Executive Director, Midwifery Education Accreditation Council

Jo Anne Myers-Ciecko, MPH has been a leader of efforts to advance direct-entry (homebirth) midwifery and the profession of Certified Professional Midwives for nearly 30 years. Her work in the field began in 1981 with a period as administrative assistant to distinguished childbirth educator, author and publisher Penny Simkin. In 1983, Myers-Ciecko began nearly two decades of service as executive director for the Seattle Midwifery School, a position from which she became a driving force for self-regulatory and regulatory advances for midwives in the state of Washington and nationally. She began service with the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), the US Department of Education-recognized accrediting agency for the field, in 2006 and was chosen as its executive director in 2008, a position which she holds today.  Myers-Ciecko has spoken and consulted widely, including service on the Task Force on Emerging Professions and the Task Force on Midwifery at the Center for Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco. She completed her Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington in 1998.