Sharon K. Evans, as Administrative Director of Via Vita Midwifery Foundation, brings over 30 years of experience in midwifery and the Natural Healing Arts, with over a decade focused on training midwives, including regulatory and administrative functions. She served on the Board of Directors of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) from 1999 to 2004. She was first hired to manage the Applications Department for NARM in 1997 and was later appointed Director of Applications for NARM in 1999. Sharon served on the State of Alaska Board of Certified Direct-Entry Midwives from 2001 to 2005, was Chair of the NARM Qualified Evaluator Committee from 1995 to 1997, and served as President of Midwives Association of Alaska, 1992–1993. She was owner of the Valley Natural Health Center School of Massage Therapy in Alaska from 1985 to 1988, as well as owner of the Peninsula Nutrition Center in Kenai, Alaska, from 1991 to 1994.

In addition to her midwifery skills, Sharon has worked in private practice as a massage therapist and as a teacher of various massage and natural healing techniques including colonic hydrotherapy since 1980. She is an authorized teacher of Creative Healing (a powerful healing massage technique) as well as a Reiki Master/Teacher. She completed the Center for American Birth Centers’ (CABC) accreditation process for the Mat-Su Midwifery Birth Center (MSM) in Wasilla, Alaska, and recently retired from her position there as Quality Assurance Analyst in administration, after having practiced midwifery for years at MSM (as a founding midwife).

Sharon is now retired from clinical practice but benefits Via Vita with her years of experience delivering babies outside of the hospital, being a preceptor, and mentoring midwives. Her passion continues to be the preservation of the apprenticeship model of midwifery education. As a preceptor, she instilled in her students a deep belief and trust in the birth process, as well as respect and love for the women and families served, honoring them, recognizing that they are truly the midwifery “teachers.” She currently resides in Alaska with her husband of over 40 years and is the mother of seven grown children and twenty-one grandchildren, many of whom were born into her hands.

Sharon has recently joined forces with the Global Midwifery Council (GMC). Sharon tells us, “I believe GMC is about to make a difference, and together we can create a better world with a kinder, more gentle beginning for mother/baby every day and in every part of the planet. Our children and grandchildren worldwide deserve that, don’t you think?”

Sharon is co-owner of (Morningstar Publishing Company), and is the co-author of the textbook Practical Skills Guide for Midwifery (2004) and now in the 5th edition, 2012, Starting an I.V. and Other Invasive Skills for the Birth Setting (2007), and the training DVD Basic Training for I.V. Therapy & Hypovolemic Shock Treatment (2007).