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ANBC Co-Founders
ANBC Co-Founders from left to right: Stacey Lucason (Yup'ik), Margaret David (Koyukon Athabascan) with daughter Tala, Lena Jacobs (Koyukon Athabascan), Abra Nungasuk Patkotak (Iñupiaq), Charlene Aqpik Apok (Iñupiaq), Stefanie Cromarty (Siberian Yupik).
Current Team Members
Abra Nungasuk Patkotak, Iñupiaq
Abra Nungasuk Patkotak is Iñupiaq from Utqiagvik, Alaska. Abra is the granddaughter of Wesley & Ardis Pishl and Simeon Nasuk & Susan Nungasuk Patkotak and the daughter of Glen & Teresa Stolte and Simeon Qaġmak Patkotak, Jr. She has held many roles, including managing the Pre-maternal home for Utqiagvik and the surrounding North Slope communities. She has also worked as a 911 dispatcher in the Arctic. Abra currently resides in Dgheyey Kaq’, also known as Anchorage, on Dena’ina land. She is a Birthworker, Doula and co-founder of the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community, a role through which she advances reproductive justice while serving Indigenous birthing people. Abra serves as a Core Committee Member with the State of Alaska Maternal Child Death Review. In this role, she brings knowledge of Alaska Native culture as well as lived experience with rural healthcare and rural emergency response systems.
Dr. Charlene Aqpik Apok, Iñupiaq, She/They
Aqpik is Iñupiaq, her family is from White Mountain and Golovin, AK. She is mother to Evan Lukluan. Aqpik has served in many spaces as an advocate for Indigenous womxn, sovereignty, gender justice and rights to health and wellbeing. She is a lifelong learner in both her cultural traditions and decolonizing academia. She earned her B.A in American Ethnic Studies with a minor in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, an M.A in Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development, and received her PhD in Indigenous Studies. Charlene gratefully resides in Anchorage on the territories of the Dena'ina peoples. Here she has taught the Iñupiaq language and is part of Kingikmuit dance group with her son son. She is a co-founder of the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community.
Dalecia Young, Iñupiaq
Dalecia is Inupiaq & Black and was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, where she is also raising her children. She founded Due North Support Services in 2018, where her mission is to help people find and follow their chosen paths through emotional, physical, and continuous support for a full spectrum of reproductive health care options across a range of experiences from periods to parenthood. "When I first learned I was pregnant I experienced firsthand the strength and power found in learning and understanding my own body, exercising my autonomy, and advocating for my own freedom, my options, reproductive and otherwise. In addition to the courses, workshops, conferences, formal training, and avid independent study, I am continuously informed by my empathy and intuition." She is working with ANBC as an Indigenous Birth Helper.
Helena Jacobs, Koyukon Athabascan
Helena Benozaadleyo Jacobs (Koyukon Athabascan) is the daughter of Dee Olin and David Hoffman, and the granddaughter of the late Lillian and Fred Olin, the late Lorraine and John Honea, and the late Helen and George Hoffman. Born in Fairbanks with ancestral ties to Ruby and Kokrines, and raised throughout 7 different communities in Alaska, she now lives and works in Anchorage on Dena'ina land where she and her husband are raising their children. She has completed the Full Spectrum Indigenous Doula training, Indigenous Childbirth Educator training, Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor training, Spinning Babies workshop and has learned from the many families she has supported over the last 17 years as a birth helper. She is a cofounder of the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community.
Katrina Leary, Yup'ik and Athabascan
Born and raised along the Kuskokwim River, Katrina Leary is Yup'ik and Athabaskan from Bethel and Napaimute, Alaska. Katrina is named after the late Katrina Aloysius of Upper Kalskag, and currently resides in Anchorage with her husband and daughter, Charlie. Birthwork strongly called to Katrina after experiencing the struggles of growing and birthing her own daughter. Katrina has a passion to apply her cultural upbringing and knowledge to her role as a parent and along her journey, became inspired by helping other women to do the same. In October of 2022, Katrina completed the Indigenous Childbirth Educator Training.
Lindsey Earnest, Chippewa
Lindsey Earnest was born and raised in Bagley Minnesota. She is an enrolled descendant of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe from the White Earth Reservation Mississippi Band. She is a mom of three daughters, Kalista (6), Madison (4), and Harper (2). Through her work as an operational leader at Southcentral Foundation she has found a passion for supporting families through their birthing and post-partum journeys. As a Indigenous Doula, Lindsey is able to provide emotional, spiritual, and physical support during and after birth.
Laura Young, Iñupiaq
Laura Young is of Iñupiaq descent, born on an Apache Indian Reservation and raised in Glennallen and Dillingham. Laura’s maternal grandmother was originally from White Mountain, Fish River Tribe. Laura is a trained Doula, has a B.S. in Midwifery and has a passion for helping families achieve their birth desires and goals. She believes it is a privilege to walk alongside families in one of life’s most memorable times and is thankful for the opportunity and honor to serve her community in this way.
Margaret Olin Hoffman David, Koyukon Athabascan
Margaret Olin Hoffman David was born and raised in rural Alaska. She grew up spending summers at her grandparent’s fish camp on the Yukon River and is rooted by her Koyukon Athabascan culture. Through 15 years of working in tribal and rural community health promotion and program management, birthing her family, volunteering as a doula, and healing through Native ways of knowing, she realized her call to midwifery. The potential to heal ourselves, and our ancestors, during the transformation of childbirth is why she has chosen to dedicate her life’s work to midwifery. Through her work as a Certified Nurse Midwife she hopes to expand perinatal community health programs and birthing options for rural Alaska Native women by remembering traditional practices and supporting more pathways for Indigenous birth workers. She is a founding member of the National Indigenous Midwifery Alliance and the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community. She lives on Dena'ina land in Anchorage, AK with her partner and 4 children, and is a midwife at the Alaska Native Medical Center.
Rebecca Mason, Iñupiaq
Rebecca is Inupiaq raised in the villages of Kotzebue and Kiana. Her grandparents lived a subsistence lifestyle and taught her the traditional Inupiat values of respect, hard work, and love of family. These values are now incorporated into her birth work. As a mother of five, Rebecca brings understanding and connection to birthing women traveling from the villages. Trained in nursing, and certified as a doula, Rebecca will offer compassionate and knowledgeable support through your birth experience.
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