Our Team
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our outstanding volunteer board of directors…
Azlina T. BA
Board Chair
As a visible minority, she is acutely aware of race dynamics, discrimination, and marginalization in different fields (including healthcare). As such, she has developed an approach that is person-based and trauma-informed, whilst being rooted in an evidence-based perspective. Her first- and second-hand experiences and continually growing knowledge of reproductive injustice in the birth industrial complex, especially amongst BIPOC populations, is what drives her work as Chair.
When she is not busy with work or studies, chances are that you’ll find her soaking up some sunshine somewhere outdoors or whipping up meals for her loved ones.
Allison Runnalls
Board Co-Chair
Allison has been on the board of the Birthing Families Foundation since March of 2021 and is currently the Co-Chair. She moved from the mainland to the island in 2020.
A birth doula since 1996, she has worked with thousands of birthing families in her private practice as well as with community based programs such as S.M.I.L.E., CBP, and YPP throughout her career. Allison continues to be passionate about supporting vulnerable families throughout their birthing journey. She also mentors other doulas across the island and in the Lower Mainland.
Allison is a mother of four and enjoys spending time with her grand-doggies, dying her hair multiple colours and wearing mismatched socks.
Ashley Jardie
Community Outreach Coordinator
As a cis-hetero white woman living uninvited on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, she firmly believes in using her privilege to redistribute wealth and bring safe community support to folks who need it—and that means taking care of community support workers in these communities too
OUR STAFF
Our amazing staff …
Laura Interlandi
Education Coordinator
Laura Interlandi is a postpartum-centric full-spectrum doula, and mother of 3 living on unceded Quw’utsun and Malahat land. She comes from a lineage of educators and uses her creative background, and desire for full-scale systems change, to re-imagine emergent learning experiences.
Laura became a doula in New York City where she had the opportunity to learn from powerful and diverse teachers and leaders at the front lines of reproductive justice movements; she hears the voices of her mentors in her mind and strives to honour them through her work.
When she isn’t working in the community through Birthing Families Foundation, or in her private doula practice, Laura can be found writing and collaborating with her creative soulmate Erica Livingston through their shared platform and business, Birdsong Brooklyn. Laura loves to make people laugh in uncomfortable situations, and her favorite place to be is in her garden belting out 90’s diva classics while pretending like she knows what she’s doing with plants.
Pamela Shakespeare, BA
Administrative Coordinator
Pamela has a BA in Global Studies from Vancouver Island University which gave her an in depth global perspective of the inequities our society is facing. This lead her to social justice movements such as indigenous rights, occupy Wall Street, refugee crisis’ and then to birth justice, which she became more aware of when she was pregnant with her second child six years ago.
Now she is passionate about creating a healthy, inclusive, equitable world, which begins with healthy beginnings and where she came to co-found Birthing Families Foundation. She also loves growing food and providing nourishing meals for her family, being out in nature hiking, surfing, scuba diving and exploring.
Sadie Hodswood (she/her) BA VISA UBC
Executive Director
She is a co-founder of the Birthing Families Foundation (BFF) which is a project she envisioned when she first became a doula, 7 years ago. At that time Sadie recognized that the birth world had many inequities and she felt propelled to make doula support available to all families, not just the privileged few. Always keen to learn, in 2017 she travelled to Brooklyn NY to take part in another doula training with Ancient Song Doula services, this training helped to anchor her dedication to create change back at home. Sadie is passionate about systems change and reproductive justice and she is driven to learn new ways to show up in this world.
When not working with BFF, and of course mothering 24/7, you will find her getting creative in her studio or out of doors drinking in nature.
OUR VOLUNTEERS
Our amazing volunteers…
Laiken Pratt (she/her they/them)
Laiken (she/her or they/them) is a white settler person living on unceded Lkwungen territory. They are a postpartum doula and general volunteer with BFF.
Besides being a doula, they also work in food justice and harm reduction in the community. They enjoy the rest of their time by being horizontal, laughing with friends, and learning a thing or two.
Renee Ahmadi
She has been teaching a wide variety of community-based yoga classes and workshops since 2011 in Victoria B.C, and in 2014 she completed the DONA birth doula training. Renee is passionate about supporting families wherever they are at, without judgment or agenda. With all her work she focuses on finding adaptive solutions that ensure her body can maximize mobility, safety and comfort.
Candice May
Candice has shifted her doula work into more postpartum centered care with a focus on creating community and support networks with the families she serves. In her (very limited) spare time she loves expressing her creativity with art, crafts and small interior design projects.
Kylie Spring
She spends her free time creating art, singing, trying to successfully grow a garden, all while unpacking childhood trauma and rewriting her narrative.
