OUR BOARD
Carmela Weber
Board President: With more than 15 years of nonprofit management and consulting experience, Carmela has provided invaluable guidance to U.S. and international organizations with annual budgets ranging from $100,000 to $200 million. She has led projects in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Central and South Asia, South Pacific, and the CIS. In addition to managing and consulting, she has served as treasurer on several nonprofit boards, founded new organizations, developed programs, raised funds and created systems to support effective program execution. Carmela has special expertise in internal audit, fraud investigation, complex project management, and organizational change management. Carmela is one of IMA's founding members. She has worked in Afghanistan for IMA and helped found our project in Uganda.
Megan Barksdale
Board Member: Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Megan has lived in Boulder, Colorado for 22 years. She has an eight-year-old daughter whom Jennifer Braun, her cousin, helped bring into the world. Now that her daughter is in school, Megan has time to dedicate herself to IMA, a cause she feels very strongly about! Megan said, “I have followed IMA since its inception and am amazed at what this organization can and does provide to so many people.”
Jennifer Barr
Board Treasurer: Jennifer lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, three daughters, three cats, and a dog. She is an intern midwife and craniosacral therapist who is applying to become a Certified Professional Midwife. She has volunteered and apprenticed all over the country. Between 1992 and 1994, she worked at Elizabeth House in Washington, D.C., a long-term shelter for homeless, pregnant, Spanish-speaking women. During that time, she also volunteered at the Washington Free Clinic doing HIV pre- and post-test counseling. In 1996, she attended Maternidad La Luz, a birth center in El Paso, Texas, as a midwifery student and apprentice. Currently, she sits on the board of the Pajwell Foundation, in addition to serving as board treasurer for IMA. Jennifer joined IMA while the organization was still in its inception, seeing an opportunity to work for maternal and child health in the developing world. “I believe strongly that health care is a right not a privilege. I uphold the midwifery model of care as the ideal, worldwide for pregnancy. I like to help the organization in whatever fashion is needed – from working on a fundraiser to organizing an evening public talk.” In her off time, Jennifer has been studying the Japanese martial art of Aikido for 14 years and holds the rank of third-degree black belt.
Lauri Hughes, CD (DONA), CLC
Board Member: Lauri is from Seattle, Washington, and after a 12-year stint in the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in Boulder, Colorado. She is the mother of three grown sons and a step-daughter. Lauri is the current director of Birth Assistants of Boulder and has worked as a certified doula since 1998 and a lactation counselor since 2005. She is studying and apprenticing to become a Certified Professional Midwife. Lauri is a passionate advocate of women’s healthcare rights and has worked or volunteered in the areas of women’s health since the age of 14. She has been active with Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, Nurse/Family Partnership & Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Colorado. While living in California, she volunteered as a parenting project mentor, teaching parenting and life skills. In 2006 as part of her midwifery training, Lauri attended Casa de Nacimiento, a birth center in El Paso, Texas, where she learned clinical skills and worked with Spanish-speaking women. Before motherhood, doula work and midwifery, Lauri was an avid traveler and travel agent. From Egypt to India, Costa Rica to the North Pole, and many points in between, Lauri has visited more than 30 countries. She makes a point of using her passport at least once a year.
Sarah Truitt, MD
Board Member: Sarah lives in Boulder with her Alaskan husband, Zan. She practices as an obstetrician/gynecologist for Clinica Campesina Family Health services, a non-profit community health center for underserved and low-income people who live in Southeast Boulder, Broomfield and Adams Counties. Sarah completed medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 1999. She then completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2003. Since then, Sarah has been in general ob/gyn practice for four years. She is fluent in Spanish and participated in IMA’s program in Afghanistan in 2006. She is a Diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and has served for five years on various committees for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She has an ongoing interest in health justice and enjoys finding opportunities to help women around the globe through serving as a member of IMA’s board.
Claudia Wyrick, M.D.
Board Member: Claudia lives in Lakewood, Colorado, with her husband, Danny. She has three grown children, Chris, Lindsay and Clint and two grandchildren, Levi and Case. Claudia is a medical doctor who’s a practicing family physician and hospitalist in Denver, but she also holds advanced degrees in special education and fine arts. She became involved with efforts to found International Midwife Assistance while working on her Masters in Fine Arts. During the summer of 2008, Claudia used her medical skills to help IMA's clients. She traveled to Soroti, Uganda, and collaborated with staff at the Teso Safe Motherhood Project (TSMP) for one month. Having already volunteered at community free clinics, House of Hope women’s shelter and a health clinic in Nepal’s Dhading Valley, Claudia is community service minded. “I have always had a desire and felt a responsibility to work with those people who are underserved and who have not had the opportunities I have had in my life.” In addition to practicing as a physician, Claudia is a writer. She has published several poems and is working on a novel.
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