The current board of directors for Babywearing International, Inc.

Ann Marie Rodgerson, President

Ann Marie graduated from Elon University with a BA in English and Theatre Arts.  She earned her Master's in Education from Marymount University while working as a secondary English and theatre teacher. Ann Marie left professional teaching for the informal classroom of parenting.

Susan Chanse, Vice President

Susan earned her B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Women's Studies, along with a Certificate in Gerontology from the University of Tampa. During graduate school at Arizona State University, she studied Sociology, Statistics, and Education before pursuing her Graduate Certificate in Gerontology. After her first son was born, her family bought a business specializing in breastfeeding products and services, baby carriers, and other products related to natural family living. After closing her business, she continued to work in the baby retail industry, transferring her skills to a cloth diapering and natural parenting store which also sold baby carriers.

Susan has taught babywearing classes to parents and caregivers in her community over the past 8 years and has been a member of her local babywearing group since it was founded in 2004.  In 2011, she became a VBE and organized her local babywearing group in Phoenix to become an affiliate of Babywearing International.  She has worn all four of her sons since birth, and is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and passion of babywearing with others.  Susan, her husband, and their four boys reside in the desert of Arizona. She is currently a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her sons, leads Babywearing International of Phoenix and the Phoenix Earth Scouts, and contributes to blogs related to babywearing, homeschooling, and cloth diapering.

Kimber Tower, Secretary

Kimber Tower began her babywearing journey in 2002, when her first child was born. After the birth of her second child, Kimber decided to research babywearing more and found a vibrant and knowledgable community. From then on, Kimber has made it her mission to educate those around her of the benefits of babywearing. She started the first babywearing group in the state of Idaho and began teaching classes to church groups, parenting groups and individuals around the state who wanted to learn more about babywearing.

In 2005, she designed the Ball Baby Overall mei tai and started a business with the help of her sister. Kimber sold her business in 2009 in order to focus on babywearing advocacy. Her pattern is still available online for anyone to use for a personal carrier. Kimber was an instructor at the 2008 International Babywearing Conference in Chicago. She organized the 2010 International Babywearing Conference in Rigby Idaho, which was held in June of 2010.

Heather Felker, Treasurer

Heather Felker earned her formal education in Human Services and Computer Information Systems, and holds a certificate in Advanced Family Studies. In 2009 she attended the Babywearing Institute to become a Certified Babywearing Educator. In 2010 she returned to the school and is now licensed to teach their curriculum.

She currently runs a small babywearing business, providing sales and personal consultations, and teaches classes to members of the medical and social services communities. She is also a La Leche League Leader and is studying to become a post partum doula. Also in 2009, she took over leadership of her local babywearing group from its founder, and in 2011 began the process of converting it to a chapter of BWI.

 Heather is the mother of 8 children, spanning twenty five years from oldest to youngest. Each child was breastfed and parented in arms, cementing her passion for babywearing as an essential parenting tool. She and her husband live in Delaware, where they homeschool their children and are active in their local community.

Christie Chapman

Christie Everett Chapman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Eastern Nazarene College, and a Master of Social Science Administration from Case Western Reserve University. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker in the State of New York and works as a mental health counselor with young children. She specializes in family therapy,with an emphasis on maternal-infant attachment and its impact on the socioemotional wellbeing of infants and children. Everett Chapman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Easter

As a full-time nursing, working mother, Christie has found babywearing to be an indispensable tool for the promotion of healthy attachment. She is passionate about helping other families feel confident babywearing so they too can utilize this invaluable tool.

Karen Hoppis

Karen earned a B.A. in Elementary Education, an M.A. in Educational Technology, and was a classroom teacher for six years before having her first child in 2005. She created and ran Ventura Babywearers for a year before she resigned as a teacher and moved with her family out of state so she could stay at home full time. 

Karen created the Eesti ring sling shoulder and enjoyed being in the baby wearing business for two full years as a manufacturer and distributor. She currently teaches baby wearing classes at a local cloth diaper boutique and holds meetings in her home and at local parks for the Denver Babywearers. Karen also enjoys working for other baby wearing companies helping design their carrier patterns and doing custom sewing. She is also an avid DIYer. 

Karen, her husband, and three children live near Boulder, Colorado. You can find Karen most days on Facebook chatting about baby wearing, cloth diapering, or attachment parenting.

Jessica Tolliver

Jessica Tolliver a mother of two (2.5 years & 1 year) and an avid babywearer.  Jessica’s professional background is in sales and global logistics.  But her passion was not fully realized until she had children.

She first became interested in babywearing after the cesarean birth of her first child.  Finding that keeping the baby close through babywearing, she was able to fend of PPD, successfully breastfeed and most importantly bond with her baby.  Following her C-section, she became actively involved with ICAN and other charitable organizations but noticed that there was a void in the Louisville area for support with babywearing.

After the birth of her second child via VBAC, she became more actively involved in babywearing education, eventually being elected to the BOD of BWI.  During International Babywearing Week 2011 she co-founded Kentuckiana Babywearers, a Louisville KY based organization dedicated to bringing babywearing back to Louisville and southern Indiana by providing free classes, support and education. 

Heidi Donnelly graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in the spring of 1998 with a B.A in English and a teaching certificate.  She spent the next five years teaching in both private and public schools, four of them in Kalama, Washington where she taught high school Language Arts and also supervised the high school newspaper and yearbook.  
 
In the spring of 2003, she left the classroom at the end of the school year.  Heidi and her husband were expecting their first baby in the fall and it was important to them both that she be the main caregiver of their child.  That fall she also was introduced to babywearing at a la Leche League meeting.  The concept was intriguing and made complete sense to her, but she didn't have the support she needed to make it work.
 
In 2005, with the arrival of their second child, Heidi dived head first into babywearing, determined to figure it out this time.  She also found the support, both locally and in the cyber world, that she needed to make it work for her and meet her needs.  She even went a step further to designed and begin selling her own mei tai, the Silly Goose Baby adjustable base mei tai.  Locally she was involved in the babywearing group in Vancouver, Washington.  
 
In 2009, shortly after the birth of their third child, Heidi and her husband, Brent, moved their family to Ashton, Idaho.  Heidi soon found herself even deeper in the babywearing scene as she was quickly roped in by Kimber Tower, designer of the Ball Baby mei tai and local leader in SE Idaho, to help plan the 3rd bi-Annual International Babywearing Conference to take place in June of 2010 in Rigby, Idaho.  
 
Over the next year Heidi decided to close her babywearing business and stop making mei tais.  She also was pregnant with baby number four and deep in the planning of the conference.  All three of those experiences were vital to Heidi's path towards babywearing advocacy.
 
Towards the end of 2011, Heidi's husband took a job transfer to N. Idaho and they moved their family north to the Coeur d'Alene area.  She is working together with a local business and a local Spokane mom to establish a strong babywearing advocacy network in the Inland Northwest.  
 
Heidi is excited to bring her skill, experience and enthusiam to the BWI board of directors, having met many of them at the 2010 conference and having known many more of them from her cyber support group in her early babywearing days.  She has intiated the bi-monthly BWI newsletter, Carry On! and plans to streamline the newsletter and the BWI blog.

Medical Advisory Panel: