2025 ACBP Conference and Pre /Post Conference Speakers

Dr. Flass is one of the rare physicians with an extensive background in nutrition. He is board certified in Pediatrics as well as Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Prior to medical school, he received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Human Nutrition and worked for ten years in several nutrition related fields. His thirty years of nutrition experience, training at one of the nation’s top pediatric programs and more recent education in Functional Medicine have provided him unique insights into the pitfalls and dangers of the modern child’s diet. He currently lives and practices in Montana, where he just opened a Functional Medicine practice. In 2021 he completed his first book, appropriately titled Feeding Our Children.

Information coming soon

Ireena Keeslar is ACBP’s conference chair and a board officer-at-large. She worked as an assistant in labor and delivery before becoming a nurse, taught popular childbirth classes to both Amish and non-Amish for over twenty years, and now has been practicing midwifery in a rural Michigan-Indiana community for over two decades, where she helped start four different free-standing birth centers. She has written journal articles, served on state midwifery boards, and been involved with conference planning for over fifteen years. Married since 1980, she enjoys spending as much time as possible with her five children and growing number of grandchildren, knitting, sewing, crocheting, photography, gardening, drawing, and painting.

Kathy Nesper is ACBP’s parliamentarian and professional support liaison. She has been involved in birth work since the mid-1970s as a lactation peer counselor, childbirth educator, doula, author, and speaker. She is passionate about applying truth from the Bible in helping parents and birth professionals encounter God in the birth journey, which led her to co-found and direct a Christian childbirth education program for many years. Kathy lives in the Central Valley of California with her husband of more than fifty years. She loves to listen to audiobooks and podcasts, study the Bible, spend time with family and friends, and cheer for her six grandchildren at their soccer and softball games.

Vicki Penwell has spent her life as a licensed midwife, health educator, missionary and humanitarian aide, and disaster response organizer, serving in Alaska, Asia, and Mexico in setting up clinics, birth centers, medical mission outreaches, malnourished children’s feeding programs, churches, and schools to help the poor. The organization she founded, Mercy In Action, has delivered almost 18,000 babies in the Philippines and also runs the US-based Mercy In Action College of Midwifery. Vicki has earned Master’s Degrees in Midwifery and Christian Studies/Intercultural Studies and just finished a Doctorate of Ministry in Creative Leadership. She lives in Subic Bay, Philippines, and returns to the USA to teach once or twice a year.

Kristin Schuchmann is chair of ACBP’s board. She has been a childbirth educator, doula, lactation counselor, and second-generation midwife and is active as a Florida licensed CPM home birth midwife, childbirth educator, doula, and midwifery trainer/instructor and curriculum developer. She is executive director of Charis Childbirth, which offers midwifery academics and education/certification for perinatal professionals, and of Heritage School of Midwifery and Natural Health Sciences. She lives in southwest Florida and enjoys gardening, kayaking, beach sunshine, preparing healthy gourmet meals, singing, playing piano, exploring nature, and spending time with her family, saying grandmotherhood is the best!

This page will be updated if there are changes to speakers.