Meet the CARES Team
Meet the dedicated individuals who lead and support our work. Our staff leadership, contractors, and Board of Directors bring a diverse range of skills, experiences, and perspectives to Sanctuary CARES’ mission.
Staff Leadership
Jess Hanlin and Ali Batwin
Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors
Jess (on left) and Ali (on right)—experienced postpartum doulas committed to expanding access to high-quality postpartum support for families across Colorado.
JESS HANLIN
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Postpartum Doula
Jess began this work after becoming a mother herself and recognizing the importance of support around every aspect of postpartum care, especially maternal mental health. Her own experience with postpartum depression and anxiety after the birth of her daughter was ground-shaking and deeply humbling. Later, having a drastically more grounded and supported postpartum experience after the birth of her son drew her back into the field, where she began interweaving the roles of postpartum doula and therapist. That path led to a beautiful marriage of nurturing postpartum care and mood support in the home setting.
Jess is a CAPPA-trained postpartum doula, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and postnatal and restorative yoga instructor, with advanced training in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her two children, soaking in the fresh mountain air, and hanging out with her sweet pup, Ivy.
ALI BATWIN
Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC), Postpartum Doula
Ali is passionate about ensuring all families have access to meaningful postpartum support and has dedicated her career to expanding doula care in Colorado and beyond. She was inspired to work in maternal and infant health from a young age, watching her mother develop nutrition programs for mothers and babies in developing countries. Ali is a Certified Lactation Counselor through the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice, a CAPPA-trained postpartum doula, yoga instructor, and family chef. Prior to her career in maternal health, she worked in media and managed several small film and marketing firms.
Ali is especially passionate about postpartum nutrition and restorative care, and continues to study healing foods and traditions from cultures around the world. Ali also leads restorative and yin yoga sessions for new mothers to support relaxation and recovery. She speaks conversational Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and enjoys working with families from a wide range of backgrounds. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, camping, foraging for wild mushrooms, and baking with her partner and his two children.
Contractors
Kristen Gelinas
Fundraising Consultant
Kristen brings over seventeen years of experience helping mission-driven organizations build strong, sustainable revenue streams. She spent nearly a decade in senior leadership roles at NYC’s High Line, where she led high-impact fundraising initiatives and strategic partnerships.
Today, Kristen supports Sanctuary in a dual capacity, leading fundraising, business development, and partnership strategy across both its nonprofit and for-profit arms. She specializes in helping growing organizations navigate complexity, bring clarity to critical decisions, and build the systems and relationships needed to sustain and scale impact.
Kristen is also a certified maternal health coach and a former Sanctuary client. Her work is deeply informed by her own transition into motherhood, giving her a personal understanding of the vital role postpartum doula care plays in supporting growing families.
Sara Collins
MPH Practicum Student, Research Assistant
Sara is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Public Health from Southern New Hampshire University. She supports Sanctuary CARES in several capacities, primarily as the lead research assistant and data coordinator for our NIH-funded IMPROVE research project. Sara also serves as the Senior Resource and Referral Specialist for PROSPER within CO-MAP (Colorado Office of Mental Health Access Programs), housed in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and as Co-Chair of the Education Subcommittee for OPEN (Opportunity, Pathways, Engagement, & Networking).
A native Coloradan, Sara is passionate about the perinatal period and helping providers connect families with psychiatric consultation, treatment, recovery support, and other community-based resources.
Board of Directors
Jannelle Allong-Diakabana
Jannelle brings both personal and professional experience to Sanctuary CARES. Her own challenging postpartum experience as a first-time mother, combined with her work as a practicing postpartum doula, gives her a firsthand understanding of the need for strong family support after birth. She also brings more than 15 years of experience in strategic communications and leadership from her career as a former U.S. Army officer and senior tech executive, with particular strengths in brand development, storytelling, outreach, and fundraising.
Kelly Evans
Kelly is a maternal health advocate and birth doula in the local community and has served on the CARES board since its founding. As an engineer by training, she brings both analytical thinking and an intuitive approach to her work. She has built a career in health tech focused on data integrations and data strategy in the startup space. Kelly is currently a Technical Program Manager on the Core Data Team at Pomelo Care, a virtual medical practice for maternal and women’s health.
Elizabeth Greenwell
Elizabeth (“Babette”) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, with more than 25 years of experience in maternal and child health. She is deeply committed to health equity and serving underserved populations, including Spanish-speaking, Native American, and frontier communities, and brings extensive experience to CARES as a clinician, educator, and researcher.
Naomi Lopez
Naomi is a Registered Nurse and data science expert who previously supported Sanctuary families as a postpartum doula. She now serves on the CARES board, where she applies her expertise in data management, visualization, and business intelligence to support informed, strategic growth. Naomi also supports Latinx outreach and translation efforts, helping ensure Spanish-speaking families feel welcome and represented throughout their care experience.
Emma Stapp
Emma is a birth and postpartum doula with the Sanctuary team. She began her career at a community-based agency supporting deaf women and child survivors of domestic abuse, and later attended Birthingway College of Midwifery, earned a Remote Emergency Medical Technician certification, and taught parenting classes. Emma has served on the CARES board since its founding and brings a strong commitment to family support, advocacy, and community-based care.
