ABOUT
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About Families’ mission is to educate families on the emotional, mental, and physical experiences involved during pregnancy, postpartum, and early parenthood. About Families creates a village of support through classes, groups and events.
About Families was founded to foster relationships between families and knowledgeable professionals within our community in order to provide education and support to parents. About Families’ primary goal is to help Coachella Valley families find support in one another to raise happy, healthy families that flourish. Research shows that peer support is an essential component of helping treat mood disorders and helping to maintain a healthy mental state. About Families aims to create and provide a network of peers that have shared experiences and who can offer advice, resources and support for one another. To facilitate this process, About Families provides a variety of educational classes, clinics, programs and events for families living in the Coachella Valley. About Families’ programs take a holistic approach to family rearing and operate on the premise that one must take care of the mind, body and spirit of every member of the family. |
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YEARS IN OPERATION
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FAMILIES SERVED ANNUALLY
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FAMILIES SERVED SINCE INCEPTION
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Board, Staff & Educators
Joanna Boles Whitlow, CEO/Founder
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Joanna became a International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2012 and is a professional birth and postpartum doula and childbirth educator. In addition to being the CEO/Founder of About Families, Inc. she is the Director of For Moms and Babies. Joanna is also the local coordinator for Postpartum Support International. Joanna has been a doula trainer since 2012 and is currently training birth doulas to become certified About Families Birth Doulas using the Purely Yours Doula Curriculum . Most importantly, Joanna is a dedicated mother to 4 guys who she is over the moon in love with!
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HEIDI RICHERT CLERC ESQ., TREASURER
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Heidi was born and raised in the Coachella Valley. She is an attorney with the law firm Burt & Associates, which has offices in Palm Desert and Palm Springs. Heidi graduated from UC Davis with a BA in 2005 and received her JD from Northeastern University School of Law in 2009. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in California and primarily practices estate planning, probate, and trust law. Heidi is married to Tony Clerc and they are the proud parents of their daughter Margot.
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Krysten Gonda
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Krysten Gonda grew up in Michigan before moving to Southern California with her husband in 2007. After a brief stint in Nashville, TN they both decided that the Coachella Valley was home. She teaches high school in the Eastern Coachella Valley, and is Riverside County Teacher of the Year for 2021. Krysten discovered her love and passion for supporting families after the birth of her first child. She has three children whom she adores. She loves exploring the world and participating in new experiences with her family.
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MATHEW GONDA, CPA, CGMA
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Matthew is a principal with CPA Consulting Group in Nashville, Tennessee. He has worked with the About Families since its inception and has a passion for the Organization’s mission to educate families at critical points through early childhood. His professional work is focused on small and medium sized businesses and non-profit organizations, especially by providing assistance with transitions in growth phases, managing complex tax issues, and supplying outsourced CFO services. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has two young children.
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Serena LEITERMAN, secretary
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Serena Leiterman is a Real Estate Agent with the John Sloan Real Estate Group, a top-performing Keller Williams Realty team serving the Coachella Valley. Serena studied at Western Governors University, where she earned her Bachelors Degree in Business Administration.
Serena was awarded the Department of State Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship and spent a year fully immersed in German life and culture. It was through this program that Serena developed her love of education and appreciation for effective, concise communication. This experience lead to an opportunity managing the processing teams at two major mortgage brokers in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Subsequently, Serena took a marketing position with an international private security firm with over 25,000 employees and a primary focus on government clients, including the State of California, Department of Justice, and several United States Embassies. In 2010, Serena moved to the Coachella Valley and went to work with an agricultural company and soon oversaw all produce sales as the Sales and Marketing Manager. In 2014, Serena decided to leverage her sales, marketing, and business experience as a residential Real Estate Agent. She is passionate about serving her clients and one of her fundamental beliefs is that she is in the business of hopes, dreams, and financial goals - and in her chosen profession that manifests itself in homes. She fiercely advocates for her clients and works with them in a consultative capacity to ensure they are empowered with all necessary information and tools to make the best possible decisions for themselves and their families. |
DR. BRIAN MYERS
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Dr. Brian Myers holds degrees from the University of St. Thomas (BA) and the National College of Natural Medicine (ND) where he served as his class president for his final three years and received an award for leadership in his final year. Between college and medical school, he spent four years as a volunteer middle school teacher with the De La Salle Blackfeet Middle School on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Browning, MT. Passionate about working with kids, Dr. Myers proceeded to work as a pediatric nurse assistant at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, MN and then as part of a research group specializing in patient oriented neonatal neurology in St. Louis, MO while completing prerequisites for medical school. He has presented a research poster at the Pediatric Academic Society’s Annual Conference and has been published in the Journal of Pediatrics as well as the Annals of Neurology.
Dr. Myers enjoys working with a broad variety of patients – of all ages, shapes, and sizes. Throughout his educational experience his primary joys have included working with families and counseling them through their illnesses, and having a continuous relationship with these families. As a creative individual who wants variety in life, Dr. Myers plays soccer and tennis year-round, is learning to play the fiddle, loves to run, backpack, and cook, and has recently gotten back into swimming. |
Staff & Educators
maria lara, ece at mariposa parent-child workshop
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Maria Aban, ece at mariposa parent-child workshop
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Faith Chinnock, BS Zoology, Certified Life Coach and Positive Discipline Parent Educator
Debbie midcalf, MAEd
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Debbie Midcalf, MAEd, is a Positive Discipline Classroom Educator and Certified Parent Coach. She has worked in the field of early childhood education for thirty years and is currently employed as an adjunct instructor at College of the Desert and Brandman University. She coaches parents and educators on the principles of Positive Discipline strategies so that they can find joy and calm in the midst of chaos. Debbie believes that every child should be afforded the opportunity to a joyful early learning environment in which they feel secure, loved, and valued.
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Aisha hendricks, ba psychology, certified labor doula, childbirth & lactation educator, Student Midwife
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sandy lindblom, Newborn Care Specialist, Sleep Consultant & birth & postpartum doula
Esperanza Mendez
Christy Jo Hendricks, IBCLC, consultant, educator, and author
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Christy Jo Hendricks, IBCLC, is an international speaker, consultant, educator, and author. She has made a career of teaching lactation and childbirth to professionals and parents in ways that simplify learning and keep audiences engaged.
Her professional career has allowed her the privilege of serving families in the hospital setting, WIC Clinics, and private practice. She has provided the BFHI Training as well as the Peer Counseling Training. She has been awarded the US Presidential Volunteer Award, the Phyllis Klaus Founder's Award for her contribution to the Mother/Baby bond and the Above and Beyond Award for innovative projects that exemplify the mission of Public Health. She has also been named Lactation Educator Faculty of the Year from CAPPA and has earned their Visionary Award. Christy Jo created an award-winning IBCLC prep curriculum. Her course has been used to train hundreds of students to become Lactation Consultants. In 2019, she founded Lactation University in order to serve aspiring lactation consultants on their journey to become IBCLCs. She resides with her family in California where she continues to serve her community as a Private Practice Lactation Consultant, Health Educator for the Department of Public Health and faculty for the CAPPA CLE© and Childbirth Educator Programs. |
