STAFF & FACULTY

Jennie Joseph, a British-trained midwife and women’s health advocate, moved to the United States in 1989 and began a journey that has culminated in the formation of an innovative maternal child health care system, The JJ Way®.

Jennie has worked extensively in European hospitals, American birth centers, clinics, and home birth environments. Jennie has been instrumental in the regulation of Florida midwives since the 1990s and has been involved in midwifery education since 1995. She is a former Chair of Florida’s State Council of Licensed Midwives. Currently, she owns a Florida licensed midwifery school attached to her nationally-renowned birth center and maternity medical home in Winter Garden, Florida.

She also developed and administers perinatal professional training and certification programs to address the health care provider shortage, diversify the maternal child health (MCH) workforce, and address persistent racial and class disparities in birth outcomes.

Due to the high prematurity rates experienced by low income and uninsured women, Jennie established an outreach clinic for pregnant women, who are at risk of not receiving prenatal care. Her ‘Easy Access’ Prenatal Care Clinics offer quality maternity care for all, regardless of their choice of delivery site or ability to pay and has successfully reduced both maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in Central Florida. There are both quantitative and qualitative studies underway regarding Jennie’s work as well as continuous reviews of the impact of her clinical and educational programs.

Jennie’s model of healthcare, The JJ Way®, provides an evidence-based system to deliver MCH services, which improve health, reduce costs, and produce better outcomes all round. As Founder and Executive Director of her own non-profit corporation, Commonsense Childbirth Inc., Jennie firmly believes that, “Everyone wants a healthy baby and every birthing person deserves one.”

Zulgeil Ruiz-Gines is a midwife, educator, and advocate for culturally safe midwifery care. She holds licenses as a Midwife in the states of California and Florida. Born and raised on the magical island of Puerto Rico, she earned her BA degree in Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico. Zul‘s journey into midwifery education began in Temixco, Mexico, where she spent nine months learning from an indigenous midwife who opened her vision, spirit, and heart to the world of midwifery. She graduated from the National College of Midwifery and obtained her license in California through the Medical Board. Additionally, she earned her license in Florida through the Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery. 

Zul is deeply committed to the education and training of new midwives and the future of midwifery. Her dedication has led her to various roles, including Midwifery Instructor at Midwifery Program at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College , DIE Coordinator, Midwifery Program Strategist, and involvement in legislative efforts in Puerto Rico.

Currently Zul is pursuing her masters degree in Oregon State University in Medical Anthropology. Her research focuses on  the history and sustainability of the accredited Midwifery programs for community midwives in the United States.

Andrea Herrada is an educator and project manager. She is a Western Governors University graduate with a focus on Education. Andrea has spent 10+ years in the field of education: teaching, developing and implementing curriculum. She has also implemented various technologies into the learning environment to support various styles of learners, especially after attending an online college herself. Andrea is also the project manager of a maternal educational consulting firm and continuing education platform, KIBI, for two years. As a bilingual educator born in Florida with Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, she has been able to help provide the Latino/a community with receiving quality opportunities for higher learning and advocating for reproductive justice. 

For her, being a part of CCSM allows the opportunity to assist future midwives begin their educational journey while providing the safe space during the uncertainty of enrollment and throughout their educational experience. Outside of her passion for education, Andrea enjoys spending time with her three daughters and traveling. Andrea is currently pursuing her educational development by completing a Google Project Management Professional Certificate.

Tara Gallagher is the Academic Coordinator for the Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery. Originally from Kansas, Tara went to the University of Kansas as an undergraduate and completed a bachelor’s degrees for Theatre & Film, Anthropology, and Molecular Biosciences. After working in scientific research for two years, she moved to Milwaukee, WI in 2013 to pursue a master’s degree in medical Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. While attending her graduate program, Tara taught several sections of Anatomy and Physiology as a Teaching Assistant.

She also went on to teach high school science for two years at the Étude High School in Sheboygan, WI while finishing her thesis titled Practical Problems and Moral Discourses: An Ethnography of Breastfeeding. Tara was trained as a Maternal Child Health Specialist at the Midwest Maternal Child Institute and is a Certified Lactation Counselor, a Certified Doula, and a student midwife attending the Direct Entry Midwife program at the Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. 

Prior to joining CCSM, Tara’s professional work includes Birth Outcomes Made Better (BOMB) Doula for the Milwaukee Health Department as well as Clinical Case Manager and Community Action Network (CAN) Coordinator for SGA Youth & Family Services Midwest Healthy Start Initiative in Chicago, IL.

Maddy Popkin  is a Certified Professional Midwife, doula, lactation educator, and childbirth educator. They have been learning, training, and working alongside many incredible midwives in the Boston area since 2021 and completed their studies at Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery in 2024. Maddy came to midwifery from community organizing and is committed to midwifery as a healing practice. They love growing flowers, collecting hobbies, and spending time with their partner, their baby, and their dog.

Debbie has supported families in their reproductive health choices for over 29 years through doula services, childbirth education, lactation support, public health, and midwifery. The primary focus of Debbie’s midwifery career is Black maternal health. She served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of The Community Birth Center, the first Black-owned birth center in Los Angeles.

Debbie is the Co-Creator and Co-Director responsible for implementing a group prenatal program with wraparound lactation and mental health services for the Black Maternal Health Center of Excellence, in partnership with Charles R. Drew University of Science and Medicine.

Having had the privilege of interning at Jennie Joseph’s Commonsense Childbirth Easy Access Clinic in 2013, Debbie is deeply inspired by the JJ Way® model and is proud to be a certified JJ Way® provider. She has implemented the core concepts of the JJ Way® into her private practice, Tribe Midwifery, since its inception. Debbie is honored to expand this model of care through The Well-Being Alliance, which provides prenatal care for those birthing in hospital settings—populations most impacted by poor maternal outcomes. 

Reina Chavez is a licensed midwife in both California and Florida, and also holds a current licensure of Phlebotomy as well as certifications in birth & postpartum doula, lactation & childbirth educator and placenta encapsulation. She holds an Associate’s degree in Business from Broward College and a Bachelors in Midwifery from Midwives College of Utah; and also recently completed the CCSM Licensure by Endorsement program.
Her focus on marginalized communities has been grounded by her apprenticeship’s with Black and Brown midwives in Los Angeles, as well as her lived experiences supporting and educating families.
Reina’s complex journey to midwifery revealed a passion for helping expand midwifery and as the Academic Student Mentor, she provides support for those enrolled in CCSM. Her mentorship can be as simple as lending a safe ear to as complex as developing success plans with students to keep them on track.

Taylor Buccello is an educator and reproductive justice advocate. She completed BS degrees in Pre-Medicine Biology and Religious Studies. Shortly after she decided attending medical school wasn’t her path, she met Dr. Melissa Cheyney, a home birth midwife and reproductive equity researcher. From there, they began a MS degree in applied anthropology with a focus on public health and epidemiology. In 2025, they completed a thesis that evaluated Oregon’s role within the U.S. abortion care landscape.

Taylor has given their time to multiple reproductive justice and equity research projects, copy-edited for the journal Birth, worked with Corvallis, Oregon’s Community Doula Project, and trained as a birth doula and an abortion doula/support professional. They are part of the Uplift Reproductive Equity Lab, which is where they met Zulgeil Ruiz-Gines and was invited to join CCSM. Taylor is deeply committed to supporting instructors and students, especially those who are working to improve reproductive health and outcomes. Taylor enjoys reading, playing video games, and spending time with her cat, Nina, and snake, Ibn.

Justine Clegg has been active in maternal and child health since 1974 when she became a La Leche League Leader, then a childbirth educator, labor coach, and birth assistant.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Miami, a 3-year Diploma from the South Florida School of Midwifery, and a Masters in Science degree in Counseling from Florida International University.

Justine is a home birth midwife licensed in Florida since 1986.

She is a Certified Professional Midwife through North American Registry of Midwives since 1993.

She is a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor since 1993. 

She became a Certified Lactation Counselor, Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice, since 2008.

She was Midwifery Program Director at Miami Dade Community College, Medical Center Campus,1994-2008, and received an Endowed Chair, 2003-2006.  

Dayna Hernandez is a Certified Professional Midwife, birth assistant, birth & postpartum support person and lactation support counselor who traverses between worlds; the Womb and the Earth; the spiritual and the physical; Spanish & English. At a certain point into her first pregnancy she realized that her life would be forever changed after the birth of her son, for reasons apart from the obvious transformation from individual person to the mom-baby dyad. She was beginning to hear the echoes of her calling and gradually became receptive to the “spiritual healer” within. 

She is spiritually motivated to serve families and to be with them during a most transcendent and transformational moment of their lives. Her mom would often say to her, “nosotros somos gente humilde.” It means, “we are humble people.” And for her, part of that humility meant that every person deserves safety, care and respect in the pregnancy and birth continuum. 

She currently works Full-Time at Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery as a Clinical Mentor Coordinator.

Kimberly Haines is a second generation midwife with a passion for student education. She began attending births in 2004 and quickly recognized the vast shortcomings in women’s healthcare. She graduated from the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery in 2012 with a goal to offer a more empowering approach to prenatal,antenatal and postpartum care in her community. Kimberly began attending births as a Licensed Midwife in Virginia in 2014. She has since been dedicated to raising the community standard of out-of-hospital care while precepting student midwives to provide exceptional birth options to low risk families. Kim has also thrived in the chaos of raising five amazing kids with her equally passionate partner of 23years..