Meet the 2023 – 2024 AWHONN Emerging Leaders
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Ruby’s life has been an adventure from a small-town girl to US Marine, from personal trainer to parenthood, and finally to finding her calling in a profession that combined all her passions as a nurse in the field of maternal neonatal nursing. She has worked in critical access obstetrics and primary care on two Native American reservations, cultivating a passion for advocacy of the underserved, then as a staff and travel nurse in level I-IV facilities
as an L&D and postpartum nurse. Leadership roles include charge/lead nurse, vaccine program coordinator, unit-based council, and DEIB committee member. Her current position as a WA First Steps provider enables her to assist low-income pregnant individuals and their infants in accessing health and social services, as well as provide education on pregnancy, birth, lactation, and infant care.
While participating in the Emerging Leaders program I hope to gain the confidence and knowledge to build a platform that brings my unique perspective and passion for empowering marginalized communities so that representation in our nursing profession diversifies and our at-risk maternal neonatal populations have better health outcomes.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Brenda Hahn, BSN, RN, RNC-OB, C-EFM is currently the nurse manager for LDRP & NICU units at Aurora Medical Center Summit. She earned her BSN from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and spent 10 years as a bedside labor and delivery nurse before transitioning into her leadership role. As she leads LDRP and NICU units, her heart lies within labor and delivery. Brenda professionally focuses on evidence-based care and the diversity, equity, and inclusion of all patients. She is an active member of the Wisconsin AWHONN Section. She currently is the co-coordinator for the Southeast Chapter and on the WI mini-series/conference planning committee. In 2024, she will become the Secretary-Treasurer for AWHONN-Wisconsin. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, sporting events, and spending quality time with her husband, stepson, family, and friends.
As a unit manager in Wisconsin, I have appreciated some of the various shortcomings as they pertain to diversity, equity, and inclusion within women and children’s services. By participating in the Emerging Leader Program, it is my sincerest hopes that I would become a more effective leader and help improve these DE&I shortcomings.
2022 – 2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Tiara Johnson-Nabea, DNP, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CNML is a Certified Perinatal Nurse Leader. Currently overseeing the perinatal service line for UCI, I am committed to furthering my work related to my DNP project to ensure equitable, safe care for mothers of color. My hope is to decrease racial disparities in healthcare as evidenced by the significant increase in maternal mortality and morbidity rates experienced by African-American mothers.
As a 2023 Emerging Leader, I am looking forward to connecting with my newfound village of strong, fierce leaders. I hope to gain knowledge I can take with me to ensure I am doing all I can for mothers I touch. I look forward to learning and growing as a nurse and woman in this program.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Allie Mathiason, BSN, RN, RNC-OB, CBS is a Labor and Delivery Assistant Nurse Manager at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. After completing her BSN at the University of Minnesota, Allie joined the United States Navy Nurse Corps, where she served in Japan and San Diego over 5 years. Allie is an Intermediate Fetal Monitoring and NRP Instructor who is passionate about teaching and educating nurses and staff using evidenced based research to improve knowledge and outcomes and decrease morbidity and mortality within her specialty.
As a 2023 Emerging Leader, I am looking forward to developing my leadership skills to better serve my staff and nurses to make positive change at my institution. I am excited to connect with individuals who share my passion for Women’s and Birthing Persons health and become a small part of the change AWHONN is proudly heading across the country.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Valerie Richardson is a lawyer who became a nurse after 10 years of practicing civil litigation. In her 13-year nursing career, she has worked in a variety of inpatient care areas as a bedside nurse and manager. She also teaches nursing in an associate degree nursing program. She is passionate about perinatal safety, quality improvement, and supporting the next generation of nurses so that they will love nursing as much as she does!
Program goal: I want to contribute to the important work AWHONN does to support perinatal nursing by giving bedside nurses, nurse educators, and future nurses the tools they need to provide high-quality, equitable, and patient-centered care while spending more time at the bedside.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Leticia Rios, PhD (c), RNC-NIC, IBCLC, NPD-BC is a Certified Neonatal Nurse and Professional Development Specialist. She is an International Board Certified Lactation consultant and advocate who is currently completing her Ph.D. at Adelphi University and using her knowledge and passion at NYU and within the community at large to decrease racial disparities in healthcare and educate her colleagues on how we can best support and honor black women as we work to decrease birth disparities.
As a 2023 Emerging Leader, I am looking forward to connecting with like minded individuals, who share my passion for Maternal Child health, and expanding my village. I am excited for the to the oportunity to grow and develop my leadership skills and to explore future roles within the AWHONN organization.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Devena P. Sallah, formerly known as Tucker, Folkes & Coleman, has 20+ years as a Certified Masters prepared Registered professional nurse. She multitasks as an adjunct clinical professor, a full-time night assistant nurse manager in labor & delivery, a part-time staff nurse on postpartum/antepartum(clinical ladder 3), an 1199 SEIU union delegate, and a single parent of three teenagers. Member of AWHONN for 17 years, member of American Nurse’s Association of NY and Sigma Theta Tau. She migrated from Kingston, Jamaica West Indies, with her identical twin sister and younger brother at 13 years old. She started out her nursing career at Hillcrest High school in Jamaica Queens, New York, graduated from the University at Buffalo in 1999 with her 2 bachelors, nursing and social gerontology. She worked as a social worker for 2.5 years. Devena worked as a home health aide, nurse assistant, LPN and a social worker, prior to being a RN. She worked in Nursing homes, group homes, respite care facilities, travel nursing and visiting nursing. She enjoys donating blood 4-5 times a year, cooking, singing, cruising and traveling the globe.
What I hope to get out of EL 2023-2024:
“As an Emerging Leader, I hope to grow as a leader in all aspects of my career pursuits and life changes/challenges. I embrace my diversities, however, I want to learn how to advocate for all human beings that are within the child-bearing/rearing spectrum. We are all unique and special within our own rights.”
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Jenica Sandall, MSN, RNC-OB, C-ONQS is a perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and IHI Improvement Advisor working to improve safety and quality at birthing hospitals across the state as the Director of the Safe Deliveries Roadmap Initiative at the Washington State Hospital Association. In her 18 years as a perinatal nurse, she has led quality improvement projects to improve care of patients with substance use disorders, reduce antibiotic exposure for newborns, lower cesarean section rates and standardize response to maternal early warning triggers. She is mission driven to construct equitable healthcare systems that improve outcomes for all pregnant people and their families. Jenica is interested in implementation science, population health, writing for publication and all things data. She lives in Poulsbo, Washington with her husband, two sons, and their dog. She enjoys snowshoeing, camping and any outside activity that gets her out of doing housework.
As nurses, we have the skills and abilities needed to unite and find solutions to the inequities our health systems produce. I feel deeply moved by the injustice that occurs in perinatal health care and it is my professional mission to contribute to the creation of systems that produce equal outcomes for all pregnant people and their families, regardless of identity. The AWHONN Emerging Leaders Program supports that mission and I am eager to learn alongside other nurse leaders while we work to step into our power as advocates.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Kendell Silveira, RN, BSN, CST, IBCLC, has a long career in Reproductive Justice; Lactation; High Risk L&D; Birth and Postpartum Doula work; and Gender Affirming, Abortion and Reproductive Healthcare. A central tenet to the care she provides is shared decision making which is achieved by creating individualized and evidence-based patient education to support families in achieving their lactation/ human milk feeding and labor and delivery goals. Kendell uses breast/chestfeeding as a tool to empower families in learning the language of their babies while supporting them in the lifelong health benefits that breast/chestfeeding provides.
As a member of two marginalized communities that are currently being legislated against, I profoundly understand the need for strong, clear voices in places where decisions are being made. AWHONN Emerging Leaders will be foundational in developing leadership skills and facilitating my dream of becoming an agent of change, by affording me the opportunity to take that advocacy and, utilizing a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens, work to support and protect perinatal families, as well as the staff that work diligently to care for them.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Amanda Staab MSN, RNC-OB, has worked in Birth Care at UnityPoint St. Luke’s Hospital for the past 13 years. She has served on numerous unit-based, house-wide, and system-wide committees, simulation teams, and statewide initiatives. She has also taken on the roles of OB Clinical Educator and House Supervisor. She has recently accepted a position with the Iowa Maternal Quality Care Collaborative and OB Simulation Team and looks forward to sharing her knowledge and expertise across the state and beyond.
Amanda currently serves as the AWHONN Chapter Leader for East Central Iowa and coordinates vendors for the Iowa AWHONN Conference.
As a 2023 Emerging Leader, I plan to build upon my individual leadership skills, combine them with the incredibly passionate and ambitious people of the 2023 cohort, and ultimately decrease maternal morbidity and mortality across Iowa and the nation. I am hopeful that this program advances birth equity for all, supports my career aspirations in OB, and leads me to future leadership positions within the AWHONN organization.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Lakeatta currently works at the New Parent Support Program, coordinator where she overseas approximately 200 new parents annually. Her 24 years of healthcare experience includes working as a maternal health medical technician, aeromedical evacuation technician and instructor, and finally as a labor and delivery nurse. In 2007, Lakeatta was awarded a full scholarship from the United States Air Force as one of the first recipients of the Nurse Enlisted Commissioning Program. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in 2009 from the University of Texas, Health Science Center of San Antonio. Following graduation, Lakeatta received her first nursing assignment as a clinical labor nurse in Misawa, Japan. This assignment awakened an interest in improving maternal health outcomes as she worked for three years in a military treatment facility in a rural community in northern Japan. Over the next 10 years, Lakeatta held leadership positions such as the nurse manager of the largest Air Force overseas Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic in England. She has earned her certification as a Maternal Newborn Nurse which solidified her passion for women and newborns as they transitioned in a family during the first year following childbirth. Upon her retirement, she was offered the position of the Family Advocacy Nurse and worked with new parents from the start of pregnancy to the child turns three years old. The position allows for home-visitation which has expounded on the many issues surrounding health disparities, systematic racism, and obstetrical violence from the patient’s perspective.
As the maternal mortality rate holds steady in the state of Georgia, Lakeatta found herself engaging in AWHONN on the Hill in 2020, which was virtual due to the pandemic. Yet, this opportunity opened the door for her to begin advocating on the state level for maternal mortality initiatives. Consequently, Lakeatta was compelled to apply for the 2023 Emerging Leader program after getting a standard email from AWHONN as there was no longer a barrier to participate in such an amazing program. She hopes to gain further insight as a nursing leader to make a sustainable impact on the state and national MMR. In the future, she also desires to enter healthcare politics to get involved in national policies related to maternal health.
2023-2024 AWHONN Emerging Leader
Judith Wafe is a doctorally prepared women’s health nurse practitioner who strives to improve women’s health outcomes. She is the Founder and CEO of The Fourth Trimester NP which provides maternity focused Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services for corporations. She uses social media to promote maternal health topics and entrepreneurship in the form of blogs, vlogs and podcasting. On a personal level, she enjoys going to live concerts with her husband, having fun with her 6 kids, trying new foods, going to the beach, watching murder mysteries, and weightlifting.
Emerging Leaders Accomplishments
- Jenica Sandall, MSN, RNC-OB, C-ONQS, leads the Washington State Hospital Association in implementing TeamBrith across Washington State birthing hospitals. This initiative for healthcare providers increases communication between patients, physicians, nurses, doulas, and any additional members of the health care team in making decisions. The goal of the project is to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes through communication and a team-centered approach.
- Elena Jenkins – AIM Champion
- Elena Jenkins – Recognizing Urgent Maternal Warning Signs in the Postpartum Period
- Elena Jenkins – Recognizing Urgent Maternal Warning Signs in the Postpartum Period Webinar on 12/8/2022
- Elena Jenkins – Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers & Babies 2023 TCHMB Summit 2/15-2/16/2023; Podium presentation, Austin, TX (University of Texas at Austin)
- Birth Equity Training: Illinois Hospital Implementation – Discussed journey of Hospital-level implementation of the Birth Equity Initiative, challenges/successes and lessons learned.
- Panel Discussion – “Lessons Learned: What I wish I knew at the beginning”
- How to Bring SDOH into QI: How Do We Close the Loop – Discussed hospital implementation of screening for SDOH, how to connect patients with resources, engaging the community, focus on quality improvement
- Elena Jenkins – AIM Sepsis Bundle, Podium presentation, St Luke’s Hospital St Louis, MO on 3/23/2023
- Discussing key themes of the ‘Sepsis in Obstetrics’ safety bundle
