Carol Sakala is director of programs for the Childbirth Connection, a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families. Carol has worked with Childbirth Connection to plan its long-term national program to promote evidence-based maternity care, and has been director of programs since the program began. She is a former Pew Health Policy Fellow, and has an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at Boston University's School of Public Health.