Our Team
President & CEO
Dr. Michaelene Fredenburg, President and CEO of the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care®, is a global authority on reproductive grief care following reproductive loss. She has authored several books, including Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One’s Abortion Experience and Hope After Loss, and has contributed to research published in peer-reviewed journals. With over 25 years as a nonprofit executive, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Creighton University, Dr. Fredenburg has led the Institute in advancing compassionate care through education, accredited training programs, and impactful research, establishing global standards for addressing reproductive grief. She was named San Diego Magazine’s Empowering Women Pioneer of the Year 2024.
Based in San Diego, Michaelene enjoys ballet, the beach, reading, and time with her family.
Our Team
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Chenayle Hatfield
Chief Operating Officer
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Alex Anaya
Chief Donor Officer
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Darren Stigers
Business Development Specialist
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Elsa Arens, BSN, RN
Healthcare Education Coordinator / Nurse Planner
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Rebecca Capuano, MSW
Education Program Facilitator
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Shandeigh “Nikki” Berry, PhD, RN
Accredited Provider Program Director
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Karolina Foss
IT & Systems Support Supervisor
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Megan Landin
Service Delivery Manager
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Sharon St. Pierre
LCSW, Mental Health Accreditation Coordinator
Our Board
Ben Montoya, MBA
Chairman
Dr. Michaelene Fredenburg, LHD, hc President & CEO
Patrick Gaughan, RN, MHA, MBA
Secretary
Fred Clark, MBA
Member
Mike Fredenburg, MBA
Member
Margot Kyd
Member
Paul Mulligan, MBA, MTS
Member
Barbara Culver
Member
Joe Jordan
Treasurer
Brian Johnson, MBA
Member
Health Task Force
The Institute of Reproductive Care’s Healthcare Task Force is establishing and effecting the widespread adoption of a reproductive grief standard of care by providing strategic advice, research guidance, and key introductions within the healthcare community.
Shandeigh “Nikki” Berry, PhD, RN, CNOR
Dr. Shandeigh “Nikki” Berry serves as the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care’s Accredited Provider Program Director. She is an honored graduate from Washington State University being the first in the College of Nursing to receive the prestigious Karan P. DePauw Leadership Award. An Assistant Professor at Saint Martin’s University, Dr. Berry teaches undergraduate courses in nursing theory and philosophy, palliative and end-of-life care, and acute care management.
Dr. Berry’s research in perinatal loss, grief, and bereavement focuses on decreasing the emotional trauma parents experience in the wake of a life-limiting fetal diagnosis. She has been published in multiple refereed journals, including Journal of Neonatal Nursing, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecological Nursing, Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, and Death Studies. Her research has been presented nationally and incorporated into international perinatal palliative care curricula. She collaborates with Thai researchers at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand researching holistic palliative care practices. Other research specialties include high-stakes communication, perinatal palliative care, translational research, interpretive phenomenology, and mixed-methods studies.
Dr. Berry is the founder of the Project Poppyseed, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness, providing education, and conducting research in perinatal loss, grief, and bereavement.
Maria Brann, PhD, MPH
Dr. Maria Brann (PhD, University of Kentucky; MPH, West Virginia University) is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies Indiana University - Indianapolis. Dr. Brann explores the integration of health, interpersonal, and gender communication. Her translational focus and mixed methods approach are woven throughout her health vulnerabilities research, which advocates for more effective communication to improve people’s health. Her primary research interests focus on the study of women’s issues in health communication contexts and promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors to improve personal and public health and safety.
Most notably, she seeks to understand the individual and societal communicative negotiations of birth and pregnancy loss, promotion of more empathic provider communication during bad news delivery, and persuasive public health messaging. Her work has been published in numerous refereed journals including Health Communication, Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Qualitative Health Research and several scholarly books including Pregnancy Loss: A Narrative Collection, Gender in Applied Communication Contexts, and Casing the Family: Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Understanding Family Communication. Her teaching includes graduate and undergraduate communication courses in health, family and interpersonal relationships, nonverbal, and gender as well as the senior capstone and graduate orientation courses.
Clayton A, Brigance, PhD, LPC
Dr. Clayton Brigance is the founder and clinical director of Shiloh Counseling, LLC, in Ballwin, Missouri, where he and his team of counselors provide mental health and relationship care to folks struggling with infertility and reproductive loss. Dr. Brigance has published best practice research on how to provide sound interventions in couple therapy for couples struggling with infertility in some of the top journals in the field, including the Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, The Family Journal, and the Journal of Relationship Therapy. Dr. Brigance has the proud distinction of being one of the few fully certified Gottman Couple Therapists in the St. Louis area, and is one of the few to pass certification on the first attempt. Dr. Brigance serves on the local Missouri board for Postpartum Support International, as well as national boards such as the healthcare taskforce for the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care.
Jennifer J. Bute, Ph.D.
Dr. Jennifer J. Bute is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Indiana University - Indianapolis and a former Senior Editor for Health Communication. Dr. Bute’s research centers on communication about health in interpersonal relationships and patient-provider interactions. Most of her work has explored issues of reproductive health, such as how people manage private information about topics like infertility and miscarriage. Her research also examines patient-provider communication about reproductive and sexual health. She serves on the Health Care Task Force for the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care and previously served on the advisory committee for the Personalized Medicine Coalition, where she offered expertise in health communication to develop a patient-centered research agenda. Her work has appeared in numerous edited books and journals, including Communication Monographs, Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Patient Education and Counseling, Qualitative Health Research, and Social Science and Medicine.
DiAnn Ecret, PhD, MSN, RN, MA cert
DiAnn Ecret is the Chair of the Nursing Department, an Associate Professor of Nursing at Ave Maria University, and a part time Catholic Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
She has over 30 years of combined clinical experience in neonatal, pediatric, and adult critical care nursing; while also teaching in graduate, undergraduate, and accelerated bachelor’s in science of nursing (BSN) programs over the past 15 years.
Dr. Ecret’s research and scholarship includes work in the care of patients, families and communities who experience complex bioethical decision making issues across the lifespan. She serves as a volunteer ethics consultant for Be Not Afraid and Naples Community Pregnancy Clinic.
She is married to her husband Mike Ecret for 37 years. They have 4 adult children and 4 grandchildren.
Dr. Michaelene Fredenburg
Dr. Michaelene Fredenburg, President and CEO of the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care®, is a global authority on reproductive grief care following reproductive loss. She has authored several books, including Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One’s Abortion Experience and Hope After Loss, and has contributed to research published in peer-reviewed journals. With over 25 years as a nonprofit executive, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Creighton University, Dr. Fredenburg has led the Institute in advancing compassionate care through education, accredited training programs, and impactful research, establishing global standards for addressing reproductive grief. She was named San Diego Magazine’s Empowering Women Pioneer of the Year 2024.
Based in San Diego, Michaelene enjoys ballet, the beach, reading, and time with her family.
Stephanie Gilbert, PhD
Dr. Stephanie Gilbert is an Associate Professor in the Shannon School of Business at Cape Breton University. She received her doctorate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Saint Mary’s University. Her research examines predictors of leadership effectiveness and emergence, including leaders’ own motivation for leadership, and examines how grieving employees experience work.
Dr. Gilbert has worked with a variety of industries including healthcare, non-profit, for-profit, and start-up businesses and she teaches in the areas of leadership and organizational behavior.
Dr. Glorisel González Viera, MD
Glorisel González Viera, MD is an Assistant Professor and Reproductive Psychiatrist at The Women’s Place at Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women. She earned her medical degree and completed a residency in Psychiatry, where she served as Chief Resident, at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico. During her Psychiatry residency program, she received the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Certificate of Pride in Public Service for her service to the Veteran population on her island during Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. She also completed specialized training in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Prolonged Exposure Therapy.
She was also recognized for her excellence as a clinician during her medical training and Psychiatry residency training. She then completed a Sleep Medicine Fellowship at VA Caribbean Healthcare System before moving to Houston to complete a Women’s Mental Health Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. She has received additional training from the Interpersonal Psychotherapy Institute for Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Perinatal Patients. In addition, she has completed training through the Touchstone Institute in Pregnancy Loss and Newborn Death for Psychotherapists and, most recently, completed a certificate in Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy by The Center for Prolonged Grief. Her hopes are to continue working on educating colleagues and the general public on the topic of reproductive grief while providing her patients a place to feel safe and heard.
Dr. Erica Kreller, MD, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Morning Star OB/GYN
Erica Kreller, MD is an OB/GYN in private practice in Gilbert, Arizona. She received her medical degree from the University of Southern California, and completed OB/GYN residency at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego.
Following residency, she practiced for three years in Yokosuka Japan serving sailors and their families. She completed her service in the Navy and then moved to Omaha Nebraska, where she completed a year-long fellowship in Medical and Surgical Natural Procreative Technology (NaProTechnology). She then joined Morning Star OB/GYN where she serves patients from all over Arizona and the surrounding states. She is married, and has 5 living children who keep life interesting!
Joyce Merrigan, DNP, CPLC, CBC, CBCC, C-EFM, TIP, RNC-OB
Dr. Joyce Merrigan is a passionate educator and advocate for reproductive grief care. She has been a labor and delivery nurse and perinatal bereavement coordinator providing bereavement care to women and their families in New Jersey since 2002. Her many hospital positions include labor and delivery nurse, Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator, and Patient Care Coordinator.
She is a member of the Central NJ Family Health Consortia and Central New Jersey’s Perinatal Bereavement and Fetal Infant Mortality Review Committees. Joyce has advocated on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC for respectful disposition and is a published author, and national and international speaker advocating for bereavement education for nursing staff providing care to women experiencing pregnancy loss. Dr. Merrigan collaborated with the National Perinatal Association for the Practice Statement on Perinatal Bereavement Care for Miscarriage in the Emergency Department and is a member of AWHONN; ANA; NJSNA; HPNA; NPA; INA; PLIDA, and NAPW. She maintains a certification in Obstetrics, Perinatal Loss Care, and is a trauma-informed provider. She is in private practice providing counsel to families who have experienced traumatic birth, early pregnancy loss, and perinatal loss. She earned her DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) from Capella University and her published manuscript focused on perinatal bereavement education of nurses with particular application to miscarriage in the emergency department.
Angelica Quezada, LCSW, Certified Instructor - Institute of Reproductive Grief Care
Angelica Quezada is Bilingual (English/Spanish) Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Perinatal Mental Health Certified, and Parental Leave Coach in California with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California. She has experience working in hospice, hospitals, nonprofit organizations and private practice settings. Serving on the boards of Postpartum Health Alliance and Pregnancy After Loss Support, Angelica focuses on advocacy for awareness of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders and offers support for women navigating pregnancy after loss. Additionally, she provides guidance to clinical providers as the facilitator of a peer clinical consultation group in Spanish for Postpartum Support International, offering expertise and support to mental health professionals across North, Central, and South America. Angelica's multifaceted work highlights her dedication to improving maternal and perinatal mental health and advancing clinical best practices.
Shantae Rodriguez, RPA-C Director of Medical Services Soundview Pregnancy Services
Shantae Rodriguez serves as the Director of Medical Services for Soundview Pregnancy Services in Long Island, NY and as a Physician Assistant with the New Life Community Health Center in Queens, NY. She has also served as an emergency medicine provider in several Long Island Hospitals. Shantae has spent more than a decade working specifically with survivors of human trafficking, sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
Her pregnancy clinics are certified in Reproductive Grief Care with the Institute, and her entire team of nurses, social workers and several advocates received their Individual Reproductive Grief Care Certificates in 2023 demonstrating their commitment to providing specialized care for patients' unique needs.