Staff

Vesta Hartman Garcia, Executive Director of the BCIA, has been active in the babywearing community for the last decade. She founded Peppermint.com and later Ellaroo Baby Carriers. After moving on from both companies, she joined the board of Nurturing Across Cultures, and continued to work toward a voluntary sling standard through ASTM International. Strengthening the voice of the babywearing industry through the BCIA is her current focus. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband, daughter, and dog.

Board of Directors

Executive Committee

Beth Leistensnider, BCIA Secretary, founded Catbird Baby in 2005 after her experiences wearing and making mei tai carriers for her first child, born in 2003. Since then the business has expanded to include the pikkolo soft structured carrier, a mei tai-inspired buckle carrier, and babywearing accessories. Beth lives in Chicago with her husband, her daughter who is now just turned 7, and her son, who is 3.

Christine Alonso, BCIA Treasurer, is a Berkeley California mom of three who began babywearing immediately with the birth of her eldest in December 2002. She is founder and CEO of Tender Cargo Inc, which operates Tender Cargo Baby Gear and The Nurture Center which is a brick & mortar store and Medela Certified Nursing Center.

Britt Pegan began Milkface Nursingwear Inc in 2001 six months after the birth of her first daughter. Filling a need for a quality Canadian source of baby carriers and nursingwear, Milkface has grown quickly. Beginning as an online business, it has evolved into online plus two brick and mortar stores in Ottawa, Ontario. Britt’s husband, Andy, joined Milkface in 2008. They now have three daughters – all of whom plan to sling their babies when they grow up!

Arie Brentnall-Compton is a Certified Babywearing Educator & Lactation Consultant from Western Canada.  She co-owns Tadpoles & Butterflies, an online babywearing store, as well as operating the Parent's Village Babywearing School.  She speaks at workshops and conferences with a focus on improving public health outcomes through babywearing.  Arie does freelance writing on a variety of parenting topics.  She lives in the country with her husband and 3 children.

Board members

"Babywearing," says Kristi Hayes-Devlin of Gypsy Mama, LLC, BCIA Chairwoman, "is the keystone of my parenting." Kristi's babywearing journey began during her first pregnancy in 1999 when she read an article discussing the link between babywearing and increased IQ. She began using a sling as soon as she left the hospital, and loved it so much she never did buy a stroller. Kristi started Gypsy Mama, LLC in 2004, focusing on the manufacture of quality wraparound carriers in unique fabrics. Kristi lives in Maine with her four children (newborn to age 11), her husband, Jonas, and two cats, where she enjoys tying business and advocacy work together.

Alissa DeRouchie began babywearing out of necessity with her first child in 2003. Soon after she found herself educating and helping others with baby carriers and began selling online in 2004. She now spends most her time educating and promoting babywearing in her Columbus, Ohio retail store, Sprout Soup which opened it's doors in 2008. When not in the store, you can find her chasing after her two homeschooled boys. 

Joanna McNeilly, is a Licensed Babywearing Educator and is a Die Trageschule Dresden Babywearing Consultant. She and Bianca Fehn own Speranza Enterprises, the parent company to Metro Minis, TheSlingStation.com, and Peppermint.com. Joanna started her babywearing journey in 2004 while desperate to calm her fussy son and then discovered the true beauty of what babywearing offers both mom and baby when her daughter decided to come into the world early in 2006. She is dedicated to educating about safe, proper babywearing and has been teaching free weekly classes for three years. In her spare time she enjoys spending her time with her children and husband, plus the cats, fish, and her three gardens.

Paul and Rochelle Price began manufacturing and selling SlingRings from their Arizona home in 2001. With backgrounds in manufacturing, robotics, engineering, and design they work to bring solid experience in safety and testing to the "Work-at-home" world. Their current projects include building an eco-friendly house with their five children and an electric car conversion. Parents and children love to participate in advocacy for babywearing, breastfeeding, home school, home birth and home business. Rochelle is also the chairwoman of the Sling Standards subcommittee for ASTM International.

Gillian Beerman, Founder and President of Moby Wrap Inc., holds an MA in Clinical Psychology and is a mother of 3. Before starting Moby Wrap, she taught Parent Education at Parents Place in Pacific Grove, CA. While teaching and wearing her second child in other types of baby carriers, she was introduced to a wrap-style carrier. The experience moved Gillian to share this most close, secure and comfortable form of babywearing with more parents and founded the company in 2003. The name “Moby” comes from Mother and Baby - which speaks to the intimate feeling of wearing your little one in a wrap carrier.

Jan Heirtzler started sewing slings in 2000 after the birth of her first child, and Sleeping Baby Productions was named in response to the fact she couldn't get anything done unless he was sleeping (usually in a sling). Two more babies followed in 2003 and 2007, and the business grew with her family. She now sews slings out of her home in Durham, NH.