Lead with us
Lead With Us
Mission
To midwife safe, quality, loving care through pregnancy, birth and beyond.
Vision
We dream of a world where birth is safe, sacred, loving and celebrated for everyone.
Values
Safety, trust, love, and justice are our guiding values.
MEET OUR TEAM
Hope, strength, and vision -- Amidst the undeniable tragedies surrounding maternal and infant death rates in Detroit, another narrative exists. This narrative leans on hope, harnesses community strengths, and imagines a future in which Detroit is a leader in community-based maternal and infant care. Community leaders across Detroit are using this strengths-based lens to find innovative and equitable solutions to these urgent issues. One of the newest community-centered solutions is Birth Detroit. Birth Detroit embraces a community organizing approach to birth center development, rooted in deep equity and meaningful partnerships. Join us in working together to create a model birth center in Detroit, and join us in transforming the spirit of care.
Meet Our FOUNDERS
TEAM
Mary Demery, BA
Development Director
mary@birthdetroit.com
Mary Demery has over ten years’ experience working with families as a kids yoga instructor, preschool teacher, and nanny. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan and holds certificates in Infant Massage, Prenatal and Postpartum Yoga, Kids Yoga, and Trauma-Informed Care. She is passionate about informed birth, midwifery care, and the postpartum period. She looks forward to supporting Detroit’s birthing parents to ensure they have positive, loving birth experiences.
As the Finance & Development Director, Mary is an integral part of the Birth Detroit finance and development teams, working to enhance bookkeeping and development efficiencies, strengthen relationships with donors, streamline development processes and promote Birth Detroit's mission and vision to external stakeholders.
Stephanie Holloway
Marketing & Social Media Manager
stephanie@birthdetroit.com
Stephanie Holloway is a graphic design and social media professional with 20 years of experience in marketing, social media management and graphic design. She has worked with both corporate and nonprofit organizations. Stephanie holds a BFA in graphic design and photography from Eastern Michigan University. Her approach to marketing is solution-focused, practical, and creative. In her free time Stephanie is an abstract artist who loves to cook, travel and spend time with her wife and two children.
Board of Directors
Nia Linder Batts, Secretary
Nia Linder Batts is a Founding Partner at EQUALSIGN — a C-Suite Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultancy — where she leads the firm’s Board Diversity practice, and consults across its consumer, education, and private equity clients. She is also a Principal at Union Heritage Capital, one of the nation’s leading minority-owned, multi-line financial services companies, where she serves on the investment committee and oversees the firm’s social equity strategy. Nia co-founded Detroit Blows, a non-toxic salon and impact-driven retail store, that served as a model of inclusive community redevelopment in Detroit’s downtown core. She continues to Chair its affiliated philanthropic arm, Detroit Grows, which makes micro-grants to Detroit-based women entrepreneurs, and to programs helping women enter or reenter the workforce. Prior to returning to Detroit, Nia was the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Social Innovation at ViacomCBS Inc. Nia earned a B.A. in Film Studies from Columbia University, Executive Education Certificates in Corporate Social Responsibility, and Alternative Investments, from Harvard Business School, and a professional certificate in Film Producing from New York University. Nia resides in Detroit, where she oversees the philanthropic work and art collection of modern artist McArthur Binion, volunteers as a birth doula, and serves on the board of Birth Detroit, Detroit’s first freestanding birth center.
Lisa Kane Low, PhD, Advisory Council Co-Chair
Dr. Kane Low is a midwife with a career spanning thirty five years that has traversed clinical care, advocacy, research, administration and educational roles. Her research focuses on advancing evidence based care practices during pregnancy and childbirth that promote optimal, equitable, respectful outcomes for childbearing families. Currently, Dr. Low is involved in a number of NIH-funded and internally grant supported studies focusing on the process of care during childbirth including: Clinical and Non-Clinical Factors Influencing the use of Electronic Fetal Monitoring, Pelvic Floor Health During Childbirth, Promoting Bladder Health and quality improvement initiatives focused on reducing primary cesarean birth rates within quality collaboratives. She has held state and national leadership roles focused on reducing maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in Michigan and across the United States including an emphasis on addressing health disparities and promoting health equity in maternity care. She also has extensive experience working with multi-stakeholder groups to develop model practices and implementation of national guidelines focused on the provision of maternity care including transitions in care from community to hospitals settings. She is a professor at the University of Michigan in the School of Nursing, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and provides maternity care to families as a midwife at the University of Michigan Health system.
Celeste Davis, MPH, JD, ENGAGE Co-Chair
Activism is my rent for living on the planet.” ― Alice Walker
Celeste earned a Master of Public Health in Health Management and Policy from the University of Michigan and attended Boston University School of Law. However, it was her education at Bennett College where she found public health and herself. Celeste is an educator, activist, and engagement practitioner centering justice in the work of health equity and systems change. Her coalition, Justice is Love, provides public health education, consultation, and professional development in academic and community spaces. Most recently, she has embraced a hyperlocal approach to change through academia as a professorial lecturer at American University. Here, she contributed to her department’s development of a new master’s program, created an organization for faculty and student collaboration, and deepened institutional commitment to supporting BIPOC. Celeste has significant experience educating and advocating with hundreds of brilliant students and brave practitioners across the United States and developed advocacy strategies for to access health care campaigns, convening and innovations that champion health equity. Her advocacy practice is a balance of critical race scholarship, community engagement and organizing, and imagining career pathways.
Sameerah L. Shareef, CNM, MIDWIFE Co-Chair
Sameerah Shareef currently serves the Greater Lansing Community as a Certified Nurse-Midwife with MSU-Sexual Assault Healthcare Program in East Lansing, Michigan and has been a Certified Nurse-Midwife since 1993. She is the Director of this program that is the first of it’s kind in Michigan. She has worked in the discipline of Maternal Child Health since 1985 and has worked with several OB/GYN practices in the area and attended births at both McLaren and Sparrow hospitals in Lansing, Michigan. Sameerah holds an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science-Lansing Community College, a Bachelor’s of Science Degree-Michigan State University, a Diploma in Midwifery-Frontier College of Nursing (formerly Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing), She also holds a Master’s of Science in Nursing-Case Western Reserve University. She has attained a Certificate in Massage Therapy-Lansing Community College and several specialty Licenses and Certifications. She has a Master’s of Divinity-Chicago Theological Seminary and currently serves as Pastor of a Lansing area church and has worked in many areas of ministry. ”Mama” Sameerah is the mother of 3 wonderful adult children; 8 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren with another on the way! She considers being a mother, in all it’s capacities is the greatest calling and gift of her life!
Kimberly Rustem, ADVOCATE, Co-Chair
Kim Rustem is a passionate policy wonk who believes in the power of data, communities and collaboration in working toward just policies. Kim has worked in Washington D.C., Lansing and Detroit on issues of health and environmental policy, since receiving her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Cultures and Politics from James Madison College at Michigan State University in 2011 and her Masters’ degree from University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy in 2015. With a deep belief in the idea that true justice must come from change in policies and systems, and a commitment to fighting the disparities in infant and maternal mortality, Kim joined the Birth Detroit board in 2020. Kim is a co-lead of the ADVOCATE team, which focuses on educating policymakers on the need for licensure and reimbursement for birth centers and birth justice policies in Michigan.
Twanisha R. Glass, MBA
With her enthusiastic and genuine friendly attitude, Twanisha radiates a sincere passion for delivering value and benefits to all, especially working in her community. Twanisha’s motto is “Do the Right Thing because it’s the right thing to do!