Our Board
Meet the board members of Ìyá Pittsburgh Project. Ìyá Pittsburgh's board members come from diverse backgrounds, with each member having their own unique skills, passions, strengths, and lived experiences.
Jessica "Jess" Brown
Secretary & Grant Writer
Pronouns: she/her
Jessica has navigated birth, holistic well-person care, and her own journey to midwifery since 2017. Concerned with equitable access to perinatal and reproductive health care - she has sought to educate herself through serving Southwestern, PA communities in various capacities. Some of her experience has come from working with nonprofits such as Alice Paul House Domestic Violence Shelter as an advocate and volunteer, Mutual-Aid Ambulance Service as an EMT, SPHS Behavioral Health as a community mental health counselor, and now as secretary for Ìyá Pittsburgh.
Her current goals include learning how to assist in grant writing, pursuing her midwifery apprenticeship with Igi Osè, and lending her note taking superpower to make translating thoughts easier for the Board. Her interests beyond birth work include kitchen witchery, writing novels, and teaching herself handiwork skills like embroidery and crochet. She enjoys skipping small-talk and getting to listen to other’s passions and values.
Selena Eisenberg
Executive Director
Pronouns: they/them
Selena is a traditional community midwife & birth attendant. As an advocate for birth equity & justice, joining the board of Ìyá Pittsburgh was a natural next step. They began studying birth & birth practices with purpose in 2012 before they had their first child. It would be decades before they realized their peer support & teaching of sexual education, pregnancy, termination, & birth meant they were preparing for this work long before adulthood. Selena is passionate about serving people & communities who are too often dismissed & undervalued. Holding space for all people to be who they are & supporting all perinatal journeys.
Selena lives on the Northside with their four amazing children & spouse. Selena is unapologetically Black, queer, fat, & autistic with a side of other neuro-spice. They happily raise not only their children but also chickens. They love to travel & drink tea. When you visit their office, they will likely offer you food & coffee. Reading books & making room for their spiritual journey is how they use most of the free time they are able to carve out. Selena is honored to be the Executive Director of Ìyá Pittsburgh & hopes they can make you feel welcomed no matter what brings you to our space.
Leo Xander Jackson
Youth Outreach Director
Pronouns: any pronouns
My name is Leo. I'm a queer, trans, autistic person who is currently attending Westinghouse Arts Academy charter school for studio arts. I'm 17 and after high school I plan on exploring different paths, which may include birthwork or education, but will definitely include helping people. I plan on continuing to make art because it brings me comfort and joy.
I am on this board to be an approachable point of contact for teens and young people that need midwifery services, sex education, or the other community services we provide. There are so many teens that lack or are denied proper education and support around reproductive health, and it can be scary to try to find that information yourself. So, it brings me great happiness to be a part of a community that is working towards eliminating barriers to reproductive healthcare and education.
Michele “Misha” James-Parham
Vice President & LGBTQ+ Outreach Director
Michele is the traditional community midwife & multihyphenate behind Amethyst Community Health. They began their midwifery journey in 1998. Misha serves their community as midwife, chaplain, lifecycle celebrant/officiant, sex education teacher, spiritual/life coach, herbalist, & perinatal social worker, providing full spectrum care to primarily LGBTQ+, BIPOC, & financially-deprived people in Pittsburgh.
Michele is a queer, transgender nonbinary, poly, disabled, autistic, fat, Romani, & Mizrahi/Sephardi person striving to promote equity & culturally appropriate care within their local reproductive health community & beyond. Their life & work praxis is filtered through a nuanced lens that incorporates trauma-informed care, harm-reduction ethics, bodily/cognitive sovereignty, & consensual living perspectives. Misha loves their queer family, tea, olives, visible mending, geometry, old books, merfolk, baneful plants, queer Neo-Hasidism, and being a synaesthete. They live on the Northside of Pittsburgh with their family.
Pronouns: they/them/elle
Rebecka Kerr
President
Rebecka Kerr has contributed to the success of both non-profit organizations and for-profit corporations alike. As her day job, she has spent 20 years in executive management and customer service. She is currently pursuing clinical counseling licensure. Her professional goal is to be a counselor who provides accessible care to all communities and will practice social justice ethics and support gender-affirming care. Also, she sits on the board of the non-profit opera company SERIO.
Pronouns: she/her
Shawndel Laughner
Hospital Relations Director
Shawndel Laughner has been with the St. Clair Health team for 23 years on the Family Birth Center. She currently serves as the Director for Women and Children’s Services at St. Clair. Shawndel and her team are active participants in the Pennsylvania-Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA-PQC). She has over 28 years of Labor and Delivery Nursing experience and strives to deliver the highest quality and the most equitable care to the community she serves.
Pronouns: she/her
Addy Lord
Chief Financial Officer
Pronouns: she/they
Addy Lord is a design strategist, collaboration enthusiast, perennial gap-filler, and community builder in Pittsburgh. With her formative years in Montana, they developed a dogged and innovative spirit, excited to learn to do just about everything. Early access to computers paired with her curiosity sparked an interest in digital design as a problem-solving method. For a dozen years, this work had been heavily weighted toward the financial industry, working with banking and media giants in designing and improving software for professionals and the general public. Initially, they experienced great trepidation—even fear—of doing work in the financial industry. Today they spread their zeal around money as a resource to be used in community care, jumping into any conversation about transformative perspectives and responsible praxis with money.
From her role as a parent and partner to that of a neighbor and designer, she finds all the ways she can—small and large—to build connections between resources, people, and place in pursuit of fostering fulfilling, joyful lives.
Raya Lowe
Community Relations Director
Proud mom of a wonderful son, my journey to motherhood was filled with challenges until I found the right support at 35 weeks gestation. I connected with an OBGYN specializing in BIPOC and Queer pregnancies, who empowered me with knowledge and options for my birthing experience. With their guidance, I teamed up with a fantastic doula, to advocate for both my baby and me. Inspired by this life-changing support, I'm now honored to be part of Ìyá Pittsburgh, dedicated to assisting others in finding the compassionate care they deserve during their birthing journeys.