Staff
Executive Director
Jennifer Braun
Jennifer Braun has served women and children in Afghanistan, Haiti and Uganda since 2004.
As Executive Director of IMA, she travels several times a year to oversee the organization's international programs as well as to work in the field as a midwife. She has been attending births since 1982.
Jennifer is a midwife licensed in Colorado. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. She was President of the Colorado Midwives Association from 1985 to 1992 during which she was a citizen lobbyist, working to pass legislation that is now the Colorado Midwives Practice Act. She also co-authored the first CMA Certification Program.
Jennifer has been an educator since the late 1980s, training midwives from apprenticeship through licensure as well as teaching at CU-Boulder and the Southwest Acupuncture College-Boulder Campus. She has been honored with recognition from Volvo for Life (2006), the Echievement Award (2007 and 2020), and Boulder Weekly named her Person of the Year in 2008.
President
Dr. Claudia Wyrick
Dr. Claudia Wyrick is a medical doctor, a practicing family physician and hospitalist in Denver. She traveled to Soroti, Uganda in 2008 and again in 2010 to collaborate with staff at the Teso Safe Motherhood Project (TSMP) to improve clinical care. 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, she also holds advanced degrees in special education and fine arts and is a published writer and poet. She resides in Arvada, Colorado with her husband, Danny. She has three grown children, and six grandchildren. Claudia spends time in her garden, birdwatching, and traveling with Danny. She continues to find ways to contribute to her community.
Secretary / Treasurer
Jennifer Barr
Jennifer Barr is a Certified Professional Midwife and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist.
In addition to serving as board secretary/treasurer for IMA, she sits on the board of the Pajwell Foundation. 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 for pregnancy worldwide.”
She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband, three daughters, two cats and a dog.
Board Member
Liza Patrick
Liza Patrick is a Certified Nurse-Midwife, writer, educator, and women's circle facilitator whose career has been devoted to supporting women through life's profound transitions. A nurse-midwife for over three decades, her clinical work focused on maternal and child public health, as well as advocating for and caring for underserved women and families.
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Today, Liza brings together her backgrounds in healthcare, writing, and facilitation to create spaces where women can reconnect with themselves and one another. She is the founder of Kitchen Table Writing, where she leads women's writing circles and offers one-on-one writing support, believing deeply in the healing power of story, self-discovery, and authentic connection.
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She is also the co-founder and co-facilitator of Stepping Into What's Next, a healing and wellness program created to support women navigating life after cancer through guided reflection, ritual, and shared community.
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Liza believes that the heart of midwifery extends far beyond birth— accompanying women with presence, compassion, and deep listening remains at the center of her work.
Board Member
Lorraine Fairmont
Lorraine Fairmont has been a Certified Nurse Midwife for 30 years. As someone devoted to public health, past jobs included labor & delivery and community health at Denver Health, labor & delivery in the Navajo Nation, (Chinle, AZ) and midwifery at People’s Clinic in Boulder, Colorado. She ran a holistic women’s health practice in Boulder.
She has been tracking the critical work of IMA since its inception, and brings the vision for this lifesaving, life enhancing program, utilized by Jennifer and team to be used as a model for other agencies working internationally, or high risk areas of the US.
Lorraine received her BA from Yale, and a BS in nursing and MSN in midwifery from the University of Colorado. She is a founding board member of The Chinook Fund, a social change organization in Denver. The lucky mother of four adult children, she gets to help care for two grandchildren and lives with her husband in Boulder.
Board Member
Alexa Townsend
Alexa Townsend is currently enrolled in the University of Colorado’s inaugural Certified Midwife program. Her path to midwifery has been anything but linear. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies before moving to New York City, where she spent a decade building a career in media and marketing.
Although her work in branding was dynamic and fulfilling, Alexa experienced a profound shift after the birth of her first child in 2019. Drawn to the transformative power of birth, she began immersing herself in the field of midwifery. Over the past several years, she completed her birth assistant training through the Tender Gifts Birth Center in Fort Collins while simultaneously pursuing her Certified Midwife degree at the University of Colorado.
Alexa is deeply committed to a life of service and hopes to contribute to improved maternal health outcomes globally. With a unique blend of corporate experience, communication expertise, and a passion for compassionate, evidence-based care, she brings a distinctive and valuable perspective to IMA.