IRC Office Hours - Building Bridges with Legislators

Building Bridges with your State Legislators 

We all know we should spend time with legislators, but who has the time to do it?  Here’s how to start small and really leverage the time you do spend, with the goal of creating advocates for birth centers and midwives to get what they deserve.

Join IRC Leaders Cynthia Flynn and Nancy Koerber for this interactive and insightful IRC Office Hours session. 

AABC membership is required for IRC Office Hours. Registration is free and open to all AABC members. 

IRC Leaders

Cynthia Flynn, PhD, CNM, FACNM

Cynthia has extensive management experience, having served as executive director of The Birth Center, Bryn Mawr, PA; the general director of Family Health and Birth Center, Washington DC, where she negotiated the merger of the birth center with a Federally Qualified Health Center in order to provide stable financing; and founder/owner of Columbia Women’s Clinic and Birth Center, Kennewick, WA.

At the national level, she is a past president of the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC), and serves on the AABC Government Affairs and Industry Relations Committees as well as the Legislative and Policy Committee of the Midwives Association of Washington State (MAWS). Additionally, she has provided consulting for organizations wishing to start, expand, sustain or replicate midwifery practices and/or birth centers in order to increase access for healthy women to a proven method of obtaining a safe delivery.

Nancy Koerber, CPM, CPC

Nancy has practiced in the community birth setting since the early 80's. In addition, she has a business and practice administration background, and also specializes  in coding and billing. Nancy served as the Executive Director of the WNC Birth Center in Asheville, and has assisted with birth center development for several others. 

Nancy has worked with legislative affairs since non-nurse midwives became illegal in North Carolina in 1982. She is well versed in how to build relationships with legislators to serve as partners in advocacy for midwives and birth centers.