Our Team

Ashley McIntosh, CPM, LM, President and Founder

Ashley is a dedicated midwife with over five years of experience providing holistic, family-centered care in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She specializes in trauma-informed care, reproductive health, and guiding families through personalized, culturally respectful support.

Before stepping into midwifery, Ashley worked as an herbalist and horticulturist, deepening her knowledge of plant-based medicine, nutrition, and the healing connections between people and the natural world. This foundation continues to shape her approach to care, blending evidence-based practice with lived experiences to support the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. Through her work, Ashley is committed to empowering families, changing the culture around medicalized birth and advancing access to compassionate, community-centered maternal care.

Cressida Fletcher, Secretary

Cressida Fletcher graduated from Berkelee school of music in Boston, Massachusetts in 2020. Cressida works in the music industry as a digital marketer and volunteers her free time to the Assistance League of LA. She is passionate about equity in healthcare for all families and children of color. Cressida brings a youthful perspective to the Board here at Families First CA.

Lia Berquist, AAHCC, CD, SpBCPE, Treasurer

Lia has her bachelor of science in human environmental sciences from the University of Arkansas. She is a certified doula, Evidence Based Birth® Instructor, Spinning Babies Certified Parent Educator, and affiliated teacher of The Bradley Method®. Lia has been teaching childbirth education in Long Beach since 2011 and has been a doula since 2012 and has served over 2000 families in Southern California and all over the world. Lia serves on the Board of Directors of BreastfeedLA, a Los Angeles based non profit promoting lactation equity. She has two daughters: One born in a hospital and one born at home. Ever since watching her own mother give birth to her sisters in the early 1980's, Lia has been passionate about physiological childbirth and advocacy during pregnancy and labor. After finding out that the maternal mortality rate for Black women is 3-12 times higher (depending on region of the US) than that of their white counterparts, Lia has been offering free childbirth education and scholarships to Black pregnant people as a small way to combat systemic, institutionalized racism in the US.

Kimberly Clark, Board Member at Large

Kimberly Clark is a Los Angeles-based artist, entrepreneur, mother, homeschool educator, andadvocate for women, children, and families. Her work and life are rooted in creativity, community,wellness, empowerment, and creating spaces where families feel supported, heard, and valued. Kimberly earned her Bachelor’s degree in General Business from the University of Alabama, with aminor in Spanish. She is currently pursuing a degree in Nutrition at the University of Alabama, reflecting her passion for holistic nutrition and a whole-person approach to health and wellness. She is particularly interested in how nutrition, education, environment, and community support can contribute to healthier families and stronger communities. Kimberly’s commitment to maternal and family advocacy is deeply personal. In 2020, she welcomed her child through an out-of-hospital birth after completing a 12-week Bradley Method childbirth education course with Lia Berquist. That experience strengthened her commitment to informed birth choices, maternal wellness, and empowering women to feel educated and confident throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. After birth, Kimberly breastfed her child and became a passionate advocate for breastfeeding and greater support for mothers who choose to breastfeed. As a mother and homeschool educator, Kimberly understands firsthand the importance of accessible resources, strong family support systems, and opportunities for children to learn, grow, and thrive. She brings a unique combination of business experience, creative leadership, education, advocacy, and lived experience as a mother to her work with families.

Outside of her professional and advocacy work, Kimberly has a deep love for sports, nature, and active living. She believes that opportunities for children and families to connect through movement, recreation, creativity, and the outdoors are an important part of building healthy, confident, and connected communities. As a board member of Families First California, Kimberly is passionate about using her voice, education, professional experience, and personal perspective to strengthen support for families. She hopes to help create a community where parents have access to meaningful resources, education, encouragement, and the freedom to make informed decisions for themselves and their children.

Dr. Nuriya D. Robinson, MD, OB-GYN, Board Member at Large

Dr. Nuriya D. Robinson earned her undergraduate degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University and her medical degree from Tufts University. She completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco with subsequent fellowship training in Global Women’s Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Following fellowship, Dr. Robinson remained in the department at UIC as an Assistant Professor until relocating to Los Angeles in 2016 when she joined the department of OB/GYN at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. For more than a decade, Dr. Robinson worked both clinically and in research capacities throughout sub-Saharan Africa. During that time, she cultivated a particular interest in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality through the reduction of postpartum hemorrhage and the increase in uptake of long-acting methods of contraception. She has presented her research on national and international platforms and completed a K-award through the National Institutes of Health to pursue interdisciplinary women’s health research in sub-Saharan Africa. She collaborated with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and JHPIEGO on the development of a Complicated Labor Module intended to decrease maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in the developing world, which launched in 2022. Dr.

Robinson currently serves the OB/GYN department at Harbor as Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Quality, and is the Section Chief for Birth Equity. She is an Associate Professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Robinson has received numerous teaching awards, been honored to lecture on the importance of mitigating racial disparities in birth outcomes to achieve birth equity across the country and is a member of ACOG’s Committee on Advancing Equity in Obstetric and Gynecologic Health Care. In Los Angeles County, she has the unique opportunity of domestically aligning her decade-long international work as the Medical Director for MAMAs- an innovative program throughout the County’s safety net which augments traditional prenatal care with patient-centered, community-based psychosocial support for those with unmet social needs and at highest risk of preterm birth and other adverse perinatal outcomes.

Shanitatha Hankins, Community Outreach

Shanitatha is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 16 years of experience supporting individuals through life’s challenges. She provides a compassionate, solution-focused approach to therapy, helping adults (18+) navigate anxiety, depression, grief and loss, maternal mental health concerns, postpartum changes, self-esteem struggles, boundary setting, life transitions, Veteran issues, and the lasting impact of trauma. "I believe healing begins in a safe, non-judgmental space where you can share your story openly and feel truly heard. In our work together, we’ll focus on practical tools, coping strategies, and new ways of thinking that help you regain clarity, confidence, and a sense of control over your life. My professional journey has taken me through diverse settings and communities, which has given me a deep respect for the unique challenges people face across cultures, identities, and life stages. I take a holistic, trauma-informed, and solution-focused approach—tailoring therapy to meet you where you are and to guide you toward where you want to be."