Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative

Shannon Fair comes to this work through lived experience, professional training, and a deep understanding of what it means to navigate pregnancy, birth, and parenting without safety, stability, or adequate support.

At 17, Shannon experienced her first birth while in a domestic abuse situation, unhoused, and estranged from her family and support systems. That birth was marked by trauma, fear, and survival. There were few protections, little continuity of care, and no space to process what was happening in real time. Like many young parents in crisis, she was expected to endure circumstances that no one should have to navigate alone.

Her second birth was profoundly different. Through a women and infants clinic, Shannon experienced a model of care that was relational, responsive, and deeply supportive. For the first time, she felt held by a team that recognized her as a whole person. Traumas were addressed as they arose, not dismissed or deferred. That care model did not just improve her birth experience, it saved her life. It showed her what is possible when systems are designed to support rather than manage people.

Even with that support, Shannon carried significant unresolved trauma into her early years of parenting. She understands firsthand that access to care does not erase the impact of complex trauma, and that healing is not linear. Parenting can surface old wounds in unexpected ways, especially when early experiences included violence, instability, or abandonment. This awareness deeply informs how she approaches care, education, and system change.

Professionally, Shannon holds a master’s degree in community counseling and brings decades of experience working at the intersection of trauma, bodies, and systems of care. Her background includes extensive work as a physical rehabilitation therapist and bodyworker, where she focused on addressing how trauma is held in the body and supporting healing through movement, regulation, and relational care. Across her career, she has founded and grown programs, developed trainings and curriculum, and worked in case management and community development roles. In addition, she brings experience as a full spectrum, community-based doula, lactation consultant, and certified nutrition educator. Her work centers on supporting families facing layered barriers, including poverty, trauma history, discrimination, rural isolation, and limited access to services. She is particularly committed to serving individuals and families who, for a wide range of reasons, do not feel safe, welcomed, or adequately supported within traditional systems of care. Her approach goes beyond trauma informed care, focusing instead on trauma responsive, health centered, and family specific protocols that adapt to each person’s reality.

As founder and director, Shannon leads with the belief that healing requires more than education or isolated services. It requires continuity, trust, skilled support, and community. Her work is grounded in the understanding that families do not fail systems, systems fail families. She is committed to building models of care and training that honor lived experience, address complex trauma, and ensure families are not left surviving alone when healing is possible.

​F. Dana Bear is the co-director of the Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative, where she works to advance culturally rooted, community-led models of care for Indigenous families and communities of color. An enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation, Bear brings to this work a commitment shaped by lineage, lived experience, and cultural responsibility. She also serves on the Center for Indigenous Resilience, Culture, and Maternal Health Equity (CIRCLE) Community Advisory Board, contributing community-informed insight to maternal health equity initiatives.

An enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation, Bear is from the Grayhorse District and the Buffalo Bull Face Clan. She carries German, Puerto Rican, and Black heritage and comes from a long line of Osage leaders, artists, and culture bearers. Bear is the daughter of Nelson Johnson and Angela Tallchief; granddaughter of Betty Lee McKinley and Tommy Tallchief; great-granddaughter of Nettie Kastl and Alex Tallchief; great-great-granddaughter of Eliza Bigheart and Alex Tallchief; and great-niece of Marjorie and Maria Tallchief. She currently resides in Oklahoma with her two children, Benny and Story, and remains actively engaged in Osage cultural life, including serving as a community cook in various capacities. 

Bear comes to maternal health and equity work through both professional training and personal experience. Navigating her own pregnancies, particularly the challenges of finding culturally aligned, affirming birth support during her second pregnancy, sparked a deeper exploration into the role birthworkers play in Indigenous and communities of color. What began as research and curiosity became a calling. Though she once imagined doula work as something she might pursue later in life, the need within her community, coupled with her own lived realities, brought that future forward sooner than expected.

She is trained as a full-spectrum doula and childbirth educator through the Birthing Advocacy Doula Training program, has trained with the Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative, and holds an Associate Degree in Native American Studies from Tulsa Community College. Bear is also a certified Indigenous Lactation Counselor (ILC). Her approach to birth work is grounded in reproductive justice, cultural continuity, and the belief that families deserve care that reflects who they are and where they come from.

Beyond birth work, Bear is a multidisciplinary artist, herbalist, activist, and lifelong learner. She is the founder of Tallchief Designs LLC, where she creates wearable art inspired by Wahzhaze heritage that bridges traditional and contemporary design. Her work through Tallchief & Co. extends into birth support and herbal services, emphasizing reconnection with plants, food, and land as pathways to self-determination and healing.

“Connecting with plants, food, and nature, and taking care of the way we bring life in and out of this world is a step forward in self-determination for communities of color,” Bear shares. As an Afro-Indigenous woman, she understands how ancestral memory lives within the body, particularly in birthing bodies on these lands. Her passion lies in empowering birthing bodies to use their voices, trust their knowledge, and advocate for themselves throughout their birth experiences.

Bear contributes a perspective grounded in culture, creativity, and community accountability. She is committed to advancing models of care that are relational, culturally rooted, and led by the communities they are meant to serve. Because, as she affirms, community-based care means for us, by us.

Karli Lyles comes to this work with both professional training and deeply lived experience. Her commitment to supporting families is rooted in her own journey through pregnancy, loss, survival, and long-term caregiving during one of life’s most vulnerable seasons.

At 19, Karli gave birth to twin daughters. What followed was not the story she expected. She experienced the loss of one twin while her surviving daughter spent seven months in the NICU, eventually coming home dependent on medical equipment and specialized services. Grieving one child while fighting for the life of another created a level of complexity few spaces were equipped to hold. During this time, Karli was supported by her spouse, friends, and family, whose presence helped keep her going through unimaginable circumstances.

At the same time, as a military spouse, Karli faced real concerns about how seeking professional mental health support might affect her family’s future and stability. While she was deeply supported personally, she did not have access to professional, trauma-informed care during those early years. The support she had was essential and life-sustaining, but it was not enough to move fully out of survival mode.

Nearly two decades later, with the benefit of time, reflection, and professional support, Karli understands what she could not then. Medical trauma, grief, and the mental health challenges that can follow life-altering events are not signs of weakness or failure. They are human responses to overwhelming experiences. Healing requires both community and skilled support, and having a village that includes professional care can be life-changing.

Professionally, Karli is a master’s level social worker with extensive experience supporting individuals and families through complex systems, crisis, and major life transitions. She brings a grounded understanding of how trauma intersects with systems of care, particularly in rural communities, and how easily families can be left navigating those systems without adequate guidance.

As part of the training development team, Karli helps shape programs that honor lived experience, recognize the limits of informal support alone, and ensure families and providers alike have access to the tools, care, and community needed not just to survive, but to heal.

Sohayla Samimi is a Trauma Informed cisgender female (she/her) DONA certified doula who is passionate about supporting safety and human rights for birthing families. She believes in going beyond the Golden Rule and rather than "treating others as I want to be treated" she prefers the Platinum Rule "to treat others as THEY want to be treated"
Our uniqueness is our strength, and it's through diversity that we expand our compassion and deepen our awareness of strength within the human spirit.
Sohayla first became a mother at 15 herself, and is a mother of three.

In 2009 Sohayla began work as a Direct Support Professional, helping people with differing levels of abilities to not only meet their daily needs and support their independence, but also to understand their rights, and live their lives with safety and dignity. This is where her passion for human rights advocacy was discovered. In 2017 Sohayla joined with New View Healing Solutions, an organization which provides mental health services to Oklahoma families, and free Trauma Informed training to Social Workers, Police, Schools and other local systems of care. Sohayla also served as a "Recovery Specialist" for patients undergoing inpatient care with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services during this time.

This is where she gained invaluable expertise and insight for understanding the natural physical and emotional impacts of trauma, and what helps to holistically heal from the injuries of trauma, and restore balance for body and mind.
Birth is one of the most profoundly impactful experiences a person and their baby will have throughout their entire lifespan. After learning about the role of a Doula Sohayla's eyes were opened up to a new way to prevent trauma, improve outcomes & support healing for birthing people and their babies, and in 2020 after dreaming of doing something to help Oklahoma families for a very long time she knew that becoming a Doula was her calling, she began training with DONA International and in 2021 began supporting births & improving outcomes in some of the most challenging, high intervention environments with Cleveland County Health Department's Birth Partner's Program. You can expect Sohayla to use inclusive & respectful language for all people, to help create a safe space, to promote empowerment through evidence based education information & resources, and provide you with practical tools for healthy coping during pregnancy, labor and beyond creating positive momentum for a healthy transformation into parenthood.

Sohayla loves stories of healing and overcoming, collecting and cooking the most amazing vegan recipes, and learning about therapeutic nutrition.
Some other favorite past times include enjoying music and art of all kinds and connecting with animals and nature.