Eileen Ehudin Beard CNM, MS, FNP, FACNM

Eileen Ehudin Beard graduated from the nurse-midwifery program at SUNY Downstate in 1977. She continued her education by completing SUNY Stony Brook's family nurse practitioner program (FNP) in 2003 where she received the Overall Excellence in Family Health Award. In 1980, Ms. Beard was the Coordinator of Nurse-Midwifery Services at Baltimore City Hospital where she opened the first birth room. In 1981, she co-founded and directed the Baltimore Birth Center, the first freestanding birth center in Maryland, and co-founded Special Beginnings Birth and Women's Center in 1997. Ms. Beard works as an FNP and is also faculty for the University of Phoenix. She is currently the Senior Practice Advisor at ACNM. Ms. Beard's pioneering work in birth centers extended beyond the clinical into the realm of birth center accreditation, infrastructure development, and research. Throughout her career, she has provided care for women and men with disabilities. She was a Governor appointee for the Maryland State Commission on Infant Mortality. She has also been a preceptor for students from almost every midwifery education program and was relied upon as one of the few preceptors never to decline a student. Ms. Beard is currently the project manager for the ACNM and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Smoking Cessation Campaign a member of the ACNM Diversification/Inclusion Task Force, ACNM Ultrasound Task Force, and ACNM and CDC Influenza Project; and liaison to the ACNM Midwives of Color and Ethics Committees. She is also a member of the ACNM Program Committee and the key midwifery liaison for exhibitors. Ms. Beard's contributions have secured new exhibitors and thousands of dollars in revenue for ACNM Annual Meetings.