Episode 180: Carrying Dreams – Emily Westerfield
Emily Westerfield is a surrogacy expert, passionate surrogacy advocate, and a five-time gestational carrier. As one of the Co-Founders and Gestational Carrier Program Director, Emily has helped hundreds of intended parents and surrogates throughout their journeys.
Emily is well-versed in the core processes and complexities along with the array of emotions associated with surrogacy. Her experiences have allowed her to share personal knowledge and expertise in consultations and the facilitation of journeys for both intended parents and surrogates, consistently setting them up for success.
During her illustrious career, Emily has partnered with specialists including obstetricians, gynecologists, urologists, and reproductive endocrinologists along with community hospitals around the northeast to grow awareness of surrogacy. Her strategic collaboration with Nir Keren birthed the launch of Carrying Dreams Surrogacy – an agency committed to providing comprehensive and unique experiences for intended parents and gestational carriers alike.
Emily is an ardent contributor to women’s health and development, bringing light and education around women’s fertility and surrogacy. Her work can be found featured in Women magazines and online news outlets including Women's Health, Today.com, Bustle, Thrive Global and Authority, among others.
She’s married to her supportive husband Max, the happy mother of three beautiful children and also an active gestational carrier having had the pleasure of bringing both singletons and multiples to couples and families across the country.
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Episode 179: Surrogacy in Uganda – Lisa Stark Hughes
Lisa has been a surrogate twice herself and understands exactly what it is like to give that gift to a couple that has been dreaming of a child for so long they thought it might never happen.
Lisa was honored when invited to Uganda to assist the government in creating ethical surrogacy legislation. Speaking from her perspective as the “Host Mother” it was clear that her motives were to protect the Host Mothers and create a structure that works for both the Intended Parents and Host Mothers.
Lisa believes that families are the greatest gift and finances should not be the limiting factor to attaining your dream. By creating an ethical structure for surrogacy in Uganda, Lisa has helped create a safe, ethical, and affordable option. Host Moms Uganda is a surrogacy program that goes beyond simple compensation for services.
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Episode 178: Sunfish – Angela Rastegar
Angela Rastegar is the founder and CEO of Sunfish Technologies founded in 2022, a financial platform focused on making parenthood affordable for all types of families. Sunfish’s mission is to bring financial inclusion to the ART (assisted reproductive technologies) community via a full service financial planning toolkit including loans, guarantees, grants, and guidance. Sunfish works directly with numerous IVF clinics, surrogacy agencies, and egg banks. The leadership team has expertise in health tech, fintech, consumer lending, and assisted reproduction. Angela has spoken at several recent events on the state of the economy and how it impacts consumer affordability in fertility, and the landscape of innovation on financial tools for assisted reproduction. Angela was most recently a Director at Circle Surrogacy and Egg Donation, and she holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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Episode 177: Gift of Surrogacy Foundation – Zach French
Zach French is a bar certified attorney in the State of New York and currently serves as Vice President of SeedTrust. He provides oversight and support to the legal, sales and marketing departments.
Zach’s diverse background encompasses entrepreneurship, enterprise software sales, legal expertise, and most recently consulting in business development for emerging technologies including blockchain and AI. His wealth of experience is united by a core philosophy of building better connections within thriving ecosystems through education, sales, and strategy. With a high-level perspective, he identifies shared goals, develops effective communication strategies, and leverages technology to drive progress.
Zach’s connection to the ART world began when he and his wife, Alexandra, embarked on their own surrogacy journey, after Alexandra’s battle with breast cancer. The tremendous mental and financial toll from their journey led them to establish the Gift of Surrogacy Foundation (GSF). Within just one year, GSF has raised $100,000 and has given away a grant for the full cost of surrogacy. Zach and Alexandra firmly believe in expanding the surrogacy ecosystem, and continue to grow GSF through education, emotional support, and financial assistance.
At SeedTrust, we help families grow without the financial stress of the escrow process. We provide secure, transparent, affordable and reliable escrow services to intended parents, surrogates and egg donors throughout their collaborative reproductive arrangements allowing everyone involved the ability to focus on what matters most — building families.
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Episode 176: Proov – Dr. Amy Beckley
Amy Beckley has a PhD in pharmacology and has been a hormone scientist for 15+ years. Amy suffered 7 miscarriages. After 3 years of infertility, she successfully conceived. She took her experience and created a new type of fertility diagnostic to help couples navigate their fertility at home to increase their chances of pregnancy.
Amy digs into the science of getting pregnant to help individuals and couples have better conversations with their medical team and potentially get pregnant faster.
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