Karen Brody, founder of BOLD, playwright of Birth

Karen Brody is a mother and writer with a strong background in international development and women's issues. After graduating from Vassar College in Sociology in 1988 she joined the Peace Corps, working as a sociologist on an agriculture project with Mayan Indian women in Belize. She later went on to earn an MA in Women and International Development from the Institute for Social Studies in The Netherlands and work as a community organizer with women's groups in Guatemala, Kenya and New York City. In the 1990's, Brody began writing books and articles, mostly on women's health. She has written for Mothering Magazine and several other publications.

After having delivered her two children at home with midwives in 1999 and 2001, Brody became a passionate advocate for pregnant women. She started a childbirth outreach group in Arkansas in 2001, Arkansas Citizens for Midwives, and then, in 2003, she founded the Takoma Park Birthing Circle in the Washington, DC area.

One year later Brody wrote Birth, her first play. By 2006, after Birth had been both artistically and commercially successful in Austin, Texas, Richmond, Virginia and San Jose, California, Brody launched Birth On Labor Day (BOLD) as a way to raise awareness about the global maternity care crisis and to help birth organizations raise money for their activities so they can continue to support pregnant mothers. Brody produced BOLD’s first film, Being BOLD, in 2007 and she is currently working on a script about birth.

Brody lives in New York with her husband and two sons.

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