BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2026

     Annette Manant has been a RN since 1976 and a CNM since 1983, long before some of you were born! RN BSN California State University, Fresno, 1976. Graduated in the second Midwifery Program USC, LA County Hospital in 1983. She worked in L&D, did Hospital, Birth Center, and Home Births. She has a PhD from UH Manoa as a Nurse Educator and has taught BSN students at HPU and UH Hilo. She retired from a Community-Based Health Center, Hamakua-Kohala Health on the Big Island, providing direct care to women, in March, 2021. 

     Annette has supported ACNM since becoming a midwife and was our Affiliate Secretary when Roxanne Estes, CNM from Puna District took the HAA reins and continued as Secretary under Colleen Bass, CNM from Kauai. In her retirement, she made a decision to continue her support of ACNM and HAA by volunteering to be the President of HAA. She lives in Honoka`a on the north-east side of the Big Island. She lives with her husband, Michael; they were married in 1980. She is a mother of 2 grown children and 2 grand-babies. She likes to hike, snorkel, and practice yoga. She doesn't like to garden.

 Alex Brito is a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP), Registered Nurse (RN-BSN), and Women’s Health Herbalist. She holds a Master’s degree in Nurse Midwifery from Georgetown University and provides integrative, trauma-informed, and community-centered care across the lifespan.

     She began her nursing career in Colorado and trained as a labor and delivery nurse before relocating to Maui. In Hawai‘i, Alex has worked across hospital, clinic, homebirth, and hospice settings, including Maui Memorial Medical Center, Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, and Hospice Maui. She is a co-owner of Maui Midwifery, where she partners with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) to provide community-based homebirth care.

     Alex earned her CNM/WHNP degree from Georgetown University, completing all of her midwifery and women’s health clinical training in Hawai‘i across community health centers, homebirth practices, and hospital-based midwifery settings.

     She is the mother of two children, both born at home in Maui. These experiences continue to shape her commitment to physiologic birth, informed choice, and expanding access to midwifery-led care.

     Connie graduated from Oregon Health Science University Midwifery Program in 19965. Her first job was with the CNMS at the University of New Mexico Hospital (1995-1998) - then was romanced to Hawai’i in 1998. She worked at Kalihi Palama Health Center, attending births at Kapiolani Medical Center from 1999-12010. She then joined the Kaiser CNMS in 2010 where she continues to joyfully practice. 

     Side jobs throughout the years included teaching Women’s Health at the University of Hawai’i and was also a Clinical Coordinator with Frontier University. Connie enjoys time and travel with her family, cooking (and then sharing with friends), hiking, reading, and learning how to play the cello!