Event Speakers
Kristen Terlizzi is a speaker and advocate for maternal health & patient safety. Over her two month postpartum hospital stay for complications of placenta percreta, Kristen learned first-hand how to cope with an unknown prognosis and to partner with her care team. Kristen now shares her patient story to bring awareness to the downstream costs of cesarean overuse and the complex patient experience of high risk obstetrics. Her medical case report is published in the official journal of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and her patient story has been featured on Vox.com, the Wall Street Journal and People.com. Kristen is passionate about patient storytelling and speaks at events for medical students, hospital leadership, perinatal quality improvement initiatives, medical conferences and blood banks. She is a founding director of the organization and currently represents NAF as an inaugural member serving on the Executive Steering Committee to the newly created MoMMA’s Voices coalition of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates. Visit Kristen’s speaking page for a complete media and speaking history and to book Kristen to speak at your event.
Alisha Keller Berry is a survivor of placenta percreta, which fueled her passion for maternal health advocacy. Alisha's background includes 10 years of non-profit and fundraising experience with organizations such as California State Parks, numerous youth organizations and the Junior League of San Jose. She holds a bachelor of science degree in Natural Resources Management from CSU, Sacramento. Spreading awareness, advocating for patients and contributing to the research of accreta is something she feels is vital to saving the lives of women with this condition. Alisha shared her story in early 2016 on Popsugar, around the time when Kim Kardashian West revealed that she had experienced placenta accreta complications following her second birth. She is a founding director of the organization.
Alexis Carena is a survivor of placenta accreta, which required life saving surgery and blood transfusions during her son’s birth. Her patient story has been shared in Inova’s INhealth Magazine and at blood drives in the Washington DC area. Alexis focuses on increasing awareness of placenta accreta and other life-threatening pregnancy complications that rely on the availability of donor blood, through regular blood drives and the advocacy platform Heroes for Moms that she founded. Alexis also has personal experience with müllerian anomalies, a congenital disorder of the female reproductive tract. In addition to her maternal health advocacy work, Alexis has spent her career in the enterprise software industry, working in marketing and communications. Visit Alexis’s speaking page for more details.
