ICM Staff

Ann Yates is a New Zealand midwife appointed in 2017 as Lead Midwife Advisor at the International Confederation of Midwives. Her experience spans over 40 years and several countries in clinical and senior leadership roles in high and low income countries and communities. Prior to her current role, Ann worked clinically and as a midwifery lecturer in Papua New Guinea. This 4-year government led maternal, newborn, child health initiative resulted in improved quality and quantity of midwives in PNG. As a former President of the New Zealand College of Midwives, Ann supported PNG midwives to strengthen the Midwives Association to represent midwives at a national level.  Ann is passionate about respectful maternity care and access for all childbearing women to the care of a midwife. 

Florence is an Australian midwife with a passion for international health development. Since 2004 she has supported midwives in clinical practice, midwifery education, research and policy development in low, middle- and high-income countries. She has lived and worked in South East Asia, Western Pacific, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe and Africa and is aware of the diverse contexts in which midwives work globally. Florence has a bachelor's degree in Nursing, Post-Graduate Diploma in Midwifery, Master's degree in International Public Health and a PhD in Midwifery. Florence has been working as a Midwife Advisor at ICM since 2017, providing technical support to the team and manages projects which aim to strengthen Midwives’ Associations and the midwifery workforce.   

Martha joined ICM in 2012 as Project Coordinator and now works as a Midwife Advisor. She is currently based in Blantyre, Malawi where she supports coordination of ICM’s 50,000 Happy Birthdays Project and coordinates the Midwife Kit Project. She is a midwife and holds a master’s degree in Reproductive Health and Family Planning Management. Before coming to work with ICM, Martha worked in Malawi, Ethiopia, and Liberia where she managed various maternal and child health programmes, including health systems strengthening.    

As a communications professional, Molly has worked across many marketing sectors for both small and international organisations. She has a diploma in public relations from Red River College and a degree in communications from the University of Winnipeg. In 2019, Molly moved to East Africa to work for the Tanzania Midwives Association. From there, she developed a passion for advocating for midwives and their life-saving work. She is thrilled to be a part of the ICM and to have the opportunity to promote midwives and midwifery on a global scale.

Charlotte has a bachelor's degree in International trade, a master's degree in NGO Management and 18 years of experience working for both commercial and non-profit organizations. Her professional strengths are in operational support, strategic planning, relationship building and project coordination. Charlotte is fluent in French, English and Spanish, allowing her to engage with and represent the views of global partners and stakeholders. She also reads and speaks intermediate Dutch. Charlotte has worked at ICM for the past six years. In her current role as Membership Coordinator, she contributes to strengthening more than 140 Midwives Associations in more than 120 countries globally, improving their capacity to advocate for the health of mothers and their babies.

Morgane joined ICM in December 2019 as Administrator. She has a master's degree in Communication and Marketing. She has experience in media, project management and planning. Morgane is French but lived in many countries such as England, China, New Zealand and The Netherlands. Her international development experience has shaped her open-minded personality. She’s also passionate about communication, people, Chinese culture and sustainability. 

Ony Anukem is an advocacy and communications specialist, with a bachelor's degree in Law & Politics and Master of Laws (LLM). She has a track record of developing and implementing successful creative advocacy campaigns for the social impact and non-profit sectors, with a particular focus on maternal, newborn and adolescent health, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and human rights. Before joining the ICM Head Office team, she worked with ICM as a consultant on a number of advocacy and communications projects. In her current role as Advocacy Manager, Ony oversees ICMs global advocacy strategy and supports Midwives Associations with advocacy capacity-building.

Sally is a New Zealander who arrived in the Netherlands in January 2017 to take up the role of Chief Executive at ICM. Before that, she had a 35-year career spanning all aspects of midwifery – practice, education, regulation, professionalism and politics including roles as President of the New Zealand College of Midwives, inaugural Chair of the Midwifery Council of New Zealand, and Head of Midwifery, Professor of Midwifery, and Director of Learning and Teaching at Otago Polytechnic. Sally holds various academic qualifications including a Doctorate in Midwifery and has authored numerous papers and books including co-editing an Australasian Midwifery Textbook (now in its 4th edition). Sally is passionate about midwives and midwifery and believes strong midwives’ associations can incite changes in their countries to ensure strong midwifery professions and midwife-led continuity of care services for women and their families. In 2008 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to midwifery and women’s health. She is married to Michael Lucas, and the couple have two adult sons, Oscar and Felix.

Sigrid has worked as the executive assistant to the Chief Executive and Governance Officer since October 2019, but joined ICM one year earlier as an administrative assistant. She has a degree in Human Resource Management and has also studied communications, leadership and gender studies. Prior to ICM, she worked in project support and administration at Uppsala University and The Armed Forces in Sweden. Sigrid is Swedish but has enjoyed life in The Netherlands since January 2018.