The Board of Directors

Lisa Chin
lisa.chin@openarmsps.org

Sharon Cunnington
sharon@openarmsps.org

Peggy Fitzgerald
President
peggy@openarmsps.org

Emily Kane
Vice President
emily@openarmsps.org

Geoff Miller
geoff@openarmsps.org

Erica Nixon Mack
erica.nixonmack@openarmsps.org

Sarah Pulliam
Treasurer
pulliam@openarmsps.org

Sara L. Thompson
Secretary
sara@openarmsps.org

Sabrina Urquhart
sabrina@openarmsps.org

Tom Vasquez
tom@openarmsps.org

Bios

Lisa Chin, Ph.D
Lisa Chin comes to us with loads of experience in both the non-profit and for profit world. She is currently the Executive Director of Jubilee Women's Center in Seattle, and previously served as Executive Director of Open Arms. Lisa is also an active community volunteer, devoting time to Social Venture Partners, the Giddens School, and Voices in Wartime. Lisa worked for 18 years in program management, most recently for Amazon.com. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Sharon Cunnington
Bio coming soon.

Peggy Fitzgerald, M.Ed
Peggy has over fifteen years of work experience in the areas of education, communication, and project management in the medical and high-tech fields. In 1999, she left the corporate world to become a certified doula after seeing how women's birth memories, positive and negative, stay strong and have influence for a lifetime. Peggy hopes that making doulas available to all women will empower more families to become strong and early advocates for their children. She lives in Seattle with her husband Charles and their triplet daughters.

Emily Kane
Emily recently left Corporate America to enjoy more time with her two daughters and devote efforts to her start- up business helping nursing mothers increase & enhance their milk supply by eating delicious lactation cookies. Half way through her first pregnancy, Emily was introduced to midwifery & doula support by a friend. After the birth of her daughter she went on to attend the First Weeks Series of classes at the Community Birth & Family Center and found the information and community support incredibly valuable. That eventually led to a position on the CB&FC Board. Emily wants every woman to have the opportunity to explore all available birth options increasing the chances of a positive birth experience and to have the support throughout pregnancy, delivery and immediately after that is critical to a successful family in the future. After receiving a BS in Psychology from the University of Washington, Emily traveled to over 60 developing nations and currently resides with her family in Ravenna.

Geoff Miller
Geoff Miller has been employed as the the General Counsel at SEIU 1199NW, a union which represents health care workers, since 2003. He received his law degree from New York University, where he also was given the opportunity to teach after graduation, being named the Derrick Bell Teaching Fellow in Constitutional Law. Geoff received his B.A. from the University of Washington. Geoff also serves on the board of the ACLU of Washington. He lives in Renton with his wife Jenny and their 2 daughters.

Erica Nixon Mack
Erica has a physical therapy background and is currently a program director with Passages Northwest. She comes from a strong natural birth background and birthed both of her daughters at home.

Sarah Pulliam, LICSW, MPH
Sarah is a mother of two, and social worker with experience in HIV care, medical, and perinatal social work. She has a strong interest in the cultural and societal influences on health. She has served as a doula here and abroad, at several high-risk births. Sarah is part of the Islamic community, and has consulted with many agencies around better serving Muslim families. She enjoys hiking, putters in her garden, and is fascinated by honeybees.

Sara L. Thompson
Sara has always been interested in pregnancy and childbirth support. After seeing many friends go through difficult births and her own experience with the birth of her son in 2003, she decided that women need better education and access to options in the child birthing process. She is committed to finding ways to facilitate more natural and healthy births through doula support. Sara is a dedicated community volunteer supporting many non-profits organizations.

Sabrina Urquhart
Sabrina Urquhart has worked at Casey Family Programs for over five years and is currently their Director of Communications, Creative Services. Prior to working in the area of foster care, Sabrina supported the needs of youth ages 16 – 24 as a Project Manager for Job Corps. Sabrina earned at B.A. in Communications from University of Washington and started her professional career in Communications, specifically advertising sales. Once she transitioned to non-profits, she never looked back. Sabrina’s professional career includes staff positions at the Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, Big Sisters of King County, Big Brothers of King County and Puget Sound Blood Center. She has served on the Boards of Program for Early Parent Support (P.E.P.S.) and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA). Sabrina’s passions include advocating for the needs of underserved children and families, writing, reading, traveling, New York Times crossword puzzles and dining with good friends.

Tom Vasquez
Tom has worked for over ten years with local nonprofits, most recently as the Director of Development/Assistant Director at Compassion & Choices of Washington. He took a break from (paying) work in 2005 to become a stay-at-home dad for his son Oliver. It was during this time that his wife Renée introduced him to the parenting classes at the Community Birth and Family Center. He ended up a devoted attendee of the First Weeks and other early childhood classes, and joined the CBFC board in 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from Hampshire College. Both the writing and the unique educational environment at Hampshire prepared him for the complex and ever-changing world of social justice work. Tom lives with his family in West Seattle. In his spare time, he is plotting a series of children's books.