Geneva Woods Birth Center Providers and Staff
No matter where you are in your journey, we’ll meet you there.
Our Providers
Barbara Norton, CNM, WHCNP, MSN, CNS
Birth Center Founder, Midwife
Barbara has been a nurse since 1978, a nurse practitioner since 1985, and a midwife since 1994. She is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of California, San Francisco. Barbara worked as a Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner for 9 years (1985-1994) before becoming a midwife. During that time she worked in a variety of settings honing her skills in contraceptive management, menopausal counseling, and irregular menstrual bleeding. She opened her own private midwifery and women's health care practice in Anchorage in 1995, but left that practice in 2015 to start a smaller, more cozy and intimate practice. She was a recipient of the 2016 YWCA Women of Achievement award and in 2017 she won the Chamber of Commerce's Athena Award for her business acumen and for mentoring other women to be successful in business. Barbara has been affiliated with the University of Alaska, teaching nurse practitioner students, and has served on many community boards, including the Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives and the Alaska Women’s Gold Nugget Triathlon. She currently serves on the American Association of Birth Center board as Secretary. She has been married to Bradley Cruz since 1979 and has two daughters who both live in Anchorage, and three grandchildren, all born at Geneva Woods Birth Center Barbara enjoys traveling, hiking, trail running, triathlon, reading, cooking, and spending time with her kids and their families.
Sarah Schultz, APRN, CNM
Midwife
Sarah joined our practice in summer of 2022. She was previously a CNM in an OB-owned practice in Lansing, Michigan, attending hospital births. She graduated with her MSN/CNM degree from Frontier Nursing University in 2018. She earned her BSN/RN at Baker College, and worked as an RN for several years before attending graduate school. While working as an RN in the Labor and Delivery Unit of the hospital, she grew weary of watching the ways in which highly medicalized birth – even for low-risk women – resulted in dissatisfying and sometimes even downright traumatic birth experiences for patients, and she knew she wanted to be part of a different model of maternity care. She is currently working on her Doctor of Nursing Practice through Frontier Nursing University, and is thoroughly enjoying discovering Alaska and all the different outdoor activities and communities here.
Kristina Griffith, CNM
Midwife
Kristina, aka "Krissy," joined our team in fall of 2023. She and her family moved up here with the military over a decade ago, and put down roots in Alaska. Prior to becoming a CNM, Krissy has been an RN since 2011. She's worked for an outpatient OB/GYN physician, as well as in the NICU at Prov, ASD as a school nurse, and at ANMC as a high-risk OB nurse manager. While her clinical training was almost entirely hospital-based, she has enjoyed being in the birth center setting and helping women and families achieve their goals of un-medicated, physiologic birth. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family, fishing in Kenai, and getting outdoors with the family dog. She has two daughters.
Jenna Falter, CNM
Midwife
Jenna joined our practice in August of 2022, after moving up to Alaska with her family from Michigan. Born in Minnesota, Jenna graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, met her husband, and moved to MI to pursue a nursing career. While doing research for her own labor and birth, she discovered the ‘Midwifery Model of Care,’ ultimately leading her to pursue a Masters in Midwifery. She received her MSN/CNM from Frontier Nursing University in 2022, during which time she also worked as a Triage RN in an OB/midwifery practice in Lansing, MI. Her clinical rotation concluded with her own infant son being her last “catch” of the preceptorship, which was supervised by Sarah Schultz, CNM. She loves taking care of women, girls and people through menarche, pregnancy, birth and menopause, and is passionate about empowering clients by helping align their understanding of self with evidence-based clinical knowledge. She thoroughly enjoys connecting with clients and families, and strives to provide individualized wellness. Outside of the clinic, Jenna is enjoying exploring the many outdoor Alaskan activities and opportunities with her husband and three children.
Maria Wade, PT, COMT
Physical Therapist
Maria Wade earned her Physical Therapy Degree from the University of Chile in 2005. Following her clinical degree, she has pursued training in treating patients with neurological conditions through the Neuro-developmental Treatment (NDT) association. She moved to Alaska in 2008 and completed an advanced orthopedic certification through the International Academy of Orthopedic Medicine (IAOM- US) in Orthopedic Manual Therapy in Spine and Lower Extremities. Her interest in pelvic health developed after the birth of her first daughter, over 12 years ago. She has since completed extensive continued education in the field, alongside close to a decade of professional experience. She can treat all pregnancy and postpartum issues, including musculoskeletal pain, diastasis recti, urinary incontinence, pelvic floor dysfunction, and pelvic organ prolapse. She sees both women and men for conditions such as bowel dysfunction, outlet constipation, urinary or fecal incontinence, and pudendal neuralgia. She is highly skilled at treating conditions that women can experience across the lifespan that impact their sexual health, such as dyspareunia (pain with intercourse), vaginismus, and some genitourinary symptoms of menopause. Outside of the clinic she loves spending time with her husband and 3 children.
Joanna Austin, PT, DPT, OCS
Physical Therapist
Joanna Austin graduated with her doctorate in physical therapy from Regis University in 2011 and received her Orthopedic Certified Specialist certification in 2015. While her early career was spent in ortho, she has spent the last 9 years pursuing advanced training in pregnancy, postpartum, and pelvic health, and seeing clients for the problems that can arise in these areas. She is a Certified Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, and enjoys helping clients exercise safely in pregnancy and after childbirth. She also finds it very rewarding to help her clients resolve conditions such as diastasis, pelvic organ prolapse, pain in SI joints, back and pelvic girdle pain, dyspareunia, and urinary incontinence. When she's not providing PT care she enjoys spending time with family, reading, and getting outdoors. She has two children.
Jasmine Porter, LPC
Therapist
Jasmine Porter has worked and lived in Alaska for 15 years. She has worked in the field of mental/behavior health throughout this time including at residential treatment centers, outpatient settings, and in the private sector. She enjoys working with women and couples, supporting in the navigation through life's journey, and has focused her work on womens' issues, sexual trauma/abuse, attachment, family systems, parenting, and LGTBQIA+ issues. She will soon receive her PMH-C certification, and has joined the team at The Nest to focus on reproductive mental health care for women, particularly perinatal mood disorders. Jasmine uses a flexible and dynamic approach when working to meet each individual need of a client including treatment approaches such as EMDR, DBT, CBT, Filial therapy, etc. When not working, Jasmine enjoys playing with her twins, nordic skiing, camping, gardening, and travelling to find the sunshine during Alaskan winters.
Jennifer Allison, LPN, IBCLC
International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant
Jennifer Allison is our lactation consultant, and is also a childbirth class instructor, teaching our “Fourth Trimester” class, which focuses largely on breastfeeding but touches on many other postpartum and newborn topics, as well as her own “Hypnosis for Birthwork” curriculum for natural childbirth preparation. She is passionate about breastfeeding (as well as 'chestfeeding') and loves to help families navigate their infant-feeding journey. When not in a pandemic, she looks forward to resuming home visits for lactation, between Anchorage and the Valley. She has 4 children and lives in Eagle River.
Kiana Holland
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
Kiana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Dietetics & Nutrition from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Kiana also has her personal trainer certification through NASM. As a lifelong Alaskan, Kiana is passionate about providing her community with nutrition counseling and education for a variety of conditions: diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, cardiovascular health, weight loss/gain/maintenance, prenatal nutrition, among many others. She has experience working in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and is looking forward to providing information on a whole-health approach to nutrition for Geneva Woods’ clients. Outside of work, Kiana enjoys hiking, xc skiing, cooking, participating in local recreational league sports, and singing in the Anchorage Concert Chorus. She and her husband just welcomed their first baby December, 2023. In 2024 she looks forward to working on her CLC and shadowing Jen, our IBCLC, with the goal of eventually becoming an IBCLC and helping moms and families nourish both themselves and their little ones.
Our Staff
Claire Norton-Cruz, MBA
Business Manager
Claire began working for her mother, Barbara, in the early days of her practice, while still in high school in the mid-‘90’s, when the practice was called “Barbara Norton, CNM,” located in the Geneva Woods Medical Center, sometimes for pay and sometimes while grounded. After attending undergraduate and graduate school at Mills College in Oakland, CA – with one year spent in France for study-abroad – she returned home to Alaska with a BA in Economics & French Studies, and a Masters in Business Administration. Claire formally joined Barbara’s practice as office manager in 2004 when it had become “Midwifery & Women’s Health Care at Geneva Woods” after Karin Braun, CNM joined the practice in 2001. Along with Barbara & Karin, she left that practice in spring of 2015. She helped establish Geneva Woods Midwifery as a new practice out of Geneva Woods Birth Center, and oversees all business aspects of both the clinic and the birth center. She is self-taught in medical coding and billing, but has amassed quite a knowledge of the ins and outs of insurance companies over the last 17 years overseeing the billing. She also worked in the birth center as a birth assistant in 2015 and 2016, until she reached the third trimester, and still fills in occasionally here and there since early 2021. She gave birth to her daughter, Fiona, at Geneva Woods Birth Center, in February of 2017. When not working she enjoys cooking & baking, reading, and lots of outdoor sports such as running, triathlon, mountain and fat tire biking, XC skiing, & hiking with her dog Cherie.
Kalyn Henderson, RN
Birth Assistant
Raised in Alaska, Kalyn has been an RN since 2017. She has a deep love of maternal child health nursing. She has previous experience in assisted living, NICU, and inpatient pediatrics. She joined the team following the birth of her first baby in 2020 after experiencing and falling in love with our midwifery model of care first-hand. In her free time she enjoys knitting, photography, painting, and hiking with her family.
McKenna West, RN
Nurse, Medical Assistant, Birth Assistant
McKenna recently earned her BS in Nursing from UAA. She hopes to take a fast-paced job in the ER or other bedside hospital nursing position, but in the meantime is enjoying birth assisting, and helping GWM clients and providers. She has two children, both born at Geneva Woods Birth Center.
Samantha Hull
Medical Assistant, Billing & Admin
Samantha joined our team in 2023, after having worked in a variety of other medical settings as a MA, including neurology and imaging. She assists Claire and Joy with billing, does insurance benefits verifications for our pregnant clients, and also helps as an MA when needed. When not at work she enjoys spending time with family and caring for her two high-maintenance dogs.
Kate Becia
Front desk, Medical Assistant, Birth Assistant-in-training
Kate joined our team in the spring of 2024. She is a recent gradate of West High School, and hopes to pursue a degree in a medical field of some sort in the future. In the meantime, she is enjoying learning about women's health and maternity care, and learning lots of hands-on client care skills as a Birth Assistant. Kate enjoys kayaking, crafting, and getting outdoors with her dog "Swix."
Joy Beeler
Coding and Billing Specialist
Joy has been working in healthcare since she was 18 years old. She started off as an administrative assistant and worked her way up to becoming a certified medical coder, biller, and compliance officer. She has experience billing for multiple specialties including outpatient mental health, ENT, and physical therapy. She became a part of Geneva Woods in August 2021 and has since acquired invaluable knowledge and skills in the field of women’s health. She was so inspired by the individualized care and support offered here, she chose to have this midwifery team welcome her second daughter into the world! Joy loves travelling with her husband and two daughters. Their shared lifetime goal is to visit as many countries as possible!
Bret Beeler
PT Admin and Biller
Bret is a Certified Professional Coder and long-time resident of Anchorage. He is also a recent graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he studied Criminal Justice and Film. In the last decade, he has worked positions in both the medical and justice fields. Bret joined our office in late 2021 as our physical therapy and patient benefits coordinator. Outside of work, Bret loves spending time with his wife and two daughters. He also enjoys watching old films and trying not to yell at his TV when his favorite sports teams are losing. He and his wife are travel enthusiasts who are always looking for an excuse to visit new destinations around the world.
Tynicha ("Ty") Roberts
Birth Assistant
Ty is the owner and doula behind IKAN Doula, her longtime doula practice. She works in the business and personal insurance field by day, and - luckily for us - enjoys nights and weekend call as a Birth Assistant here. Her only son just graduated high school this spring.
Arianne Morrison
Birth Assistant-in-training
Arianne is in the BS RN program at UAA, with en expected graduation date in 2025. She chose to study nursing after a long career flying large passenger planes, first in the military, and then commercially. She has 3 children, two of which were born with our midwives' help.
Janie Sandberg
Childbirth Prep Class Instructor
