Meet the Board

The PATTCh board members are a group of psychotherapists, childbirth educators, doulas, researchers, and academicians who are dedicated to bringing together like-minded individuals to educate childbearing women and families and maternity care professionals; develop effective prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care practices to prevent or reduce traumatic birth and post-birth PTSD; and identify and promote effective treatments to enhance recovery.

Muna Bashir, BS, MA-MCHS, CD (DONA), CCE (CAPPA)

President

Available for speaking engagements

Muna Bashir has been providing professional support and coaching to childbearing families and birth professionals for the past 20 years in diverse maternal-child health settings, both domestically and internationally. She has developed intrapartum tools to facilitate more effective communication between patients and clinicians during facility-based birth.

Muna is passionate about optimizing the perinatal care experience - especially among marginalized groups. She is also interested in conducting research that helps promote the implementation of better health systems, services, and their delivery.

Leslie Butterfield, PhD, Clinical Psychologist

Available for speaking engagements

Dr. Leslie Butterfield is a clinical psychologist specializing in maternal & perinatal mental health. In her Seattle private practice she works with women and couples dealing with pregnancy loss (including abortion), fertility issues, the transition to parenthood, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, traumatic birth, and parenting fragile or medically challenged infants and children. Additionally, she offers therapeutic services to health care providers in the childbirth community.

She has traveled both nationally and internationally in her capacity as a consultant, offering services to a variety of medical and mental health organizations, including: University of Washington Infant Palliative Care Unit, Midwifery Association of Washington State, Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, KK Women and Children's Hospital of Singapore, Perinatal Psychiatry Seminars in Turkey and France, and YANMA Parenting Academy in China. She is a trainer for both Perinatal Support of WA and Postpartum Support International. In her capacity as a educator, she has designed and taught the counseling skills curriculum for Seattle Midwifery School and Bastyr Naturopathic University Department of Midwifery for 26 years. She is past Chairwoman of Perinatal Support of WA and the past President and Vice President of PATTCh. She remains active on the boards of both organizations.

Leslie loves to travel widely, to dance energetically, to eat good food, and to scrapbook her adventures with friends, family and colleagues.

Visit her website

Cheryl Chan, CD(DONA), SpBCPE

Available for speaking engagements

Cheryl Chan is a birth doula trained under Doulas of North America (DONA). She has attended courses on Spinning Babies, Belly Mapping, and “When Survivors Give Birth.” She has a passion for working on women’s health through gentle birthing techniques, pregnancy, and postpartum support. Cheryl’s passion started with breastfeeding her two children. She is one of the active and passionate administrators of Breastfeeding Pinays, an online breastfeeding support group. In 2014, Cheryl became a Certified Breastfeeding Pinays Counselor. She has attended many lactation courses internationally, including Bastyr University’s (Seattle, USA) “Foundations for Best Practice in Lactation Care” and “Breastfeeding Sick Babies” in Bangkok. She has since then provided postpartum lactation support and assistance to mothers (private and through public outreach projects) locally and internationally.

After two medicated and cesarean births, she now wants to impart her knowledge and undivided support to mothers in similar situations. In 2015, Cheryl opened her arms to new advocacy by spreading awareness on the benefits of natural birth. She promotes and educates expectant mothers on achieving the birth they want. After extensive training, with Penny Simkin and Phyllis Klaus on the course entitled, “When Survivors Give Birth,” learning about how a mother’s previous experiences can affect her pregnancy and birth journey–medicated or otherwise–and breastfeeding, Cheryl looked into becoming a doula as the answer.

With the help and mentorship of Doula Velvet in the Pinay Doulas Collective, Cheryl became determined to ensure that all women get the birth that they wished for–a gentle birth. Before being a doula, Cheryl worked extensively in the financial industry.

Pinay Doulas Collective
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Multi-Tasking Doula
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Sabrine Chengane, PharmD, MPH

Vice President - External Affairs

Available for speaking engagements

Sabrine Chengane has a strong record of leadership and taking initiative to identify and create opportunity for improvement in a variety of settings.

She is passionate about maternal and child health with particular interest in global women’s, environmental, and mental health. Sabrine has participated in research projects on contraception, environmental and occupational health, and mental health. She served in different active roles with student organizations, including the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation, in which she served as Chairperson of Public Health in 2016-2017.

Sabrine has a master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (USA) and a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Algiers (Algeria). In May 2021, she was inducted as an alumni member into the Gamma Omicron Chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health.

Sarah Davis

Secretary

Available for speaking engagements

Sarah Davis is a perinatal advocate and healthcare professional in South King County, WA. She holds a masters in Maternal Child Health Systems and has completed training in birth doula support, health equity, and process improvement. Her varied background provides a strong foundation in social and reproductive justice.

She has 8 years of experience in public hospital health systems, working as a Community Health Facilitator then Clinic Supervisor for the past 5 years.

Her passion for positive birthing experiences and improved health outcomes is fueled by her own personal experiences and the experiences shared with her by community members. She is dedicated to ending health disparities and adverse birthing experiences that negatively impact the livelihood of birthing people and their children, with a primary focus on marginalized communities.

She is currently completing individual qualitative research focused on the impact of community-based doulas and continuous labor support in hospital settings.

Annie Kennedy, MA - MCHS

Founding Board Member

Available for speaking engagements

Annie Kennedy is a maternity care advocate based in Seattle, Washington. Annie has worked in education and the birth professions since 1989. She is founding President of PALS Doulas, a Founder of DONA International and former Director of the Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations at Bastyr University. She holds a Masters in Maternal-Child Health Systems.

Annie serves on several other non-profit boards and coalitions including Global Perinatal Services and Doulas for All Washington State. She is passionate about humane childbirth, respectful maternity care and health and race equity.

Venus Mahmoodi, PhD

Available for speaking engagements

Venus Mahmoodi, PhD is a clinical psychology, researcher, professor, and advocate for perinatal populations. She has a strong interest in the mental health care of women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, including depression, anxiety, trauma, infertility, and loss. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University Medical Center and an Assistant Professional Psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, where she provides clinical care to women in the Women’s Program and trains psychology and psychiatry trainees in women’s mental health. Dr. Mahmoodi is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches graduate level courses in perinatal mental health and psychotherapy as well as mentoring students.

Dr. Mahmoodi completed her PhD at Palo Alto University and her clinical internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She has specialized training in childhood trauma, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, fertility struggles, perinatal loss, and vulnerable populations.

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Qu'Nesha Sawyer, PhD, LCMHC, LPCC, LCAS, NCC

Vice President - Internal Affairs

Available for speaking engagements

Dr. Qu’Nesha Sawyer is a licensed clinical psychotherapist specializing in reproductive mental health and wellness. For over seven years, she has dedicated her clinical practice to providing culturally responsive perinatal mental health services to women of color and women of traditionally underrepresented and underserved backgrounds.

Through her work, Qu’Nesha is a strong advocate for normalizing a birthing person’s experience before, during and after pregnancy and desires to facilitate a narrative shift about perinatal mental health. She is cross-trained as a birth doula and leverages this background to further support individuals navigating their childbirth experiences. Qu’Nesha resides in Bay Area California and maintains a bi-coastal clinical practice called Bloom: Reproductive Mental Health and Wellness.

Dominique Vincent

Treasurer

Available for speaking engagements

Dominique Vincent is a perinatal specialist and equity/diversity advocate with an extensive background in supporting and connecting pregnant and new families with the resources, services and support they need for healthy and satisfying pregnancy and early parenting journey.

Through her work as the former Executive Director of Blossom Birth & Family, Dominique oversaw a team made up of staff independent contractors providing the best in pre/postnatal yoga and fitness classes, childbirth education, support groups, community events and perinatal professional development. Dominique is a DONA trained doula and Commonsense Childbirth trained doula, childbirth and lactation educator.

Website

Laura Vladimirova, LMSW

Available for speaking engagements

Laura Vladimirova (she/her) is based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a licensed social worker and therapist, specializing in perinatal populations and the various intersections within the reproductive continuum. Formerly, Laura worked as a birth doula, childbirth educator, and lactation counselor, which both laid the foundation for her current work and still greatly influences it.

Laura is the Director of the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House Women’s Center, a community center located in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn where she offers accessible, targeted programming and counseling services for undocumented expecting and new parents, single parents, immigrant women, survivors of domestic violence, teen girls, and at-risk parents. Laura also works in a group therapy practice and runs support groups focusing on sexual wellness, queer community, trauma healing, and the needs of the birth and postpartum populations.

Laura and her family are Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. She is an avid podcast listener, photographer, writer, lover of nature, enthusiastic traveler, and lifelong learner.

Emeritus Board

Phyllis Klaus

Penny Simkin

Interested in joining the board? LEARN MORE