Alissa McKown, BA

AMI Montessori Assistant to Infancy, A.R.T. Certified, Mother of Two

Alissa has her AMI Montessori Assistants to Infancy certificate (conception to 3) and has been working in and leading a toddler classroom and Parent-Infant classes for the past ten years. Alissa's a postpartum doula with Nearby Baby. Alissa also has A.R.T. childbirth preparation training, has extensive training in mindfulness, and lots of first hand parenting knowledge. Alissa is a mother of 2.

Ashley Howard, BA

Family Support Specialist, Child Health Partnership, Charlottesville, Mother of Four
Ashley Howard is a Charlottesville community member with a heart for serving others. She began volunteering for Charlottesville organizations that help tutor, mentor, and provide for under-resourced families when she was in middle school. Since then, she graduated from the University of Virginia in 2008 with a B.A. in psychology and a concentration in early childhood developmental risk.  After UVA, Ashley served as a College Guide with the AmeriCorps.  She then worked from home as an editor and virtual assistant before joining the City of Promise staff in 2016. Ashley and her husband have been married for over ten years, and have 4 children.

Julie Convisser, LCSW 

Julie Convisser is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional specializing in perinatal mental health. Using a trauma-informed approach, she works with parents through fertility, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, birth, special needs and medically vulnerable babies, loss of a baby, mood issues in pregnancy and postpartum. She is the mother by birth of two sons, ages 23 and 19, and by marriage, of two daughters, ages 18 and 16.

Torri Ayers, BS

QMHP, IMH-E, Senior Family Support Specialist for Child Health Partnership, Charlottesville, Mother of Three

Torri is the mother of 3 girls, glamma to 2 boys, and Godmother of 9 kids! She has a BS from Old Dominion University in Human Services with a minor in Psychology. She has worked for twelve years at Child Health Partnership as a Parent Educator, a Teen Outreach Coordinator, and also doing neighborhood outreach. Torri is a Certified Parents As Teachers Educator and a Licensed Qualified Mental Health Professional in Virginia.  She has also spent 18 years and counting working at a residential facility for adolescents.

Corey Lloyd 

Lesbian, Infertile, Montessori Teacher, Birth and Postpartum Doula

Corey (she/her/hers) was raised in Charlottesville. In 2002, she took her AMS Infant and Toddler training at The Center for Montessori Education under the guidance of Virginia Varga and spent the next decade and a half running a toddler classroom. Recently she has moved into administration as the Program Director at The Montessori School of Charlottesville after completing training as an Administrator, again through CME. 

Corey has also trained as a birth doula through The Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators and as a postpartum doula through Nearby Baby. She is a founding member of PANTO, an organization of Montessori infant and toddler specialists that aims to support teachers in self and community care as well as deepening their Montessori practice. Additionally, Corey is always happy to show off her excessive number of cats.

Kassandra Baltazar, MSW

Bilingual Therapist, The Women's Initiative, Charlottesville 

Kassandra received her Bachelors of Social Work from James Madison University and goes by “Kassy.” Kassy comes from a large Mexican family which has influenced her love and passion in advocating for the Latinx community. Kassy has a background in diversity education facilitator and uses her personal experiences to give back to the immigrant community as a first-generation US-born and college student. Kassy currently works as a bilingual Family Support Specialist at Child Health Partnership and is going to start pursuing her Master’s in Social Work at VCU starting Fall 2021. Kassy currently resides in Waynesboro with her husband and are fur parents to two pets: a cat named Gandalf the Grey, and a pup named Loki.

Erin Jones, BA

Birth and Postpartum Doula, Mother of Five

Erin is passionate about supporting families as they welcome their new babies into the world.  Erin completed this PPDoula Training in June 2018 and has worked as a postpartum doula and a member of the Nearby Baby.org advisory board since then. She speaks Spanish and her two-fold goal is to help Nearby Baby as it grows to offer even more postpartum doula services both to Spanish-speaking families and to families living in the rural counties surrounding Charlottesville. She is also beginning her career as a Birth Doula in Charlottesville and rurally.

Erin's worked with families for over a decade and has attended several birth and postpartum doula and other complementary trainings both in person and online since 2011. She's pursuing doula certification through Birth Arts International. Since fall 2018 she's run a monthly Moms with Babies Support Group in Gordonsville, Virginia. See her on FB: At Her Side Maternal Support Services. Erin practices yoga and gardening in her "spare time." She has 5 young children of her own - including a set of twins - and is homeschooling them. 

Ayla Adakli

Mother, World Traveler, Equality Promoter/Human Rights Advocate, 

Ayla studied Sociology at the university and double majored in political science. She graduated as a valedictorian in 2012. She's been a passionate social worker and human rights advocate with over 5+ years of experience in civil society organizations. Ayla seeks to support vulnerable communities: addressing mental health, social justice, immigrant rights and health equity. She has expertise in working with families with diversified cultural backgrounds. At Child Health Partnership, she provided family support to refugees from various countries like Congo, Rwanda, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and more. She's skilled in motivational interviewing, postpartum support, child development, fostering empowerment, and self-sufficiency. 

Valerie Goodman, RN, IBCLC, Mother of Two
Valerie has been supporting mothers and babies as both a registered nurse and a board certified lactation consultant for over 15 years in the Charlottesville community. She has worked with healthy mother baby dyads as well as infants with complicated medical conditions in the NICU. 

Hannah Mack-Boll

Family Support Specialist at Child Health Partnership, Charlottesville

Hannah received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Peacebuilding and Development from Eastern Mennonite University and for the past 5 years has been accompanying refugees and immigrants in various professional capacities. Hannah is passionate about creating a more just and accessible health care system to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families, especially those arriving in the United States seeking safety and support within our borders.  She currently works as a Family Support Specialist at Child Health Partnership and is pursuing her Master’s in Nursing at UVA. Hannah is fluent in Spanish, is a certified Parents as Teachers Educator, and completed the Postpartum Doula Training with the Nearby Baby Organization in 2019. When she’s not working or studying Hannah loves playing and planting on her farm with her husband and pup.  

Cynthia Jordan Fisher, BA, AMI Montessori Assistant to Infancy, DONA Postpartum Doula,  Mother of Two
Cynthia began studying maternal child health while observing births and newborns during her AMI Montessori Assistants to Infancy training in Italy in 1984.  She supported families from various countries in their homes as a Child Development Specialist in Hawaii, teaching newborn care, reading baby's cues, and assessing and strengthening the Mother baby bond.

In 1995 she began teaching parent-child classes to parents with newborns to age three through her program Babies By the Blue Ridge. While working as a DONA certified postpartum doula with Month10 Doulas over the past 10 years she especially enjoys helping families gain insights into newborns from a Montessori perspective. Cynthia also helps prepare homes to encompass a newborn or infant's needs. She has been working to develop the nonprofit Nearby Baby for the past 3 years and training women in postpartum doula care.