Shawn was born in Key West and graduated high school in Miami in 1989 before relocating to Iowa at age 18. She met and married her husband, Borge, of 29 years and they have five adult children, with their first grandchild arriving this summer! Shawn converted a pregnancy counseling center to a pregnancy help medical clinic in Dubuque Iowa in 2006, then in 2007 went on to found Informed Choice of Iowa and Informed Choices Medical Clinics located across Iowa. In June 2008, she was invited to speak at the Knights of Columbus State Convention on Sioux City, Iowa and share the vision of reaching abortion minded women and the use of ultrasound machines to most effectively do that. Within 6 months, that vision was made a reality at the national level with the Knights of Columbus. In the years that intervened, Shawn returned to school and completed a Master’s in Public Health – Health Management & Policy and an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship. In 2018, she facilitated the credentialling and accreditation of the Informed Choices Clinics as service of her consulting business, Zierke Consulting Group.
“I am innovative, resourceful, and unintimidated by the unique challenges of the pro-life nonprofit world. I am a shepherd for my cause — I bring people in to support the mission. I understand people, I listen, and I live to open doors and knock down barriers.” – Shawn-Zierke
More about Shawn’s Life & Work
Last October, Informed Choice of Iowa (ICOI)/Informed Choices Medical Clinics was awarded a grant to create and pay for the first in the nation registered RN Apprenticeship in Ambulatory Women’s Health for PMCs recognized by the US Department of Labor. TruMont LLC is the sponsor and RTI provider that ICOI partnered with within Iowa when they applied for the grant. Through this Registered Apprenticeship program grant, TruMont created a super specialty in Ambulatory Women’s Health specifically crafted for PMCs. This legitimizes what PMCs do and truly elevates the RN practice within PMCs. Nursing Apprenticeships are recognized as the highest level of transition to practice programs by the ANA – American Nursing Association. While Shawn wrote the Iowa grant and has managed it, now she is contracted by TruMont directly, and they wrote a similar grant in Florida that was just awarded to TruMont through Governor DeSantis’ discretionary funds and the Florida Department of Education Pathways to Career Opportunities Grant 2020-21.
