Read our Latest Committee Opinion: Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos

Search
Close this search box.
Join
Login to Member Website
Donate

Read our Latest Committee Opinion: Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos

AAPLOG Board

/ News / By /

President Paul Gray, M.D. Jackson, TN
Executive Director Donna Harrison, M.D. Eau Claire, MI;
Immediate Past President Allan Sawyer, M.D. Glendale, AZ;
Secretary/Treasurer Julie Mickelson, M.D. Milwaukee, MI;
ObG Resident Member Benjamin Beran, M.D. Milwaukee, WI;
Family Medicine Member George Delgado, M.D. Escondido, CA;
Family Medicine Member Deborah Travis Honeycutt, M.D. Fayetteville, GA;
Byron Calhoun, M.D. Charleston, WV;
Mary Davenport, M.D. El Sobrante, CA;
Leonard Marotta, M.D. East Syracuse, NY;
Monique Chireau Durham, NC;
Camilla Hersh, M.D. Arlington, VA;
Roy Stringfellow, M.D. Denver, CO;
Nathan Hoeldtke, M.D. Jackson, TN;
Freda Bush, M.D. Jackson, MS;
Kathy Raviele, M.D. Tucker, GA;
Christina Francis, M.D. Ft. Warne, IN
Eric Mudafort, M.D. Tera Ceia, FL

Christina Cirucci, MD

Christina A. Cirucci M.D. is a board-certified OB/GYN and long-time member of AAPLOG. She earned a B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and worked in the engineering field for seven years before pursuing a medical career. She received her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and completed her OB/GYN residency at the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Cirucci then joined a private OB/GYN practice in Pittsburgh, where she worked for twenty years. Dr. Cirucci has volunteered her medical skills in various third-world countries in Africa and Asia and has made multiple trips to volunteer at Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. Dr. Cirucci has a heart for the life of the unborn and joined the board of AAPLOG in 2021.

Susan Bane, MD, PhD

Dr. Susan Bane (aka DrPinkGlasses) is a 1987 graduate of Atlantic Christian College, now
Barton College. She has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 25 years, including in
private practice at Greenville Obstetrics and Gynecology and serving as a clinical professor
at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. She is currently the Regional
Medical Director for three pregnancy centers in Eastern North Carolina, where she
oversees the medical aspects of the Centers and sees patients with unintended
pregnancies.

Dr. Bane completed a PhD in Kinesiology and her medical degree from the University of
Illinois. She holds coaching certifications for health and wellness and emotional intelligence
coaching. She completed the year-long certificate program in Theology and Health Care at
Duke Divinity School in 2022.

Dr. Bane serves on the Medical Board for Care Net and Board of Directors for The
American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists, AAPLOG, serving as the
advocacy/education team leader. She has spoken about women’s health and life issues in
many settings, and her writing has been published in national press, including Politico, The
Daily Signal, the Federalist, and Newsweek. She is one of the co-hosts of AAPLOG’s
podcast Caring for Both: A Curbside consult.

Dr. Bane is involved in a variety of community activities, including St. Therese Catholic
Church, and participates in autism advocacy work, as her youngest son, Maxwell, has
autism. She has been married for 36 years to her husband, Art, and has three children:
Archer, married to Virginia, and they have two daughters, Townshend and Berrigan, Riley,
married to Titus, and they have one child (Huff) and Maxwell, who won’t be getting married,
but will be keeping Dr. Bane and her husband company for years to come. She considers
her family her greatest accomplishment.

 

Christina M. Francis, MD

Dr. Christina Francis is a board-certified OB/GYN who currently works in Fort Wayne, IN as an OB/GYN Hospitalist. Dr. Francis completed medical school at Indiana University in 2005 and completed her OB/GYN residency at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2009. She is CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a board member of Indiana Right to Life, and a physician member of the Abortion Pill Reversal Network. As a pro-life speaker, Dr. Francis offers her medical expertise, knowledge of bioethics, and pro-life reasoning both here in the U.S and around the globe. She has always had a passion for human rights, spending a significant portion of her life in various countries working tirelessly on behalf of women and children. Dr. Francis worked for three years as the only OB/GYN at a mission hospital in rural Kenya, until returning to the US in 2014 to work on behalf of women and children both in the US and internationally who are often victims of the abortion industry. She has written on issues surrounding women’s health and abortion for publications including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and USA Today.

Michael Valley, MD

Dr. Michael Valley is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist board-certified in both OB/GYN and Urogynecology. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota.

He has been a long-term member of AAPLOG and in 2022 became a member of the Board of Directors. Since the beginning of his medical training, Dr. Valley has acquired a depth of understanding and appreciation for unborn human life; that it has inestimable value yet is so vulnerable. He has volunteered at pregnancy resource centers, where women with crisis pregnancies receive education about their pregnancy options, ultrasounds, and the support they need to know that choosing life for their unborn can be the best option for themselves and their unborn.

Dr. Valley currently practices Obstetrics/Gynecology and Urogynecology in Minnesota, also teaching medical students. He is also a physician member of Heartbeat international’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network.

Dr. Anthereca E. Lane is a board certified obstetrician/gynecologist and entrepreneur practicing in Cincinnati, Ohio.  She is the owner of Lane Women’s Health, LLC, an independent, private medical practice, and Lane Women’s Health on Demand, LLC, a women’s health telehealth company.

She is a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health where she earned a Master of Health Administration and Doctor of Medicine.  She completed her residency training at Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.  She served as Chief Resident, 2006-2007.  

Dr. Lane was the first African-American co-owner of Fairhaven Obstetrics & Gynecology in Goshen, Indiana where she practiced for almost 8 years.  During that time, she became involved in AAPLOG speaking at one of the annual conferences.  She also became involved in the Christian Medical & Dental Association as the Ohio State Director.  While living in Elkhart County, she served on the Board of Directors of Heart City Health Center, a federally qualified health center.  She was also a member of the Elkhart County Board of Health.

Dr. Lane moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 2015.  She has been a member of the medical staff at The Christ Hospital since November 2015.  In 2018, she began the challenging yet rewarding journey of serving the city of Cincinnati as an independent practitioner.  She finds great joy in being able to practice medicine in a compassionate, respectful and collaborative manner with the freedom to share a prolife perspective.  She is particularly committed to reducing the number of abortions in the African American community.  She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Powel-Crosley YMCA.

Dr. Lane is married to her husband, Marvin Lane, of 23 years.  They have two daughters.

In her free time, Dr. Lane cherishes quality family time, is actively involved in her church and enjoys photography.

Steven Braatz, MD

Steven Braatz, MD is a board-certified OB/GYN on staff at Northeastern Health Center in Susanville, California. He is a board member of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and an associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. He received his BS degree from the University of Arizona, his MD from Oral Roberts University, and completed residency at the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Braatz has 35 years of clinical experience and has served as chairman of the OB/GYN department at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California and served with the Marine Corps First Medical Battalion during the war with Iraq. He has published op/ed and journal articles on moral problems with abortion. In 2008 he was awarded the Humanitarian Service Award by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for medical missions work in West Africa.

George Delgado, MD, FAAFP

Dr. George Delgado received his MD from the University of California, Davis and completed his residency at Santa Monica Hospital/UCLA. He is board certified in family medicine and in hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. Delgado is an NFP medical consultant trained in NaProTECHNOLOGY. He completed the one-year certification program in health care ethics with the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Dr. Delgado has been a member of the AAPLOG board of directors since 2012. He is the president of Steno Institute, a nonprofit research institute he established in 2018 to conduct, support, fund and promulgate unbiased medical and psychological research concerning pro-life topics, especially abortion pill reversal. Additionally, he is the medical director of Culture of Life Family Health Care in San Diego County.

Dr. Delgado published the first peer-reviewed article in the medical literature describing the reversal of mifepristone (RU-486) using progesterone. He then established Abortion Pill Reversal, now called Abortion Pill Rescue, a program that connects women who have changed their minds after taking mifepristone (RU-486) and want to reverse the effects of the abortion pill. In 2018, he published a case series analysis of 261 successful mifepristone reversals using progesterone, demonstrating that abortion pill reversal is safe and effective.

Dr. Delgado was selected to receive the St. Gianna Molla Pro-life Award at the 2017 Walk for Life West Coast. In April 2018, Heartbeat International awarded him the Servant Leader Award. Solidarity HealthShare granted him its Pro-life Innovator Award in January 2019, on the eve of the March for Life in Washington, DC.

Lisa Gilbert, MD

Dr Lisa Gilbert is a board certified family physician and is core faculty at the Ascension Via Christi Family Medicine Residency Program, associated with the University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP). She graduated from University of Texas – Southwestern Medical School in 2009, followed by residency at the University of Kansas – Wichita Via Christi Family Medicine Residency Program, graduating in 2012. She then completed a 1 year fellowship in International Family Medicine, which took her to Niger, West Africa for a 5 month clinical experience at a rural hospital. She is certified in Tropical Medicine through the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) and has also worked internationally in Cameroon, Liberia during the Ebola outbreak, Egypt, and Tajikistan. Her US practice prior to her current faculty position includes three years of full-spectrum family medicine, including surgical obstetrics, in Lakin Kansas. She subsequently joined faculty at her alma mater residency program in 2017.

She is passionate about beginning and end of life issues, bioethics, and conscience protections. She serves as Chair of the Ascension Via Christi Ethics Integration Committee – Wichita and is completing her Master’s of Arts in Catholic Clinical Ethics from Georgetown University. She serves as Kansas State Director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics (AAME). Within AAPLOG, she is founder and chair of the Family Medicine Section.

Anne Camille Talley, MBA

Anne Camille Talley joined the AAPLOG Board in 2019, bringing experience in science and business. Her BS in Biology and MBA in Marketing & Finance were earned at Boston College. She began her career at the benches and electron microscopes of the Laboratory for Human Reproduction and Reproductive Biology at the Harvard Medical School, then initiated the public relations function for the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. She spent most of her business career in marketing research, marketing, and professional development in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Her consulting business now offers coaching, mentoring and teaching the “soft” skills of market research: synthesis of data streams into insights, finding and telling the customer’s story, becoming a trusted advisor and measuring research impact. She served in many volunteer roles for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA), leading programs in mentoring, research, advocacy and online learning toward the goal of furthering the advancement and impact of women. She is author or co-author of all six of the HBA’s studies on how professionals advance their careers. She serves on the board of a pregnancy resource center in SW Florida where she has helped to ignite significant growth in fundraising, friendraising and providing critical services to support pregnant moms and dads and to strengthen young families.

Elizabeth Morton, RN, CNM

Elizabeth (Betsy) Morton, RN, CNM has been on the AAPLOG board as head of the Midwifery subsection since 2019. She first started working as a volunteer at a pregnancy resource center as a teen. She received her BS in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University in 1985. She received her MSN in nurse midwifery from the University of Pennsylvania and became CNM in 1994.

Ms. Morton worked a full scope midwifery practice in West Philadelphia until her family relocated to Kutztown. She worked as a CNM in an OB/GYN office until moving to Tennessee in 2000 when her husband began working at Covenant College. She returned to work as an RN in maternal child health and NICU as she and her husband raised their four children. She continued to volunteer as a board member for Lifespring Community Health and to fundraise for the pregnancy resource center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 2016 she began work as nurse manager of Choices Pregnancy Resource center expanding their ultrasound program and bringing STI testing to the center. She left Choices in 2018 to continue working with Lifespring Community Health, AAPLOG and the Midwives in Support of Life within the ACNM.

Kerri Brackney, MD Dr. Kerri Brackney is a board-certified OB/GYN and is an active candidate for board certification in Maternal Fetal Medicine. She currently works as an academic MFM physician in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Brackney received her undergraduate education at Bryan College in Dayton, TN. She completed medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2006 and her OB/GYN residency at Penn State Health in 2010. After practicing as an OB/GYN for eight years, she completed a one-year fellowship in Obstetric Ultrasound at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2019 followed by a three-year fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the combined MetroHealth/University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve University program in 2022. Dr. Brackney is a member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association and its outreach, the Women Physician and Dentists in Christ. She served for three years with a Christian Community Health center in Memphis, and enjoys providing high risk obstetrical care for the underserved. She volunteers for a local pregnancy resource center, reading obstetric ultrasound. She has a passion for both domestic and foreign missions and longs to see an American culture in which abortion is unthinkable.

Catherine J. Wheeler, MD

Catherine J. Wheeler, MD, is an Ob/Gyn physician who practiced in Salt Lake City, Utah for 24 years. She was an originating shareholder of a private Ob/Gyn practice. Later in her career, she developed midlife women’s health clinic and educational programs at the University of Utah. She then developed a gynecology clinic with HCA St. Mark’s Hospital. Dr. Wheeler now lives in Colorado, where she is a frequent speaker for life and regarding the reality of abortion, provides testimony at the Colorado legislature, provides informational opinion pieces and interviews for media, and serves with prolife organizations to educate, to advance the defense of preborn human life, and to advocate for and provide support for women and families.

Robin Atkins, LMHC

Robin Atkins is the chair of the mental health subsection of AAPLOG. As a licensed mental health counselor, Robin has been in practice for over 15 years with a speciality in reproductive issues (including infertility, high-risk pregnancy, traumatic birth, postpartum depression and anxiety, perinatal hospice and palliative care, pregnancy loss, infant loss, adoption, and abortion) since 2015. Robin received her BA in Philosophy and BS in Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University. While growing her family, Robin completed her MA in Professional Counseling from Liberty University and obtained licensure in the state of Indiana.

Robin’s personal experiences with pregnancy and loss formed her passion for walking along side women, men, and families experiencing complications during reproductive journeys. Robin opened her private practice in 2015 and began speaking on topics related to mental health and reproduction including perinatal hospice and palliative care, mental health complications after abortion, and post-abortive healing. Robin completed her Deeper Still retreat in 2019 to further her own healing from abortion.