Elizabeth Naylor IBCLC, MSW, MS, DrPH Candidate

Elizabeth has many roles in her life, each of which is interwoven to shape her passions. She is a mother, a birth and mental health professional, a healer, and a writer. Elizabeth is the driving force, executive director, and visionary of My-Vida, a budding nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting healing and whole person health. She has drawn from her personal experience caring for her four children with myotonic muscular dystrophy, a degenerative neurological disease, as well as her career as a birth professional, to create My-Vida, with a mission to improve the lives of individuals, caregivers, and care providers by building community and fostering healing within the shared experience of the healthcare system. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Social Work degree, as well as a Master of Science in Disaster Resilience Leadership from Tulane University. She will complete her Doctor of Public Health degree in the spring of 2026, also from Tulane University. Her doctoral focus is on advancing mental and physical health by mitigating and reducing Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) through improved communication between patients, family members, and care providers using unique and innovative strategies.

Elizabeth has spent nearly her entire adult life working and running her own business, Enlightened Mama, providing birth doula services, education, craniosacral therapy, and lactation support to families, as well as training aspiring birth professionals. She firmly believes in creating balance in life and achieves it by incorporating her personal passions of cooking, writing, travel, and yoga as much as possible into her busy yet abundant life.

Elizabeth lives in the Minneapolis, MN metropolitan area with her extraordinary kids, Lukas (age 16) and Isadora (age 14), where they keep the spirit of her other two children alive in all that they do. She tragically lost her oldest daughter, Gianna, at age 16 on March 17, 2023, and her oldest son, Giacomo, at age 20 on January 25, 2025. Though she lives each day with a broken heart, Elizabeth finds solace in knowing that she gave them incredibly full lives that ended with autonomy, dignity, and peace. All of Elizabeth’s work is done in honor of her four children, each of whom inspires and humbles her daily. She serves families and individuals both locally and globally and educates perinatal professionals worldwide.