OUR TEAM
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OUR TEAM
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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The Guiding Star Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit
Tammy Masut, ARNP, CNM, graduated in 1997, from Oklahoma University, with academic and clinical honors. She worked in Labor and Delivery for over 19 years and finally followed her life-long dream of becoming a Certified Nurse-Midwife in February of 2013. After graduating from Frontier Nursing University with honors. Tammy gained experience with different populations of women from her work in Indian Health Services and as a travel nurse working across the country. She recently remarried and her and her husband have a blended family of 17 children and 22 grandchildren (and growing).
Tammy has always felt a desire to work with women and their families to help them become the best versions of themselves. She is a certified Creighton Fertility care practitioner and loves helping women learn more about their fertility and natural family planning options. Tammy has made Tampa her home since 1999 and enjoys the beach, books, and spending time with her husband, family, and friends.
Shannon Rivers is a Texas native who graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science (BS), Human Development and Family Studies. She is a Certified Child Life specialist who spent seven years working at the local children’s hospital and as part of the children’s hospice and palliative care team. To focus more on her family, Shannon transitioned away from the hospital and into her role as a Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor, and stay at home to be her three children. Shannon has been a member of the Child Life Council since Jan 2008, and the Florida Association of Child Life Professionals since Jan 2011, and is still active in both organizations. Shannon has been serving pregnant and postpartum families for over fifteen years. When she’s not attending a birth, her focus is on being a supportive wife to her husband Chris and creative homeschooling mom to her children. As a family, they love trips to Disney World and enjoying the mountains in North Carolina.
Hailing from central Minnesota, Leah has been working with young people and mothers since 2000. Leah founded The Guiding Star Project in 2011 after feeling called to help women and families by providing resources that honor Natural Law and promote wholistic feminism. She seeks to create Guiding Star Centers to serve as beacons of hope, joy, and truth — safe havens that uphold human dignity in all stages of life. Leah lives in Minnesota with her family and works as a board-certified lactation consultant. As a mother to seven children, she has a special interest in supporting young women as they transition into their roles as new mothers.
Leah has been featured on EWTN, The Catholic News Agency, The Catholic Mom and more.
Jennifer was born and raised in northeastern Ohio. She attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago after high school, where she studied Educational Ministries. Later, she attended Ohio Christian University, graduating with a BA in Leadership and Ministry. While at Moody, Jennifer met and married her husband, Steve. They have four grown children, a daughter-in-law, son-in-law, and a granddaughter. Jennifer had varied pregnancy and birth experiences which led her to pursue becoming a Childbirth Educator and Doula while her children were growing up. She desired women to have the opportunity to go through pregnancy and childbirth holistically, without being treated like pregnancy or birth was an illness or a problem to be managed. She also served beside her husband in youth ministry for over 20 years, having a heart for serving young women. While still in Ohio, Jennifer served at Elizabeth’s New Life Center’s Women’s Center Kettering for eight years, first as Lead Consultant, then becoming Manager of the pregnancy center after a few years. Then in 2019, Jennifer moved to Florida to become the Director of Client Services for A Woman’s Place Medical Clinic’s four locations here in the Tampa Bay area. After three and half years in that role, Jennifer took a remote position with Heartbeat International and now can serve pregnancy help organizations around the world. In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys working out, especially running and loves being outdoors. She also enjoys singing and reading. She is thankful for the opportunity to assist Guiding Star Tampa in fulfilling their Mission, Vision, and Purpose because all women deserve life-affirming options and a holistic approach to women’s health care.
Jean Marie grew up in Tampa and earned her accounting degree from the University of South Florida. Instead of pursuing a career she chose to be a stay-at home mom with her two children. “It is still the best decision I ever made” she says. After her children grew up, she started her career and became a CPA. She always prayed that God would provide a way for her to help others with her financial knowledge. And prayers were answered when she was asked to be a part of Guiding Star Tampa. To help others financially and as a woman makes her heart happy. She lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband George and golden retriever Melody. When she is not crunching numbers or playing with her golden, she is singing in the church choir and learning how to play the piano. As my involvement with Guiding Star Tampa has increased, so has my passion for their mission to empower and educate women about the beautiful and natural way our bodies were created.
A mom of 11, Lisa Canning embodies possibility in motherhood. Author of the book The Possibility Mom: How to be a Great Mom and Pursue Your Dreams at the Same Time, Lisa wants women to feel empowered by their ability to conceive, carry and bring new life into the world. As President of The Guiding Star Project, she desires to create the “ultimate village” that every woman wishes she had, one where she wholistically feels supported in mind, body and spirit.
Lisa has been featured on The Today Show, Hallmark Home and Family, The New York Times, The Catholic Channel and more.
Mark Cavaliere is the Founder and Executive Director of the Southwest Coalition for Life based in the Borderland region of El Paso, Texas & Southern New Mexico. Mark has led thousands to action through 40 Days for Life, developed innovative sidewalk outreach programs, launched a Save the Storks Medical Ultrasound Bus, and has witnessed 3 local abortion facilities close in just over 3 years. Mark credits this success largely to God working through their partnership with Guiding Star El Paso, which he helped launch as a board member in 2017. His experiences with his wife and cesarean section, miscarriages, and homebirths — as well as his countless interactions with women considering and harmed by abortion—have made Mark extremely passionate about wholistic women’s healthcare as the ultimate solution to many of the symptoms we face as a culture an is frequently asked to train pro-life groups across the country He resides in Chaparral, New Mexico, with his wife, five children, along with their numerous chickens and goats.
Sarah Ward, her husband, and their three children call Michigan home. She has been a licensed massage therapist since 2007 as well as went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design with a minor in photography. She has been self-employed since 2007 and runs both a successful massage therapy practice and graphic design business. She has worked with Guiding Star in some capacity since 2017. She has always been passionate about wholistic women’s healthcare and empowering girls and women through the education of their natural bodily, she looks forward to helping grow and share the mission of Guiding Star with the world.
Angie started working with GSP in September 2022 after meeting Leah at a dinner party and asking if she needed some help with GSP. Leah gave an enthusiastic “yes” and now Angie is the executive assistant. She is very passionate about Wholistic feminism, childbirth, and natural living and aspires to become a Fertility Practitioner and a nurse midwife one day. She is also a homeschooling Mom to five young children and is a registered nurse. Angie and her husband live in central Minnesota with their children and 9 chickens.
Kari Beadner and her husband Aaron have 3 living children and call Twin Cities, MN home. Kari is a certified FertilityCare Practitioner and has been teaching the Creighton Model FertilityCare System since 2012. She became a Certified Labor Doula in 2015 and is now the Coordinator of
the Guiding Star Cycle Show. Kari is passionate about teaching women of all ages about how their bodies work and function naturally while providing all of their options for natural, holistic, life-affirming health care.
My name is Christina Haug. I live in the beautiful state of Virginia. I am a rising senior at Franciscan University of Steubenville where I am majoring in Political Science and double-minoring in Legal Studies as well as Philosophy. I am beyond blessed and excited to be the Women’s Health Week Coordinator for The Guiding Star and to work closely with the amazing women who are part of this organization.