Our Board
Melissa Tomback, CD(DONA)
Community Doulas President & Doula Mentor
Melissa Tomback is a doula practicing in the Greater Portland area since 2013. She was inspired to enter the doula world by her own birth experiences, the first in a hospital and the second at home with a doula assisting. She was amazed at how the presence of a doula really made a difference in the way she was able to relax and cope. She strives to ensure that women have a positive birth experience and brings knowledge of breathing & focusing techniques from yoga to the labor process. Melissa is an attorney and, as one of the original founders, helped establish Community Doulas (formerly CDBP) as a nonprofit corporation.
She lives in Portland with her two kids.
Jeanne “Gia” Bartolomeo, MBA
Community Doulas Interim Executive Director & Doula Mentor
Gia, a native Mainer, enjoyed a 32-year career in IT and Education in Massachusetts and Connecticut until 2008, when she returned to Maine to retire. Since then, she has been helping non-profit corporations with finances and serving on boards in Maine and Massachusetts.
In 1985, Gia began assisting birthing women without partners as a volunteer while living in Hartford, Connecticut. She received formal doula training through DONA in 2009 and since then she has served birthing women and families in hospital and home births throughout New England. She retired from attending births in 2020 to focus on mentoring and supporting new doulas.
Rebecca Goodwin, Professional Doula, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), Spinning Babies® Practitioner (SpBAP)
Community Doulas Vice President & Doula Mentor
Rebecca Goodwin is a doula and Licensed Massage Therapist who has been practicing in the Greater Portland area since 2000 and a certified Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioner since 2019. In her dedication to birth, Rebecca has cultivated a respected presence in the medical birthing community. She strives to foster a successful and memorable pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience for each family. Rebecca is a one of the founders of Community Doulas (formerly CDBP) and serves as the director of mentors of doulas-in-training.
She is an accomplished triathlete and spin instructor living in North Yarmouth with her husband and two children.
Dina Day, CD, BADT, SBD, CSW
Community Doulas Outreach Director & Doula Mentor
Dina received her degree in Community Service Work (CSW) from Trillium College (Kingston, ON, CA) in 2010 and while serving the families as a peer support counselor, she saw a need for expanding support for birthing persons. She completed her birth doula training in 2016 and went on to train as a bereavement doula, death doula, and full spectrum doula receiving her certifications in those areas in 2017, 2020 and 2022. Dina has continued to advance her education through coursework in Advocating and Counseling for Women and Children, Vaccines, AIDS, and Psychological First Aid through George Brown College (CA), University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University.
Dina worked extensively in Kingston as a counselor, advocate, doula and leader in birth work specializing in serving persons with addiction and mental health challenges. She served as the Director of Programming for the Doula Support Foundation until moving the Maine in 2023. Dina joined Community Doulas in May 2023 and serves as our Director of Community Involvement.
Melanie Mansir, Community Doulas Treasurer
Melanie cares for the community both by being a birth doula and cultivating the land as an organic farmer. She comes from a background in acute care medicine where she developed her intuitive nature towards patient comfort. She believes every birthing family deserves to feel safe, informed, and respected during their birth. She is committed to improving birth outcomes and satisfaction through empowering the families she works for with options. She wants her community to know that there is no “cookie-cutter” birth, that each birth is unique, and each comfort measure and intervention should be implemented in the context of THEIR distinct birth!
Jessica Ruscetta, CD(DONA), CPD, CLC
Community Doulas Program Director & Doula Mentor
Jessica Ruscetta (she/her) is a birth & postpartum doula, lactation counselor, childbirth educator, placenta encapsulator, wife, mother and adventure traveler. She loves to work with families during one of the most wonderful, crazy, life-changing times in their lives, when they are expecting a new baby! She also loves mentoring new doulas and hearing all about people’s journey to birth work. Jessica started on her journey through birth work over 10 years ago after the birth of her first child. Realizing the power of support, information, and guidance through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum Jessica decided to devote her life to helping people have positive birth and postpartum experiences.
Sunshine Jelly, Professional Doula, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), Newborn Care Specialist (NCS), Doula Mentor
Sunshine brings over 30 years’ experience as a massage therapist and 20 years assisting women and their loved ones during labor, birth and postpartum.
She studied natural healing and massage at New Mexico Academy of Massage, Santa Fe and received her LMT in 1993
She returned to New England to raise her daughter while studying to become a doula with DONA. Sunshine began her doula practice as a doula on staff at Maine Medical Center in 2000. Sunshine continued her education in birth work and postpartum and received certification as an Newborn Care Specialist. She is a founding member of Community Doulas (formerly CDBP) and serves as the lead mentor in our postpartum services.
Sunshine enjoys walking, travelling New England and spending time with her adult daughter. She lives in the Portland area with her pup and two cats.
Jennifer Sligh
Jeni Sligh is a birth and postpartum doula serving families in Southern Maine and Seacoast New Hampshire since her DONA training in 2019. Originally on the path to becoming an OBGYN, Jeni has always wanted to combine her nurturing energy and passion for evidence-informed decisions to empower growing families. Instead of entering the medical field, she found doula work and never looked back. As a doula, Jeni is a calm, informed, nonjudgmental source of compassion and support prenatally, throughout the birth process, and within the transition period of bringing your baby home. Jeni has found that when doula care is used as a supportive and preventative measure, families can have an uplifted, informed, and more restful transition.
Kelci Adams
Over the past 12 years Kelci has served hundreds of families as a Full-spectrum doula, Lactation Counselor and Childbirth Educator. She decided to pursue birthwork full-time after helping her cousin through an intense labor and delivery. Realizing the amazing comfort that can come from a doula who is present and grounded. She believes that every birthing person should have a loving advocate and access to the best possible care throughout their journey into parenthood. Her practice started in Maine, moved to NYC and served many families in the greater Metro Area there. She is so pleased to be back in her home state, continuing to care for the families of Maine and sharing daily adventures with her husband and their son.
Becky Vail
Becky has been loving and living Herbage by Bex, in Maine, since 2014. She is a nature and outdoor enthusiast, always in search of new adventures and places where the wild things grow. Becky has completed a 500 hour herbal medicine course with Rosemary Gladstar, a 1500 hour course with Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, and three years of apprenticeship with Milk and Honey Swallowtail farm, as well as extensive classes on supporting her community with herbal remedies.
She has been in the social work field for the past 20 year with a focus on mental health, child safety and drug addiction. She is passionate about supporting mental health and trauma with herbal medicine.
Herbage by Bex is an individually owned apothecary, fully insured, with hand made products to ensure quality and product satisfaction.