Katherine Camacho Carr
After working as a public health nurse doing maternal and infant care in Uptown Chicago, Katherine Camacho Carr knew that women needed more than a quick visit from a part-time obstetrician at the Board of Health.
So, when she heard about a new nurse-midwifery program opening at the University of Illinois College of Nursing in the early 1970s, she applied. And the rest is history.
Dr. Carr has been a trailblazer in advancing the field of midwifery and improving the lives of women and children around the world.
In 1977, she not only became one of the first certified midwives in Washington state, but she also co-founded a birth center outside a hospital (Birthplace) and obtained limited admission privileges at UW Medical Center to transfer more complicated patients for obstetrical care. She also worked on early legislation for advanced practice nursing and birth center regulations.
In 1980, she founded the nurse-midwifery practice at Group Health (now Kaiser). She has provided clinical care at Highline Women’s Health and Medical Center (now St. Ann’s), Virginia Mason Medical Center, Valley Medical Center, and Jefferson County Public Health Clinic. At Harborview, she was a women’s health research specialist working on the HPV vaccination clinical trials.
As an educator, Dr. Carr served on the faculty of the Seattle Midwifery School, the University of Washington schools of Nursing and Medicine, the Pacific Lutheran University School of Nursing, and as director of research and development for the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing in Kentucky.
In 2003, she joined Seattle University and developed and directed the master’s and doctorate programs in midwifery.
Dr. Carr has served on many state and national committees and has received numerous awards, including the lifetime achievement award from the American College of Nurse Midwives in 2009.
Her work has helped women and children all over the world. She consulted on the education of nurses, midwives, women, and girls in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. She also helped develop a cervical cancer screening protocol for low-resource settings, tested in Kenya.
However, her work is far from over.
She is now active in growing midwives by helping universities with accreditation.