There are many roads to becoming a parent. In this session, alums will share their personal experiences with IVF, fostering, adoption, single-parenthood and other non-traditional options of starting a family.  

Nicolle Hamilton ’01 is a single mother by choice to her 4-year-old son, Elliott. She is a self-reported open book who is happy to share about the SMC journey! Nicolle lives in the San Francisco area. She is a partner at ZS Associates, a strategy consulting firm, where she specializes in pharmaceutical drug pricing and market access. She was a biochemistry major at Mount Holyoke and has a Ph.D. in immunology. 

After a nonlinear early career path, Jessica Braun ’06 has recently settled into her own firm, where she represents children in the foster care system as their Guardian Ad Litem. It makes sense that Jessica fosters children and she adopted her son through foster care. Jessica and her husband have attempted IVF, and most recently are exploring embryo adoption to complete their family. 

Katie Kraschel ’06 is the executive director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, where she also co-teaches the Reproductive Rights and Justice Project Clinic. Katie’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of reproduction, gender and health policy with a particular concentration on reproductive technologies. Her work has appeared in prominent journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, and the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. Previously, Katie was associate counsel at Yale New Haven Health System. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Mount Holyoke and a law degree from Harvard Law School. She currently serves on the board of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, and previously served on the Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees. She lives in Mystic, Connecticut, with her wife, their 2-month-old son, and their 11-year-old Boston Terrier. 

OPEN TO ALL classes attending Reunion 2021.

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