I grew up as the fifth child in a family of fourteen, having always been around babies and loving them. In 2010 I caught my niece at my sister’s home birth in Virginia, which led me down the path of becoming a midwife. I have a bachelor’s degree in midwifery from the Midwives College of Utah and moved to Cincinnati with a passion for improving Ohio’s maternity care. I’m the founder of United Birth Coalition, a grassroots organization to improve birthing outcomes for families across the nation. Additionally, I formed the Safer Birth Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to improve access to respectful maternity care by building midwifery centers. Before moving to Ohio, I lived in San Antonio Texas for two years working at a birth center and with home birth midwives. I earned my CPM certification in 2014, and have been practicing as a home birth midwife ever since. In 2017 I became certified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Most recently I’ve been involved with legislative efforts to increase access to midwives and serve on the Kentucky Midwives Advisory Council, creating the first regulations for CPMs in Kentucky. In August 2020 I became the first Certified Professional Midwife to become licensed in the state of Kentucky and in January 2024 became licensed in Indiana.  My practice style is influenced by my personal health journey of healing from digestive issues, PCOS, infertility, and hypothyroidism. My healing came through self-care and by facing my trauma. Recently I’ve become a Tul’ix therapist. I’m excited to offer and teach this traditional Mayan healing modality which focuses on self-care and abdominal massage.

She is currently serving as adjunct faculty at the Midwives College of Utah and previously served as faculty in Ethiopia, where she taught midwifery and contributed to curriculum development and student mentorship. Across both contexts, she has designed and taught clinically rigorous, culturally grounded coursework and developed evidence-based teaching tools, childbirth education materials, and accessible learning resources that strengthen competency-based midwifery education and the national midwifery workforce pipeline.

Tigist is pursuing her doctoral study in the Doctor of Midwifery program at Thomas Jefferson University, where her scholarship focuses on studying and improving the quality of midwifery education in the United States. With combined experience in clinical practice, national advocacy, curriculum design, and educational leadership, she brings a strategic, equity-driven perspective to advancing midwifery education.