Executive Director & Workshop Instructor
Thérèse is the mother of
6 children and lives with her wonderful partner, Paul. Her first birth was
an unmedicated hospital birth and her following births were attended at
home by Midwives. Her prior education and pursuits pale and take a back
seat to her life education and experiences.
Thérèse has worked professionally with pregnant women since 1992 as a
midwife’s assistant, professional birth assistant, prenatal counselor,
childbirth educator and breastfeeding consultant. She has attended over 500
births at home and the hospital as both assistant to the midwife as well as
labor support in the hospital. She has experience working with a diverse
population.
Thérèse is facilitator of a Home Birth Circle, a Postpartum Circle, Doula
Support Circle, as well as, a birth activist group in her community. She is
the former Executive Director of Birth Matters VA, a non-profit consumer
organization in Virginia. She began teaching birth doula workshops for
ALACE in 1996, having taught 100’s and 100’s of women (and some men)
all over the continental US, Hawaii and Canada. She finds all of her work
an honor and a privilege.
She is excited to carry forth the integrity and experience of all the many
women who have preceded her in this role as leader of a national training
and certification organization. She will take her years as Director and
instructor of the Labor Assistant training program to promote the change
that is imperative to the well-being of families.
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Susan Cassel CNM, MSN Workshop Instructor
Since 1982 Susan has worked in the field of pregnancy and birth as
a nurse, a childbirth educator, a doula, a nurse-midwife, a doula
trainer and an educator of nursing, midwifery and medical students.
She was a Director of the Labor Assistant Training for the
Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators
(ALACE) for 10 years. As a midwife, she has worked in home birth, free
standing birth centers, community and tertiary care hospitals. Her two daughters
were born into the hands of
midwives, one in a hospital, the other a waterbirth at home.
Susan is a passionate and staunch advocate of the midwifery model of care for
all women in all areas of women’s healthcare. She is currently practicing
midwifery in the Boston area and is honored to continue to train doulas within
the woman-centered philosophy of toLabor.
Karen Evans, Business Consultant
Karen received a BS in Finance at Virginia Commonwealth
University in 1983 and entered the world of finance.
In 1987, she left the corporate world to pursue various
entrepreneurial interests, which included Kid Knits, a knit-to
-order sweater business and Karen’s Errands, a personal
errand service company. From 1992 until 1996, she and a
partner owned and operated, “The Corner,” a restaurant
and coffee shop in downtown Richmond which quickly gained widespread
acclaim for its excellence, and ambience. She formed “Karen Evans, LLC.”
and currently focuses on small business accounting and bookkeeping. Karen
lives in Richmond VA, is married, and has three children. She enjoys
gardening, reading, knitting, crocheting, cooking and taking walks with her
dogs and husband.
Breese Anderson, Social Media
While attending school to become a nurse, Breese was
joyfully interrupted by the birth of her son, Riley in October
2009. Her own home, water birth set her on the pathway to
becoming a Doula, attending a toLabor workshop in 2010.
She formed Sacred-Birth Doula Services and has
attended many births, continuing to educate and fulfill her.
She lives in Richmond VA with her son, fiancée and their
son.
Grace Kuhn, Membership Coordinator
Grace attended VCU in Richmond VA with studies
concentrated in the department of the Arts and
Humanities. She was born at homeand was present for the
homebirths of her 2 younger siblings. She has been
surrounded by birth work her entire life and attended her
first Doula training in 2006. She currently lives in
Northern California with her boyfriend where they run an
animal rehabilitation sanctuary for farm animals.