Meet the Founding Sisters
Cassie Meiswinkel
Leigh Batchelder
Co-Executive Director, Administration & Institutional Advancement
Cassie is a birth and postpartum doula, astrologer, and mother rooted in Southern Vermont. Her work centers on helping women move through pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood feeling informed, supported, and deeply connected to their own instincts. She brings together evidence-based care and intuitive, ceremonial support to create experiences that feel both grounded and meaningful.
As Co-Executive Director of Administration & Institutional Advancement the Systemic Alchemist of the Fund’s external vision, Cassie serves as the primary architect of the organization's institutional sustainability and administrative backbone. She leads the high-level strategy for how the Fund is branded, funded, and structured—transforming complex community needs into professional, resource-rich systems. By bridging the gap between grassroots values and institutional growth, she ensures the Fund operates with both creative integrity and operational excellence.
Her vision is inspired by a dream to see every mother in her community experiencing the full spectrum of support, from conception well into motherhood. She believes firmly that the ripple effects of this work will be felt for generations to come, and will offer our children and grandchildred a brighter future, deeper connections, and a sustainable community infrastructure to continue to build upon.
Co-Executive Director, Programs & Operations
Leigh is a doula, mother, artist, and community catalyst rooted in Southern Vermont. Her work spans birth and postpartum support, embodiment facilitation, fine art photography, and the building of community infrastructure that makes sustained, dignified care possible. She brings to this work a wide range of lived experience — across caregiving, creative practice, food systems, early childhood, and community organizing — that gives her a rare fluency across diverse communities and life circumstances.
As Co-Executive Director of Programs & Operations, Leigh is the connective architect of the Fund's internal experience. She designs the client journey and provider ecosystem, develops accessible programming and educational resources, and organizes community events and gatherings that build trust and collective investment in the Fund's mission. Her strength lies in her ability to build relationships quickly, weave networks with intention, and translate complex organizational needs into systems that feel alive and human.
Her work is rooted in a simple belief: that the systems we build to deliver care must reflect the same values we bring to the care itself — accessible, relational, and grounded in the dignity of every person they touch. Through her practice at Many Rivers and her co-founding of the Red Clover Doula Collective, she has spent years building toward exactly that.
Madeline Mindich
Cofounder: Fundraising, Provider Relations & Community Outreach
Maddy is a mother, acupuncturist, doula, herbalist, and community-based wellness practitioner rooted in Southern Vermont. Through her work at Little Seeds Wellness, she approaches care as a collaborative and evolving process—one that supports the mind, body, and spirit while recognizing that no one is meant to navigate healing alone.
Her path into this work has been shaped by a deep curiosity about what it means to live well, alongside hands-on experience in herbalism, acupuncture, and birth work. Maddy’s practice is informed by both ancient and integrative approaches to medicine, and she is especially passionate about supporting women’s health, fertility, postpartum recovery, and community-based care.
As a cofounder of the fund, Maddy contributes to fundraising, provider relationships, community outreach, and mentorship. She brings a strong connection to the local provider landscape and a natural ability to build relationships that are rooted in trust, collaboration, and shared purpose. Her work helps strengthen the network of care surrounding families, while also supporting providers in building sustainable and aligned practices.
She also brings a deep love for creating tangible expressions of care—assembling thoughtfully curated gift baskets and providing free postpartum essentials that help families feel supported, nourished, and remembered during the early weeks after birth.
Her work reflects a commitment to cultivating community—ensuring that care is not only accessible, but relational, responsive, and deeply human.
Kimberleigh Weiss-Lewit
Cofounder: Advocacy, Training & Membership
Kim is a mother, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), perinatal mental health therapist, doula, and educator with over 15 years of experience supporting families and training providers.
Her work is rooted in evidence-based care, trauma-informed practice, and a deep commitment to honoring each family’s unique experience. Through her offerings in lactation support, mental health therapy, prenatal yoga, and doula training, she supports both families and professionals in building confidence, capacity, and connection across the perinatal period.
Kim’s work extends beyond individual care into advocacy, education, and mentorship. She has trained and supported doulas and care providers across the region, helping to strengthen a workforce that is skilled, supported, and aligned with values of dignity and respect.
As a cofounder of the fund, Kim contributes to advocacy training, provider membership, and mentorship. She brings a deep understanding of both clinical and community-based care, helping to guide the development of a provider network that is not only qualified, but supported, connected, and sustainable.
At the core of her work is a commitment to building systems of care that are inclusive, responsive, and grounded in relationship—ensuring that both families and providers are met with the support they deserve.
A Shared Model of Leadership
The Southern Vermont Maternal Health Access Fund is built on a dual leadership model that balances strategy and systems. Together, Cassie, Leigh, Maddy, and Kim steward both the external growth and internal experience of the organization—ensuring that the work remains aligned, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of the community.
This structure is rooted in a shared vision for what maternal care can and should be: accessible, relational, and grounded in dignity. It also reflects a matriarchal approach to leadership—collaborative, accountable, and built on mutual trust. Decisions are made together, with a commitment to both the integrity of the mission and the long-term well-being of the families and providers the fund exists to serve.