|
HOME | SEARCH | CONTACT US |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
KBFPC STAFF
STAFF BIOS
Catriona Lowe, Interim Director/Clinic Manager: I’ve been working at the Clinic since January 2003, and the time has flown by. All of the Staff wear many hats: I love the variety of mine, and the way they fit. From case management to HIV counseling, billing, client intake, who knows what I’ll be working on at any given time? My favorite aspect of working here is empowering clients to make well informed choices about their health care. Before KBFPC, I was lucky enough to work at several other Homer area non-profits, including the Pratt Museum and Kachemak Heritage Land Trust. I am the parent of two young boys, and enjoy playing and learning with them. I’ve been a board member for KBBI, Homer’s public radio station, since January 2006. Somewhere in there I also squeeze in broomball, snowboarding, food, reading and knitting.
Julie McCarron, CNM-Practitioner: As a certified Nurse-Midwife/Advanced Nurse Practitioner I care for women across the lifespan and young children in my jobs at KBFPC and Homer Medical Clinic. I have been here at KBFPC since fall of 2004. I can’t think of a better place to work and grow as a practitioner and for women to come for women’s health care. It is such a positive place to work and I hope we make it a positive place for women to get their care too. I enjoy helping women make good health decisions to achieve their best state of health in all aspects of their lives. I am also the parent of 5 children ranging in age from 18 to 6. In addition to spending time with my husband and kids I enjoy hiking and camping, watching my kids sports games, reading and walking and skiing.
Sonja Martin-Young, CNM-Practitioner: I am a certified nurse-midwife. I split my time between doing well-woman visits at KBFPC and full scope midwifery at Homer Medical Clinic. I started practicing at KBFPC in spring 2002 and really enjoy working here. I have a passion for helping women achieve their optimal health. I value the opportunity to empower clients in making reproductive health choices that work for them. When I am not being a midwife, I spend time with family, my dogs and horses and enjoy reading, hiking and skiing. I am very happy to be part of the Homer community.
Shay Hoffman, Clinic Assistant: My illustrious career with KBFPC began in 2000, when, fresh off the boat from California I wandered by the little house on Main street in search of good deeds to do. From coaching Latina teenagers through their pregnancy and birth to working in a sperm bank, I’ve been drawn to the field of women and health for some time. As volunteer, board member and now bonafide clinic assistant, I’ve felt fortunate to be involved with an agency that provides such accessible, high quality care to the community. Maybe some day all these years of school will add up to some initials after my name, but for now, on days off, I might be found pulling weeds, stringing beads or trying to learn a thing or two from my 6 year old son. Caroline Ross, Clinic Assistant: I have been lucky enough to be part of this lovely clinic KBFPC on and off for the last 10 years. After my first visit to the little house on Main Street, I knew it was a place I wanted to be a part of. My travels out of Homer as a traveling pediatric nurse always lead me back to KBFPC! I am so grateful to be part of this positive, caring, and empowering agency. In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, boating, cooking, music, my great friends and amazing husband. Marla McPherson, Clinic Assistant: I joined KBFPC’s staff in 2006, after ten years working in outreach and development with other local nonprofit organizations including the Pratt Museum, Cook Inletkeeper, and Kachemak Heritage Land Trust. I believe that health care is a fundamental human right, and am proud to be part of a clinic that makes quality reproductive health care more accessible. I love living in Alaska, where I can pursue all the activities that make my life richer -- backpacking, cross country skiing, natural history, homesteading, dancing, music, and coaching the high school debate team.
Brett Glidden, Health Educator: bio coming soon!
Chris Fontaine, Outreach Project Director: I have been lucky to be working as Outreach Project Director at KBFPC since 2003. The positive atmosphere here and supportive, caring co-workers make this job a treat. Doing one-to-one outreach around the southern Kenai Peninsula is always an adventure, with so many opportunities to connect with the wonderful members of our diverse communities. This job keeps it fresh and interesting for me, as finding new ways to reach people means something different every day. As for the rest of my time, I love hanging with my son, playing soccer, x-country skiing, and spending time with my beautiful friends and family. Oh, and in my spare time I fit in nursing school, to be completed soon...Yipee! Kathy Morton, Outreach Worker: I've been fortunate to live and work in Alaska for 33 years, where I've raised my 2 children. I find working with the KBFPC outreach program fascinating, visiting the diverse communities between Ninilchik and the head of Kachemak Bay. I also work as a caregiver, advocating for seniors, working with the Alzheimer's Resource Agency and volunteer for Hospice of Homer. I enjoy hat making, fiber arts, serving on the advisory board of the Homer Farmer's Market, swimming, gardening, books, dogs, cooking, wildcrafting, and sharing stories. Kathryn McCarron, Outreach Worker: I have been working with women's health outreach for the past two summers and have totally loved getting out into the community. In the winter, I go to school in Seattle where I'm studying nursing and French. I love Alaska and I try to come back as often as possible. When I'm not working or going to school, I love to swing, play outside, and dipnet. Susanna Sharp, Outreach Worker: I have long had a serious appreciation for the availability of basic family planning services, particularly in small communities with large underserved populations. I am proud to work with the outreach team to direct people to the quality staff, services and facility at the Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic. My work experience includes program development and operations management, with an emphasis on grant writing and copy editing. Alaska is my tenth state and has become a serious rival to my other favorite, Colorado. I enjoy exploring Alaska with my captain and dog, chopping wood and dabbling in artsy things. Michelle Waneka, Director (on sabbatical until December 2010): From auspicious beginnings as an occasional but dedicated volunteer to the present all-consuming responsibilities of executive directorship, the adventure continues to be oh-so rewarding. I love and believe in what the Clinic stands for: personal responsibility, active participation in one's own health, empowerment of the individual, shared experiences, and the autonomy, worth, and the freedom of choice for each of us - whether client, or staff or board member. My job is to promote well-being - what begins in a smaller circle expands to the greater whole - and why not? Our community deserves the best of what a grass-roots reproductive care clinic can be--unique and vibrant, striving for excellence, and committed to offering our best to each person who walks through our doors. Sooo....I hope to continue creating just that.
"ALTERNATIVE" STAFF BIOS
Michelle Waneka Michelle recently left a long-time career in crab fishing, after becoming famous on the TV series Deadliest Catch. Michelle is best known as the fearless captain leading an all women crew on the F/V Guinness, and is revered for her unwavering leadership in the high seas of the Bering Sea. The new-found fame on Deadliest Catch was not a natural fit for this modest women, so Michelle reluctantly left her long-loved career in commercial crab fishing and moved to Homer to create a new life for herself. The KBFPC board quickly snatched her up, knowing that her experience as a crab boat captain would be a perfect fit for Director of the Family Planning Clinic.
Julie McCarron Julie joined KBFPC after completing her Ph.D. in biomedical research at the University of Rochester Medical Center. At Rochester Medical Center, Julie interned for William Bonnez, M.D. in research that helped lead to the invention of the HPV vaccine, which now prevents a type of cancer that affected 225,000 women worldwide each year. Julie also homeschools her five children, and serves on the President’s Council for Women’s Health, where she helped found womenshealth.gov.
Sonja Martin-Young Sonja grew up in the San Diego Zoo, where her mother was a zookeeper that specialized in primates. Sonja traveled with her mother throughout the world to study primates in the wild, and it was during her childhood in the Republic of Congo where Sonja discovered her passion working with people. Sonja and her mother lived with family friends who ran a health clinic in Kinshasa. When Sonja’s mother would go to the mountains to study gorillas, Sonja stayed behind to help at the clinic. At age 13, Sonja helped deliver her first baby, which lead to her career in OBGYN and midwifery. When you come in to see Sonja, please bring a 16 oz skinny Alaska Chai and wear purple underwear.
Catriona Lowe Catriona hails from the United Kingdom. After completing her MBA at Oxford, Catriona was recruited by one of the ground breaking dot com firms in Silicon Valley. It was here that she founded several of her own dot com businesses, but after having her first child, realized that she wanted a simpler life without the high stress that the corporate world embodied. During her second pregnancy, she knew she needed a change, and so she sold her businesses and moved to Alaska, just a year short of the dot com crash. In Alaska, she opened a bakery and a small snowboard school for kids. The family planning clinic recognized her unique combination of people and business management skills, and snatched her up to join the KBFPC team as Clinic Manager.
Shay Hoffman Shay grew up on a farm near Austin, Texas, where she would escape after a hard-days work to indulge in the cowboy poetry and country music scene in this famous music-capital. Her poetry and song-writing talents were recognized by her high school teacher, who introduced her to Bonnie Rait’s manager in 1990. Shay wrote several hit songs performed by famous female singers such as Bonnie Rait, Kathy Mattea, and Allison Krausse. Her career as a song-writer for such influential female artists made Shay uniquely aware of the strengths, hopes and desires of women. She began volunteering with women’s health clinics, primarily serving the immigrant Latino population in the inner city. It was here that she found a new passion for working with women and families in public health. She completed a nursing degree and while working as a traveling nurse, she landed in Homer. She fell in love with this beautiful place, and with KBFPC.
Caroline Ross While studying pre-med, Caroline was recruited to work as a first aid responder for the Long Beach Roller Derby league. She loved the sport and working with the women. She soon joined the Terminal Island Tooties and skated under her roller derby alias, Arctic Mist, a rugged character based on her dreams of moving to Alaska. Caroline soon rose as a leader in the all-female grassroots movement to spread the roller derby movement throughout the nation, which brought her to Alaska where she helped a group of women form the Rage City Rollergirls, the first roller derby league in Alaska. She fell in love with Alaska and stayed. Arctic Mist has been rumored to make guest appearances from time to time with the Rage City Rollergirls, and Caroline is now rumored to be starting a professional table tennis league.
Chris Fontaine Chris Fontaine’s journey to Alaska started in Chicago, where she worked as a fashion model for the magazine industry. She quickly discovered the dark side of the model industry, and how it drove women to starvation, depression, and self-hatred. She stuck with it long enough to fund her college education, where she was completing a degree in journalism from the University of Chicago and published a shocking expose on the dangers of the modeling industry on women’s health. Her story was picked up by Ms. Magazine, and she became a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine on issues of women’s health and empowerment. In 1994, Chris traveled to Alaska to complete research and write a piece on the innovative work of the clinic in reaching out to medically underserved women. She fell in love with Homer and the clinic and returned to lead-up one of the most unique women’s health outreach programs in the nation.
Marla McPherson Marla was raised on a sheep ranch in rural Colorado. At a young age, she followed a handsome Argentina sheep-herder to South America, where she traveled with a band of gypsies, learning tango, Spanish guitar, and the fine art of Les Trapézistes. In 1995, Marla began her career as a trapeze artist in the Circ Mundial de Buena Aires. When she wasn’t performing, she volunteered with rural development projects to preserve the sustainable agricultural lifestyles and practices of rural indigenous farmers. When Marla and her handsome sheep-herder returned to the U.S., she landed in Homer and in the outreach position at KBFPC, where she applies her background in entertainment and community development.
|
|||
|
3959 Ben Walters Lane, Homer, Alaska 99603 ? Phone: 907.235.3436 ? Fax: 907.235.8346
About Us
|
Services
|
News & Events|
Get Involved
|
Resources
A United Way Member Agency |
|||||
