AABC Presents 2025 Achievement Awards
The American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) is proud to announce the recipients of its 2025 AABC Achievement Awards, recognizing champions whose leadership, advocacy, and partnership have advanced the birth center model of care and strengthened midwifery-led practice nationwide through their leadership, advocacy, and collaboration.
AABC Community Award
Rollins Center for Language and Literacy
AABC is honored to present the 2025 AABC Community Award to the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy for its groundbreaking leadership in expanding health equity and family well-being through partnerships with birth centers.
Led by Dr. Nadia Jones and Crystal Grimes, Rollins intentionally advocated for birth centers to be recognized as essential partners within the Talk With Me Baby ecosystem. This network had historically been limited to hospitals. Their work elevated birth centers as trusted, community-based settings where families are introduced to early language, literacy-rich practices, and whole-family wellness.
This advocacy ensures that families receiving care at birth centers now have access to vital resources for early brain development, while staff are equipped to support caregiver-child connections. Rollins has set a national example of how birth centers can be integrated into early health and education systems to advance equity and quality beginnings for every child.
AABC Collaborating Physician Award
Dr. Richard Thigpen
The 2025 AABC Collaborating Physician Award is presented to Dr. Richard Thigpen, OB/GYN at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Birth Center. Since 2018, Dr. Thigpen has exemplified true partnership with midwives, providing clinical expertise, support, and advocacy that have strengthened the birth center model.
Known for his exceptional skill in procedures such as ECVs—helping prevent countless primary cesareans—Dr. Thigpen is recognized for his respectful, collaborative approach, treating midwives as peers and embracing shared decision-making. A recent appointment to the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC) Board further highlights his national leadership. Colleagues describe him as an “absolute unicorn”—a rare blend of clinical excellence, humility, and humor.
AABC Professional Achievement Award
Julie Moon, CNM
AABC is proud to present the 2025 AABC Professional Achievement Award to Julie Moon in recognition of her leadership in clinical safety, systems integration, and values-based education in birth center care.
A Certified Nurse Midwife and NRP Instructor Mentor, Julie has redefined neonatal resuscitation training for birth centers, centering physiologic, trauma-informed practices while ensuring clinical readiness. Her national leadership was instrumental in securing a midwife representative on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Neonatal Resuscitation Program Steering Committee in 2024—a historic milestone for midwifery inclusion.
Julie’s impact extends across disciplines, from advancing EMS–midwifery integration and transfer protocols to introducing the T-piece resuscitator in community birth. Beyond clinical innovation, she emphasizes caregiver well-being, trauma awareness, and the heart of midwifery as emotional, spiritual, and communal work.
Congratulations to our 2025 awardees! They exempllify the collaboration, advocacy, and innovation that sustain and advance the birth center movement.