Board of Directors
The current board of directors for Babywearing International, Inc.
Susan Thompson Spence, President
Susie Spence received her law degree in 1999, summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama School of Law, where she received numerous academic awards, including the Balch & Bingham Corporate Law Award and the Federal Tax Clinic scholarship. After law school, she served for a year as a judicial clerk for a justice on the Supreme Court of Alabama. She then worked as an associate with a Birmingham law firm, where her practice included advising tax-exempt corporations concerning federal and state tax laws as well as advising nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses concerning corporate governance.
Before attending law school, Susie worked in the publishing industry, moving up from the job of reporter/photographer to general manager of a weekly newspaper in Pell City, Alabama, and also working as the circulation manager of a business journal in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned her B.A. in Communication from Mississippi State University in 1990, magna cum laude.
In addition to serving as the president of Babywearing International, Susie is one of the leaders of Magic City Slingers, a nonprofit organization promoting babywearing in Birmingham, Alabama, where she makes her home. She started babywearing in 2001 when her daughter was an infant, but she became a babywearing devotee after the birth of her son in 2006.
Alma Gordillo-Webb, Treasurer
Alma Gordillo-Webb earned her B.A. in Communications, Psychology, and Political Science, as well as her law degree, from the University of Houston. She has also done graduate work in Communications. She has been involved in nonprofit organizations for over 10 years.
Alma has been babywearing since she was a young girl, and it came only natural to her to wear her own children. She grew up in Mexico, where rebozos and babywearing are commonplace, and was taught at a young age that babywearing is the easiest and most practical way to take care of a child and still get other things done. She started babywearing with her own children in 2006 when her daughter Kate was born, and it helped her deal with the problems that her daughter had in early infancy.
Alma is also one of the leaders of Houston Baby Wearers, a 2-year-old organization that has been making strides in making babywearing a part of the Houston culture. She is a certified public accountant and works full-time doing corporate accounting. In the little spare time she has, she likes to paint and take college courses.
Glenda Criss-Forshey, Secretary
Glenda Criss-Forshey received her B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Columbus University and is currently pursuing her M.S. in the Science of Instruction through Drexel University. She has worked in early childhood education for seven years as both a teacher and an administrator. Glenda owned and operated a baby carrier business, which she sold to devote her time to promoting babywearing education in the nonprofit sector.
In addition to serving as secretary of Babywearing International, Glenda is one of the leaders of the Triangle Babywearers, a babywearing organization based in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina. She is also the advertising manager for TheBabyWearer.com. She started babywearing when her first son was born in 2004.
Mahreen George
Mahreen George has been involved in the nonprofit sector for several years; her areas of expertise are public relations and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Mahreen became passionate about babywearing after the birth of her daughter Inara, who was born with a number of health-related issues. Mahreen and her husband soon found that babywearing helped Inara to cope during the most difficult days of her infancy. Today, Mahreen is a busy stay-at-home mother to a healthy and free-spirited little girl who still loves being worn each and every day. In addition, Mahreen serves as one of the leaders of Centre County Babywearers, a group she helped found earlier this year. In her limited spare time, she enjoys dabbling in photography and spending time outdoors.
Mahreen is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she received her Hon. B.Sc. in Human Biology and Political Science in 2001. She was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and currently resides in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.
Crystal Eastburn
Crystal Eastburn is in her fifth year of a federal grant program, focusing on prevention through community collaboration. She has professional experience and training in both social marketing and governmental accounting. She considers the design and implementation of two successful social marketing campaigns to be the highlight of her time with the initiative. Previously she served the citizens of her county as their Chief Deputy Collector, working her way up to that position from a temporary job assignment. She currently serves her community on their local board of equalization. Crystal pursued a business degree before taking a break from her education to start a family, but has recently resumed her studies.
Crystal began wearing her son shortly after his birth in 2005 and continues the tradition with her daughter, who was born in the summer 2007. As a working parent, she finds babywearing to be an invaluable tool to stay connected with her children - both at the office and at home. Crystal is a leader of The Greater Ozarks Babywearers, which she co-founded in the summer of 2006. She enjoys teaching new parents to safely and effectively use their slings.
Lois Shiow-Balster
Lois Shiow-Balster earned her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of California, Berkeley, her medical degree from the Ohio State University, and completed her pediatrics residency at Columbus Children’s Hospital/Ohio State University. From 2002-2005, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Ohio State University and taught medical students and residents in the outpatient clinics and in the newborn nursery wards. Her time working with newborns and their mothers inspired her to develop a breastfeeding curriculum for pediatric residents, and to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Since 2005, she has been in private pediatrics practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lois is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the International Lactation Consultants Association (ILCA), the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABFM), and is a Medical Associate member of the La Leche League International (LLLI). She has been using baby carriers since the birth of her first child, but became passionate about babywearing after the 2004 birth of her second child who was born prematurely and battled gastroesophageal reflux during infancy.
Born in Ohio, Lois was raised in the East Bay suburbs of Northern California and then lived in Columbus Ohio for 10 years, where she met her husband and where her two sons were born. Lois and her family currently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they still root for the Buckeyes.