10/16/2026
This award honors an exceptional, relatively new midwife who has shown innovative and creative work in practice, education, administration, or research. This year’s recipient has done all of that, and she has done it in just a few short years.
Rashea Banks became a CNM in 2023 and quickly became a respected full scope midwife and core faculty member at Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her colleagues will tell you that her knowledge, skill, and humble confidence were clear from day one, and that she has already accomplished more than many midwives do in an entire career.
Rashea co-developed a Trauma Informed Preceptor Workshop, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, that helps clinical educators build safe and supportive learning environments, starting with the work of addressing their own trauma. What began at Baystate is now reaching midwives across the region. She is also helping to bring free educational opportunities to surrounding colleges, opening new pathways into the profession. At Baystate, she created a course on professional issues in midwifery that students quickly embraced, and she coordinates their clinical rotations as both mentor and organizer.
Her innovation reaches into practice as well. Rashea helped restructure her practice’s clinical guidelines, brought group prenatal care to a Connecticut OB/GYN practice, and created The Prenatal Planning Co., an educational platform for expectant families. She does all of this while commuting daily from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Springfield.
Her colleagues describe someone who listens carefully, values every perspective, and is often the first to volunteer. This year, she presented her poster, “Carrying the Legacy Forward: Midwives of Color Transforming Care, Education and the Profession,” with the ACNM community.
Please join us in congratulating Rashea Banks, this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Leadership and Innovation Award.
