patient care and clinical teaching. Now it is a pleasure to assist midwives to learn the important skill of ultrasound to improve the quality of bedside care.
Rhanishia Smith, FNP
Rhanishia Smith, FNP is passionate about supporting practitioners and patients with women’s health education, particularly in breastfeeding and menstrual cycles. After completing her Master’s in Nursing and becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner, Rhanishia soon discovered that she would want to become an expert at Women’s Health and become a better advocate for the women and families she cared for. She is currently finishing her midwifery training and runs a successful Youtube Channel: PractitionHer. We are very excited to have Rhanishia join Empowering Midwifery Education instructor team!
Amanda Wylie, Bookkeeper
Amanda Wylie has been supporting midwives, birth workers, and various other business industries with bookkeeping support last 7yrs. She was a Birth Assistant and had all her children at home. She loves helping midwives with understanding the importance of strong bookkeeping records and keeping up with all the business regulations around record keeping. She is a wealth of knowledge and greatly to have her on our team!
Malene Hegenberger, CNM
With a background as both a nurse and midwife, I have more than 23 years’ experience as a clinician in the United States, Denmark and other countries. Through the years, I have seen various suturing methods, but common to all is that the procedure from diagnosis to suturing is often an unnecessarily protracted and painful experience for the patient and for us as clinicians we sit in really poor ergonomic positions and we always need that “third hand” to hold aside for us so we can see properly.
Inventor of the world renowned Hegenberger Speculum. It has been getting amazing recognition like the Danish Design Award 2020 and finalist in IndexAward202 Learn more at hegenbergerspeculum.com.
Jennifer Shell, DC
Dr. Jennifer Shell is a chiropractor and a certified essential oil specialist in Michigan with an emphasis on clinic nutrition from newborns to the young at heart. She received her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and her Doctorate in Chiropractic from The National University of Health Sciences in Illinois. She is also the author of “Food to the Rescue”, which is sold through practitioners offices. Dr. Shell has been in practice for 21 years and has two fun teenage boys and a wonderfully supportive husband.
Sara Kindberg, Perineal Care Specialist Midwife, PhD
Sara Kindberg has been a midwife since 1999, working in hospitals in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Greenland. Perineal care and especially surgical repair of perineal lacerations has been her clinical and academic focus and subject of her Master of Health Thesis in 2005 and her PhD dissertation in 2008.
The research highlighted an unmet need for hands-on training and bedside supervision among midwifery students and midwifery colleagues. The Danish Ministry of Innovation and Research rewarded Sara with a grant to commercialize her knowledge and passion for training perineal repair into an online resource: GynZone.com. Sara was awarded “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2011.
Tanya Trangali, CNM
Tanya Tringali is the owner and founder of Mother Wit Maternity & Consulting Services. She is a Midwife on a mission to provide wellness services that promote optimal pregnancy outcomes, safe and satisfying birth experiences, and ease the transition into parenthood. Mother Wit is committed to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality by helping people make lifestyle and healthcare choices that are sustainable and improve their quality of life.
Tanya is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, CrossFit Level 1 Coach and Pregnancy & Postpartum Athleticism Coach. She is a member of the Global Pelvic Health Alliance (Pelvic Guru) and has studied with Antony Lo, The Physiodetective an Australian Physiotherapist in his Female Athlete level 1 and 2 courses. Tanya works with people who are navigating fitness throughout the perinatal period and particularly enjoys helping people who have diastasis recti, pelvic organ prolapse, and stress urinary incontinence that impact their work, lifestyle, hobbies and goals.
She also provides education to healthcare providers with the goal of dispelling myths, reducing fears, and improving their evidence base so they can better support their clients’ goals.
Dr. Jill Diana Chasse, PhD, DrPH, IMD, MSpsy, CCTS-P
Jill is an experienced and accomplished public health leader, with comprehensive knowledge, skills and ability in maternal/perinatal health and psychology.
She has been working as an Advanced Clinical Health Educator and Certified Functional Medicine and Trauma Specialist with a clinical concentration in prenatal trauma. As a Perinatal Epidemiologist and Maternal/Reproductive Health Specialist, she is dedicated to providing evidence-based support to her students and patients.
Jill Chasse holds a Doctor of Indigenous Medicine Degree (IMD), Doctor of Public Health Degree (DrPH), PhD in Health Administration/ mental health concentration, Master of Science in Psychology, and Master of Public Administration in Public Health and Project Management as well as Post Graduate certificates in Tropical Medicine, Global Maternal Health and a Neonatal Health Certificate Program.
In addition she attended Ancient Art Midwifery Institute and Institute of Holistic Midwifery as an Advanced Placement Student and worked in midwifery for 5 years in the DC metro. In 2020, Dr. Chasse passed her Board Certification in Naturopathic medicine.
Leslie Cornwell, CNM
Leslie Cornwell has been working with birthing communities for almost 20yrs in the hospital, home and birthing centers. She didn’t realize that this wonderful profession would lead me down the path of business education.
Leslie have found over the years that midwives need to understand business, accounting, financing, marketing, negotiating, and so much more to be successful in today’s health care system. By being able to participate in leadership roles and create amazing private practices, she can support midwives just as much as the pregnant women they care for!
Leslie is very passionate about women’s empowerment and women business ownership. She believes we can serve families best with independent successful midwifery practices.
She is an asset to our instructor team with her unique background on taxes, legal, financial, and midwifery business planning strategies