Leadership

Thomas Glessner founded the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates nearly thirty years ago. On the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Mr. Glessner was profiled as one of the top fifty pro-life leaders of the last fifty years in the Legacy of Life, alongside Ronald Reagan and Mother Teresa.

• Serves and represents a network of more than 1,700 pregnancy centers and medical clinics across the nation, NIFLA has challenged laws targeting its member centers in several states – including California, Hawaii, Illinois, North Dakota, New York, and Vermont.
• NIFLA successfully challenged a California law forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion. That landmark case, NIFLA v. Becerra, secured the free-speech rights of not only pregnancy centers, but all Americans, on June 26, 2018.
• Authored several books; his most recent, entitled, “Created Equal: Reflections on the Unalienable Right to Life,” highlights the constitutional protection of our most vulnerable citizens - children in the womb.
• Appeared in media outlets such as Fox News, USA Today, Tucker Carlson, CBN News, EWTN, 700 Club, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, Townhall, National Review, The Federalist, and many more.
• A University of Washington School of Law (Seattle, WA) graduate, 1977; member of the bar associations for the Supreme Court of the United States as well as the states of Washington and Virginia.

To book interviews with Thomas Glessner, J.D., please contact NIFLA’s media team at [email protected].

Anne O’Connor has been with the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates since 1993. She served as NIFLA’s general counsel until she joined the staff full-time as NIFLA Vice President of Legal Affairs in April 2013.

During her tenure with NIFLA, O’Connor has been responsible for writing the monthly NIFLA Legal Tips, performing about 1,000 legal audits, consulting with hundreds of centers about the medical clinic conversion process, and teaching at board trainings, conference workshops, webinars and at NIFLA’s Institute of Limited Obstetric Ultrasound.

• She also has written and updated many of NIFLA’s publications, including the Legal Primer, the Medical Clinic Conversion Manual, the Medical Policies & Procedures, the Basic Operational Policies & Procedures, the Employment Handbook, and the HIPAA Voluntary Compliance Manual.
• O’Connor acted as co-counsel on the pro-life Supreme Court case NIFLA v. Becerra.
• She has also been published by or featured in media outlets such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Washington Examiner, CBN News and more.

Dr. Byron C. Calhoun, MD, FACOG, FACS, MBA is a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is board certified in general Obstetrics/Gynecology and the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

• He has authored over 60 peer review articles in the obstetric and gynecologic literature, presented over 100 scientific papers, participated in over 40 research projects, and published several articles on perinatal hospice. He is an original author of the perinatal hospice concept, which provides a multidisciplinary care to families with a lethal prenatal diagnosis.
• Calhoun serves as professor and vice-chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at West Virginia University-Charleston.

Karen D. Poehailos is a family physician in Virginia. She currently serves as NIFLA Assistant Medical Director and on the NIFLA board.

• Poehailos became a physician volunteer for the Charlottesville Pregnancy Center in 1997. She moved on to serve as its volunteer medical director.
• From 2018 to 2021, Poehailos was the regional medical director for ThriVe Central Va. Women’s HealthCare. She supervised medical services including pregnancy tests, performing and reading limited OB ultrasounds, and STI/STD testing and treatment at its four locations in Central Virginia.
• Poehailos become a member of the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline in 2015. She now serves on the medical advisory team for the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
• Poehailos is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and its Family Medicine Residency. She is a certified fertility care medical consultant and a FEMM medical provider working with women on recurrent miscarriage, infertility, and irregular cycles without IVF or hormonal contraception.
• Local secular media and national Catholic media outlets have interviewed Poehailos on abortion pill reversal and other pro-life issues and natural family planning.
• Poehailos will always be grateful to NIFLA for providing her first limited obstetrical ultrasound training and for all the services they provide to the pregnancy medical clinic movement.

NIFLA is pleased to announce the addition of attorney Teresa Cooper Ward to our team. Teresa comes to us with a solid background in legal advocacy. She is licensed in the state of Florida and is currently Of Counsel to a prominent law firm in Tallahassee, Florida. Teresa has served as Senior Attorney for the Civil Justice Subcommittee and as Deputy General Counsel to the Florida House of Representatives. She also served, including a term as chair, for 10 years on the board of directors of the Florida Pregnancy Care Network, Inc., a statewide alliance of pregnancy center organizations. 

• Retired 2020
• Medical Director, Choices Women's Center, Fredericksburg
• Medical Director, Board of Directors Pregnancy Service Center, Farmville
• Ultrasound reader Fredericksburg, Farmville, and Pregnancy Help Center of Chesterfield
• 35 years of OBG practice: US Air Force, private practice, Intermountain Healthcare (Utah), and Kaiser Permanente (Maryland, Virginia)

• A Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer with over 37 years of experience in Abdominal, OB/GYN Sonography
• Instructor and Clinical Coordinator 
• Ultrasound training in Pregnancy Medical Centers 
• I am passionate about ultrasound and the opportunity to serve God in the wonderful ministry of Pregnancy Medical Centers, helping mothers choose life for their precious unborn babies.