Project Leadership

Dr. Melissa Zielinski is an Assistant Professor and Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She directs the Health and the Legal System (HEALS) Lab, a diverse group of scholars and clinical trainees focused on the intersections among trauma, mental illness, addiction, and the legal system (e.g., prisons, drug treatment courts, jails, crime victims). Much of her work has focused on justice-involved women, many of whom are survivors of sexual and domestic violence and have unique needs like pregnancy care. Her research is helping to identify how to best intervene, how to get treatments that work in to these systems, and how to promote long-term recovery.

Sara Zia, MA, has an academic background in Philosophy from UCLA and UVA. She is a Certified Professional Midwife and doula and has over a decade of experience teaching yoga in her community. In 2018 Sara began teaching yoga at her local prison and drafted an evidence-based proposal for perinatal support programs. In 2019 Sara collaborated with prison staff to design and implement programs serving Virginia’s pregnant prison population with childbearing year support. She is Founder and Executive Director of the Virginia Prison Birth Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to building on this work.

Born in Guatemala, Evelyn Yaeggy is the founder of Vida Midwifery Collective in Minnesota. She is a home birth midwife, a certified prison doula through Minnesota Prison Doula Project, and a certified one-on-one peer counselor through Intentional Peer Support. She is also a certified Parenting Inside Out facilitator for incarcerated folx. Evelyn is passionate about working with the community, whether it is in her Vida Midwifery Practice providing perinatal care outside of the hospital setting or being a doula for clients at the prison. She enjoys facilitating parenting and mothering classes for families at several locations in Minnesota.

Carolyn Sufrin, MD, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in family planning at Johns Hopkins University. She is associate professor in the Department of Gyn/Ob and the associate director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at the School of Medicine and in Health, Behavior and Society at the School of Public Health. She has worked extensively on reproductive health issues affecting incarcerated women, from providing clinical care in jail, to research, policy, and advocacy. Her work is situated at the intersection of reproductive justice, health care, and mass incarceration, which she examines in her book, Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars. Learn more about Dr. Sufrin at her website arrwip.org

Emily Sluiter is a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School and Director of the Consortium for Gender-Responsive Prisoner Healthcare at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Prior to starting medical school, she co-founded the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative and provided doula services in Michigan’s women’s prison. Her current work centers around medical ethics, patient reported outcomes research, and healthcare for justice-involved and transgender populations.

Anne Siegler, DrPH, MPH, is a public health practitioner with expertise in criminal justice and substance use.  She completed her masters in public health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a focus on maternal and reproductive health, and completed her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the City University of New York.  Dr. Siegler works with non-profits and government agencies to build quality programming through data-driven design, implementation, and evaluation.  She has led evaluations of programs in the fields of criminal justice and correctional health, substance use, and harm reduction.  She served as Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for Correctional Health Services, NYC Health + Hospitals, from 2015-2017.

Alexus Roane is a PhD candidate in Sociology and a 3rd year MPH student in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan. She obtained her B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current research interests center using a reproductive justice theoretical framework to address reproductive health disparities for Black birthing people at the nexus of their experiences with violence and/or criminalization. As a Ford Predoctoral fellowship scholar, her current qualitative research project examines Black birthing people’s experiences with pregnancy and maternity care decision-making in rural North Carolina maternity care deserts. Alexus is also a pregnancy loss doula studying to become full-spectrum alongside serving as a collective member of Black Women Birthing Justice. 

Ashley Minihan is the Owner of Empowered Beginnings. Ashley holds Certifications as a  DONA Doula, Childbirth Educator, Lactation Counselor, Passenger Safety Technician, Spinning Babies Parent Educator and Circle of Security Facilitator as well as Parents as Teachers, Touch Points and has earned a Family Development Credential. Her goal is to support prenatal and postnatal families as they navigate parenthood. Ashley prides herself in respecting everyone’s choices in a non-judgmental way by offering emotional support during the journey of parenthood.

Ashley Lovell ​is the Program Co-Manager for the Alabama Prison Birth Project in Auburn, AL. She is a Lamaze-Certified Childbirth Educator, a DONA-certified birth doula, and a peer breastfeeding counselor. She received her B.S. and M.S. from Clemson University and Auburn University in wildlife sciences but eventually left her career in natural resources to focus on professional birth work. As a doula for 8 years, she has assisted women in birth in 10 different hospitals in Alabama and Georgia.

Amanda Corbett, MPH, is a qualitative researcher and evaluator at the University of Minnesota. She has spent her career analyzing social determinants of maternal and child health, health equity, and disparity reduction in under-resourced communities. Amanda is the Director of E4P and is based out of the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Amanda is a Lamaze certified childbirth educator and lactation educator and counselor in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.