2026 Maternal Child Health Conference Speaker Bios

Rosanne Gephart, MSN, CNM, NP, PHN, IBCLC
President, Better Beginnings

Rosanne Gephart holds a master’s degree in Nursing from UCSF and a Midwifery Certificate from UCSD. She has worked as a labor and delivery nurse, a certified nurse-midwife, a nurse practitioner, and a board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC). Rosanne is best known for founding With Child Breastfeeding Support Services, the Women's Health and Birth Center, and the nonprofit Better Beginnings. With five decades of experience, she has dedicated her career to supporting mothers and babies through education, safe and sensitive births in the location of their choice, and to improving the breastfeeding and postpartum experience of all families. She has served in leadership roles for national organizations and has participated in the training of doctors, midwives, nurses, doulas and lactation professionals.

Amy Popplewell, FNP

Amy Popplewell is a Family Nurse Practitioner who practices full scope primary care including perinatal care at Santa Rosa Community Health, a local FQHC. She is also a board member and the Vice President of Better Beginnings, a local birth and breastfeeding nonprofit. She started her journey in healthcare as a birth doula and lactation specialist, attending her first birth in 2010. Working in community health with underserved populations is at the core of her being as a Nurse Practitioner. All of her experience in healthcare has been with federally qualified health centers and look-alikes. She's been volunteering and advocating since she was a child. She started out advocating for wheelchair accessible spaces as a child, then volunteered for the St. Anthony’s Foundation with the unhoused population in San Francisco as a teen, and while she was working in business in her 20s, she started volunteering in the birth and breastfeeding community in Sonoma County with Better Beginnings. She slowly but surely became a Family Nurse Practitioner so she could both advocate for patients and directly work with them on their health and wellness goals.

Mary Baracco APRN, CNM, WHNP, PHN

Mary has spent her career supporting growing families. She’s caught over a 1000 babies and spent over 20 years in ECE. She enjoyed working in Public Health as the MCAH Coordinator in both Napa and Trinity Counties. This included working closely with families experiencing perinatal mood disorders as well as lactation challenges. Mary also has the honor of teaching and mentoring the next generation of nurses by teaching in Health Occupations at Napa Valley College. For over 35 years she has provided early lactation support to mothers having a multitude of experiences. Aside from the vast array of lactation challenges presented to her over this time she brings personal shared experiences as well. In the past Mary held certification as an IBCLC for 20 years and as a CLS for 10 years. 

Laura Faye Gephart, MD

Focusing on a medical specialty traditionally known as urogynecology or female urology, Dr. Gephart specializes in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (FPMRS). Dr. Gephart’s medical degree is from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, California, where she also earned a Master of Business Administration degree in health care administration. She completed her residency at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. During her FPMRS fellowship at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, Dr. Gephart worked with world-class pelvic surgeons.
She is a dedicated and comprehensive clinician and a skilled surgeon comfortable with minimally invasive and vaginal surgeries for a variety of indications. She also adeptly manages pelvic floor disorders with non-surgical management when appropriate and preferred by her patients. She is a passionate advocate for patients and her profession through her work with the American Medical Association, specialty organizations, and state and county medical societies. Dr. Gephart is an active researcher and has published numerous articles in medical publications. She has presented seminars and programs at conferences around the country. She speaks English and Spanish.

Marci Silverberg, MPT, PPCES

Marci Silverberg, MPT, is a licensed pelvic health physical therapist and the owner of Pelvic Path Physical TherapyTM in San Rafael, California. With over 24 years of experience, Marci specializes in pelvic floor rehabilitation for both women and men, supporting clients across all stages of life — from pregnancy and postpartum recovery to perimenopause, prostate health, and beyond.
At Pelvic Path Physical TherapyTM, the entire team shares a whole-person, root-cause philosophy. Their therapists treat the full body — understanding that the pelvic floor does not exist in isolation, but as part of an interconnected system that includes the musculoskeletal, neurological, and mind-body connection. Every client receives individualized care tailored to their unique history, presentation, and goals.
Marci believes that pelvic health is not a luxury — it's a fundamental part of whole-person care. Based in Marin County, she and her team work closely with local OBs, midwives, doulas, and women's health providers to ensure that pelvic PT is part of the conversation from the very beginning — and throughout every stage of life.

Whitney Pinger, CNM MSN FACNM

Whitney Pinger has been training and serving as a midwife for nearly 50 years, during which she has been a champion of physiologic, uninterrupted birth in academic medical centers. Her practice, WISDOM Midwifery, is rooted in The Midwifery Pearls, the evidence-based strategies that optimize physiologic birth, and The Pinger Patterns of Labor, her innovative labor management paradigm that promotes communication and collaboration. VBAC and vaginal breech birth have always been part of her clinical practice, and while an Associate Clinical Professor at the George Washington University, her practice marked a VBAC success rate of 92% and a vaginal breech birth success rate of 77%.  She advocates for a collaborative model of care where midwives and doctors are seen as equal and expert partners with different skill sets who are willing partners to optimize birth outcomes. A California native, Whitney is deeply committed to “Midwifing the Breech” by educating her physician, midwife, neonatal, and nursing colleagues about the scientific evidence, as well as the art and heart, of physiologic breech birth.