GOLD Learning Speakers

CAdrianna Ross CPM, LM Is a professional midwife in the Richmond Virginia area. She has a group practice of professional midwives and a nurse – midwife, River City Midwifery, serving people at home and a freestanding Birth Center. They serve people during pregnancy, postpartum, and provide general wellness care. She has a certificate in advanced herbal studies and completed an herbal apprenticeship in 2013.

Adrienne Guirguis, a board certified lactation consultant has over 25 years experience in helping breastfeeding infants and their families. She began her journey into the world of lactation after struggling to breastfeed her oldest son. She became an accredited La Leche League leader and was able to help babies breastfeed. Her experience with La Leche League led Adrienne to become a International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She has been board certified for 20 years and has experience with a wide range of problems that may be experienced by new families. Adrienne has worked in hospital for over 10 years and then worked in community health for many years. She is a clinical practitioner, working hands on with families to improve feeding outcomes.

Adrienne continues her lactation education, constantly attending conferences and courses to stay up-to-date on the information and skills needed to benefit those who most need breastfeeding help. In 2022 Adrienne completed the Holistic Integrative/Functional Lactation course, a year long program followed by a residency. This course has increased her skills to provide the best care for the families with whom she works.

Adrienne also is an educator, working within the community to teach others the skills necessary to become lactation counselors and eventually board certified lactation consultants.

Adrienne Leeds is a Certified Professional Midwife and Clinical Herbalist. After numerous women told her she had ""midwife energy"" she heeded the calling. Adrienne has studied birth and women's health with Wise Womanhood, The Matrona, The Association of Texas Midwives' Midwifery Training Program, Ysha Oakes’ Sacred Window, and Dr. Rosita Arvigo. She is a graduate of the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies' 3-year Clinical Herbalism program. Adrienne apprenticed with two homebirth midwives and completed a month-long midwifery internship at a teaching hospital in Cusco, Peru. She is a married mother of two homebirthed children.

Prof EL-Khuffash is a Consultant Neonatologist and Paediatrician. He is a qualified International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. His two primary clinical and research areas of expertise are heart function in neonates and the promotion of breast feeding, and breast feeding support, to new mothers. He also has extensive expertise in general feeding issues encountered by babies over the first few months.

Prof EL-Khuffash sees families for prenatal breast feeding and fetal anomaly consultations and postnatal infant assessment, 2 and 6 week checks, and breastfeeding/general support including early irritability and reflux in his consultation rooms in the Rotunda Private Clinic.

Prof EL-Khuffash has considerable knowledge of breast feeding medicine and experience in providing antenatal and postnatal breast feeding advice and support to new mothers. This includes identifying and addressing challenges to breastfeeding in both the mother and the baby. He also specialises in general feeding difficulties and early feeding issues encountered by babies.

Prof EL-Khuffash graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 2002 and enrolled in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland paediatric specialist training scheme in 2005. He completed a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in University College, Dublin in 2008 and his neonatal specialty training in Toronto, Canada (2009-2011). Following this, he was appointed as a consultant Neonatologist and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto in January of 2011. He obtained a diploma in clinical epidemiology during his time in Toronto. He is the recipient of several national and international research awards, with international peer reviewed publications and keynote presentations and the lead for cardiovascular research, supervising several post graduate PhD candidates.

Aiden Farrow is an IBCLC, writer, speaker, and infant feeding and health equity advocate. Parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, they have advocated extensively over the last 16 years in order to increase awareness of the specific challenges faced by cleft affected infants and their families and to increase adequate lactation support for this community. Based in Victoria BC, Aiden has a private practice entirely focused on babies with oral clefts, providing support internationally via telehealth. Aiden serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Human Lactation and co-authored the journal’s policy on sex and gender inclusion. Aiden works with Indigenous families as a family support worker and lactation and infant feeding consultant at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre and has a special interest in food security and food sovereignty for infants and toddlers. 

American midwife lives between Saudi Arabia and Delaware USA and who travels globally providing workshops and lectures for birth workers and trains AMANI Birth Teachers and Doulas. She is an advocate for normal physiologic birth and the rights of parents to education and preparation for birth and the responsibility of birth workers to compassionately support them. She is the International Relations Coordinator for the Saudi Midwifery Group and is supporting new midwifery curriculum development with the Saudi Ministry of Health. Additionally, she provides cultural competency for workshops. Her credits include a variety of published articles and books, many lecture topics, and conference organization. She is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) as designated by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM); has completed her of her Bachelor and Masters of Science in Midwifery and is a licensed midwife in the United States and registered as a Midwifery Specialist by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS).

Alexandra Glass is a gynecologist/ obstetrician and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant working in Hanover, Germany, where she lives with her family. Alexandra is the Vice President of BDL Lactation Consultant Association. She speaks at Local, National and International conferences and she teaches preparatory courses for the IBCLC exam. She is the mother of two daughters, who were both breastfed.

Alex has been a lactation consultant in the Washington, DC area since 2010. In addition to running her private practice, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Lactation Consultants, Alex cares for breastfeeding moms and babies at Hirsch Pediatrics in Rockville, MD. After earning her master's in English Literature and teaching for several years, Alex met two extraordinary people that inspired her to enter the field of lactation: her daughters. Alex has worked at Inova Fairfax Hospital and Sibley Memorial Hospital as an in-patient lactation consultant. In 2015, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Nursing with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Alex is committed to increasing awareness for impaired mammary organ development (IMOD) and impaired mammary organ function (IMOF).

Alexia is a therapeutic coach, the author of Fearless Birthing, and the host of the award-nominated and chart-topping Fear Free Childbirth podcast. What began as a maternity leave side project is now an essential destination for women with a fear of birth with thousands of women now using Alexia’s site every month to lose The Fear. Alexia helps them to prepare for birth through her private sessions, online courses and membership community.

At the heart of Alexia’s work is a unique fear-clearance method, which women around the world are now using to help them prepare for their birth, and that she successfully uses to help women overcome tokophobia. Alexia also provides training to pregnancy and birth professionals who want to use her Fearless Birthing approach so that more women can access this level of fear-clearance support in preparing for pregnancy and birth.

Alia Macrina Heise has worked in the field of lactation since 2004. She is considered the international authority on the topic of dysphoric milk ejection reflex (D-MER). She has been the forerunner in identifying, naming and investigating the anomaly of dysphoria with milk ejection reflex since 2007. She has spoken on the subject at many notable conferences, including GOLD, has given several interviews on the subject for both print and podcasts and has been published through her work on a case study about D-MER for The International Breastfeeding Journal. In 2017 she released the first book on the subject. Alia's passion and enthusiasm for the topic of D-MER are evident in the energy that she demonstrates in her presentations and the novelty of new information on a subject that is not yet well known or understood by many makes for an engaging and interesting presentation. Alia is not only a former sufferer of the lactation anomaly herself, she is also the webmaster of d-mer.org and she works closely with mothers around the world who are suffering with the condition in order to support them and to better understand the variance of the experience. She is also in frequent contact with other professionals in order to spread awareness and to support further research and investigation into the subject. Outside of her work with D-MER, she is also in private practice as an IBCLC in the Finger Lakes region of New York. She lives in a small rural town where she enjoys country living with her three children.

Alice Callahan completed her PhD in Nutritional Biology at UC Davis in 2008, followed by a postdoc in fetal physiology at the University of Arizona. She left the academic track in 2011 to pursue a dual career in college teaching and science writing. Her book, The Science of Mom: A Research-Based Guide to Your Baby’s First Year, about the science of raising a baby, was published in 2015 by Johns Hopkins University Press and was named one of the best science books of the year by Science News. As a freelance writer, Callahan covers health and nutrition topics – often focusing on pregnancy, infancy, and childhood – for many publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Lifehacker. She and her family live in Eugene, Oregon, where she also teaches nutrition and physiology at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College.

Alice Farrow is an IBCLC, writer, speaker, and infant feeding and health equity advocate. Parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, Alice has worked extensively, since 2006, with parents, parent organisations, cleft teams health providers and lactation specialists in order to increase awareness of the specific challenges faced by cleft affected infants and their families and to imprve access to adequate lactation support for this community.

Currently based in Rome, Italy, Alice advocates for, and teaches regularly on, the topic of breastfeeding/chestfeeding with an oral cleft via presentations, courses, articles, booklets and handouts and supports parents and professionals wordwide via their Cleft Lip and Palate Breastfeeding website and associated online support group, and in person and distance consultations.

Dr. Hazelbaker has been a therapist in private practice for over 30 years. She specializes in cross-disciplinary treatment and to that end has taken training in several modalities to best assist her clients. She is a certified Craniosacral Therapist, a Lymph Drainage Therapy practitioner, a Tummy Time™ Trainer, a Haller Method practitioner, A Pre and Perinatal Psychology Educator, a Lactation Therapist Diplomate, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association.

She earned her Master’s Degree from Pacific Oaks College (Human Development specializing in Human Lactation) and her doctorate from The Union Institute and University (Psychology, specializing in Energetic and Transformational healing.)

People recognize her as an expert on infant sucking issues caused by various structural problems like torticollis, plagiocephaly, brachycephaly and tissue shock-trauma. She invented the Hazelbaker™ FingerFeeder and the Infant Breastfeeding CranioSacral Protocol™ to assist in the resolution of this type of infant sucking dysfunction.

Allison Tolman has experience as an LPN, CLC, Certified Birth Doula, Certified Childbirth Educator, and IBCLC. She has found a passion for breast pumps and now works exclusively with mothers who are combining breastfeeding and pumping while returning to work after maternity leave. She (along with an engineer) developed a device used to test breast pumps and has enjoyed sharing her data and findings with her online community and helping mothers choose and use the best breast pump for them. Her husband is active duty military in the US Army and together they have 3 little boys. They have lived all over the US and spent 3 wonderful years in Belgium. She is also pursuing a bachelors in Maternal Child Health: Human Lactation at Union Institute & University.

Allison Walsh IBCLC LCCE FACCE is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (2006), Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (2000), and and doula (2000) in private practice in New York City. She is one of the three founders of the Lactation Learning Collective, which offers education and support to those on the pathway toward certification as International Board Certified Lactation Consultants along with families in need of lactation support. She trains childbirth educators as a Co-Director of the NYC Lamaze Childbirth Educator Program and is a past president of Lamaze. Allison has represented Lamaze International as a delegate to the United States Breastfeeding Committee since 2004, and has served in various leadership and committee roles. Allison is a member of the New York City Breastfeeding Leadership Council, the New York Lactation Consultant Association, and an active La Leche League Leader. She co-chaired the Save the Birthing Center Committee which was a group of professionals, advocates and consumers who fought valiantly but unsuccessfully to stop the closure of the Mount Sinai West (formerly Roosevelt) Birthing Center in New York City. Prior to the birth of her first child, Allison was a political consultant and community organizer. Skills from that “past life” are useful in all aspects of her work in the birth world. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and mother of three formerly breastfed children. Allison thinks that babies are the most interesting of all people and never underestimates the power of a good cup of tea, fresh air, and fresh bed linen.

Allyson is a physical therapist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and co-owner of Nurture Columbus, in Columbus, Ohio. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Ohio University in 1997, and Master of Physical Therapy degree from Northwestern University in 1999. After having a child in 2007, she volunteered as a La Leche League leader. She discovered a love for supporting new parents but a gap in lactation care, which led her to become an IBCLC in 2014. Her clinical approach to identifying and overcoming feeding challenges is unique with physical therapy foundations in posture, movement and reflexive function. Through presentations she endeavors to engage IBCLCs to know more about movement as related to human lactation, and PTs to learn about breastfeeding/chestfeeding as related to human development. As past-president (2019-2021) of the Ohio Lactation Consultant Association, she also advocates for equitable access to and health plan coverage for lactation care.

Althea T. Simpson, MBA, MSW, LCSW, RPT-S, is an innovative trainer, psychotherapy private practice owner, founder and President of Unicorn Life Training and the Black Play Therapy Society, and host of the Chronicles of A Play Therapist podcast. She is the author of Hurt to Healing: Child Witnesses of Domestic Violence and Their Invisible Injuries. Althea has a diverse background including research, mental health, and organizational consulting. A Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator reinforcing a process of creative thinking and problem-solving, Althea facilitates thought-provoking and experiential skill enriching workshops for mental health professionals, corporations, and organizations throughout the United States. Althea’s passion is utilizing the healing powers of play to effect change on an individual and organizational level.

IG: @altheatsimpson

IG: @brickmagicplaytherapy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unicornlifetraining

Twitter: @altheatsimpson

TikTok: @altheatsimpson

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexheSp4-M-A-sW5w1aU5eQ

Alyssa has been helping parents and babies with breastfeeding since 2002, first as a La Leche League Leader and since 2009 as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

Alyssa works in private practice serving clients worldwide, primarily through telehealth. She is the author of Breastfeeding Without Birthing: A Breastfeeding Guide for Mothers Through Adoption, Surrogacy, and Other Special Circumstances and a professional supplement to the book, The Breastfeeding Without Birthing Professional Pack online training.

Alyssa has authored articles for The Journal of Human Lactation: The Three Step Framework for Inducing Lactation and Successful Co-Lactation by a Queer Couple: A Case Study. She has also authored articles for La Leche League’s Leader Today and Breastfeeding Today magazines, and Adoptive Families magazine. She is an international speaker on the topics of inducing lactation, relactation, and other related topics. Alyssa is the proud mother of three breastfed children, two by birth and one by adoption. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Dr. Amal Omer-Salim is the Executive Director of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). She is a nutritionist with a Ph.D. from Uppsala University, Sweden. Her areas of expertise are nutrition, breastfeeding, international health, gender, programme planning, research, and advocacy, with a special focus on Africa and Asia.

Amanda is a children's nurse, having worked on pediatric wards and in the community supporting children with complex health needs, although over ten years of her nursing career have been in neonatal care, where she is further qualified in specialty (QiS). She trained and volunteered in breastfeeding peer support two years into her nursing career, ultimately sitting the exam to become an IBCLC to ensure that the families within neonatal care had access to an infant feeding specialist familiar with their journey. Amanda has since further specialized in Neonatal Homecare, is a Nurse Practitioner in restrictive lingual frenulum, and has worked as an Infant Feeding Lead for a regional surgical NICU and SCBU, as well as a regional Infant Feeding Advisor to ten neonatal units across a regional network. She has recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees for the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB), where she is the Neonatal Lead.

Amber Price, CNM, DNP is the current president of the Virginia affiliate of a CNM. She works in Richmond as the Vice President of the Women’s Hospital at Henrico Doctors’ where she has developed a collaborative model with midwives serving as laborists. She is active in clinical practice and speaks internationally on topics including respectful maternity care, obstetric violence, holistic care for people with obesity, and integration of midwifery in hospitals to promote health and improve outcomes. She recently authored a chapter in “Nobody Told Me About That”, a book that provides real and practical care tips and advice for families during the postpartum period.

Amber Valentine is a Speech-Language Pathologist who graduated from the University of Kentucky with her MS in Communication Disorders. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, as well as a Certified Neonatal Therapist (CNT). She worked for Baptist Health Systems, Inc for 8 years before moving to Florida where she worked for Wolfsons Children’s Hospital and Mayo Florida. She is now back in Kentucky working for Baptist Health Lexington. She has experience in adults and pediatrics with feeding and swallowing difficulties including: bedside swallow evaluations, Modified Barium Swallow studies, FEES, and pediatric feeding evaluations including NICU. She has experience with head and neck cancer patient including evaluation and treatment of swallowing difficulties, PMV use, and voice after total laryngectomy including TEP. She has provided guest lectures for the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Louisville on feeding and swallowing topics. She has presented at the hospital, local, state, national, and international levels on pediatric feeding/swallowing and breastfeeding.

Amy Barron Smolinski holds an MA from Union Institute and University, where her thesis explored re-emerging Sacred Feminine manifestations in the lives of contemporary women. She is the Executive Director of Mom2Mom Global, a network of breastfeeding peer support, education, and advocacy for military families. She works with breastfeeding dyads in a variety of settings, from inpatient postpartum and NICU to home visits, telephone, and online consulting as an Advanced Lactation Consultant and Certified Lactation Counselor. Supporting breastfeeding families has shown her how each parent’s breastfeeding journey with each of her children is a reclamation of her connection to her inner wisdom and power. Amy is an actress, director, and professional voice artist in Germany, where she resides with her husband and four sons, all of whom breastfed to self-weaning.

Professor Amy Brown is based in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK. With a background in psychology, she has spent the last thirteen years exploring psychological, cultural and societal influences upon infant feeding decisions in the first year. Her research seeks to understand how we can shift our perception of how babies are fed away from an individual mothering issue to a wider public health problem – with societal level solutions. Dr Brown has published over 60 papers exploring the barriers women face in feeding their baby during the first year. She is a mother to three human children and three book babies: Breastfeeding Uncovered: Who really decides how we feed our babies, Why starting solids matters, and The Positive Breastfeeding Book: Everything you need to feed your baby with confidence. She is a regular blogger, aiming to change the way we think about breastfeeding, mothering and caring for our babies.

Amy Holmes has practiced as a pharmacist for 21 years with the last 9 years being focused in neonatal critical care at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston Salem, NC. She holds degrees in pharmacy from University of North Carolina (BS) as well as the University of Maryland at Baltimore (PharmD). Amy serves as the Residency Program Director for the acute care PGY1 program at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center. She is active in state and national pharmacy organizations including the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (PPAG) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

Andini has bachelor and master degree in public health, majoring in hospital administration. She is an IBCLC and is currently undertaking PhD at the Australian National University. Her PhD thesis is looking at the facilitator and barrier of Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative implementation and accreditation in Indonesia and Australia. One part of her PhD was measuring its social value using Social Return on Investment.

Her journey began when she was pregnant with her first child, then found and attended full series of Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers Association (AIMI)'s breastfeeding classes. She then decided to volunteered as breastfeeding counselor at AIMI.

With her work experience in hospital management consulting for 8 years and personal experience when her breastfed son undertook open heart surgery, she realized that not every hospitals provide adequate education and support for breastfeeding mother, either since pregnancy, during and after birth.

Andini was awarded Deeble Summer Research Scholarship from Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research Scholarship Program of Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) in 2020 and published a Health Policy Issues Brief titled "Improving the Uptake of the Baby Friendly Health Initiative in Australian Hospitals" as the outcome. Thanks to her supervisor, Andini involved in working group for Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Accreditation at ANU in 2018-2019 and involve in WBTi Australia since 2019. Currently living in Canberra Australia, Andini has been providing breastfeeding education and assistance for Indonesian mother-student, students' wives or any Indonesian women who live in Canberra.

Andrea Dixon is a Midwife and an Aquarian birth junky with a desire to make out of hospital birth an accepted, effective and safe option for all birthing persons. To this end, Andrea has attended more than 1200 births in numerous birth centers, home and hospital based practices. Her passion is training out of hospital practitioners in Birth Emergency Skills Training (B.E.S.T.), including CPR and NRP. To date more than 1300 practitioners have attended her traveling road show and earned B.E.S.T CEUs

Andrea Herron, is one of the first and longest continuous certified pediatric nurse practitioners in the United States. After more than 40 years working with breastfeeding mothers and their babies and teaching parenting classes, she is among one of the most experienced consultant in the field of lactation. Regardless of the issue or concern, Andrea has guided thousands of mothers to meet their breastfeeding and early parenting goals through support groups, lactation consultations, and childrearing education. After receiving a Master's in pediatric nursing from UCLA, Andrea became an early pioneer in the back-to-breastfeeding movement, and educated health professionals as an instructor in the UCLA lactation educator course, all over the United States. Her private lactation practice, Growing with Baby in San Luis Obispo, California, was used as the national model for private practices by Women Infant and Children (WIC), the federally funded health and nutrition program. One of her favorite and most popular topics she teaches through her Growing with Baby parenting groups is, Understanding Your Infant’s Temperament. This topic and many of the other topics she teaches are included in her newly released book, Suckle, Sleep, Thrive: Breastfeeding Success Through Understanding Your Baby’s Cues. Co-written with Lisa Rizzo.

Andrea has been married to Larry Herron, an orthopedic spine surgeon, for over 35 years. They are the proud parents of a grown son, two Labradors, a cat, and parrot. The couple reside in Shell Beach, California.

Dr. Andrew Berry, AM MB BS FRACP, is a Neonatal and Paediatric Retrieval Specialist. He has vast experience in neonatal and paediatric critical care transport since 1977. This includes being the head of Neonatal Intensive Care, and Director of Newborn Transport Service, both at Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney, Australia.He is currently State Director at NETS, the Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport Service of New South Wales, Australia.

Dr. Berry is a fixed wing and rotary wing pilot. In 1989 he co-founded Child Flight Inc., and dedicated helicopter service for children.

His expertise is regularly sought on how to develop and operate emergency transport services and associated advisory programs for perinatal, neonatal and paediatric acute care in Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Canada, England, Scotland, Singapore, and the USA.

Dr. Andrew Dorough is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology. He then earned his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis, Missouri. He later earned a post-graduate certification from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (CACCP). He is qualified to deliver highly skilled and safe treatment to pregnant and postnatal patients and to neonatal and infant patients. Dr. Dorough enjoys providing collaborative care. He currently works in a family medicine clinic which boasts a breastfeeding medicine physician IBCLC, along with other IBCLCs, two nurse practitioners and a physician assistant. He assesses and treats infants with various forms of structural issues, including but not limited to cranial bone deformation (plagiocephaly), torticollis, and tongue and neck dysfunction, as related to feeding difficulties and infant well-being.

Dr. Kotaska is an Obstetrician & Gynecologist in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where he lives with his wife and two boys. He received his medical degree from U.B.C. in 1992 and worked as a GP-surgeon in northern British Columbia before returning to complete a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2006. He has academic appointments with the Universities of British Columbia, Manitoba, and Toronto. He is regularly active in midwifery and obstetrical education. Dr. Kotaska’s academic interests centre on preserving physiological birth while avoiding unnecessary obstetrical intervention; the overestimation of risk in obstetrics; and the ethics of informed consent and refusal. His latest research interests focus on safe vaginal breech birth, the effect of epidural analgesia on labour, spontaneous two-step delivery, and the shortcomings of guidelines. 

Angel Montfort, Psy.D., PMH-C is a licensed clinical psychologist, mother of four, and the founder of the Center for Maternal Mental Health, a therapy practice dedicated to serving women throughout all stages of motherhood. She has always gravitated toward treating women and became passionate about perinatal mental health while working in a Women's Clinic within a hospital setting. At first it was a way to meet the needs of her patients and it quickly led to an understanding of her own postpartum experiences, which deepened her connection to this work.

In her practice, Dr. Montfort addresses concerns such as postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, birth trauma, perinatal loss, infertility, and adjustment to motherhood.

Dr. Montfort shares educational information on her Instagram account (@drangelmontfort) and her website (www.cfmmh.com) in an effort to validate and uplift moms who are struggling through a time that is expected to be the most joyous. Her expertise in perinatal mental health has been featured in a number of media outlets including Forbes, Healthline, and ScaryMommy. She believes that if we make space for both the highs and lows of motherhood, we set new moms up for a more balanced experience.

Dr. Bond is a trained laboratory and social scientist currently studying the social and public health impacts of shared human milk. Specific areas of interest include development of the microbiome of the infant, immunological responses from the parent and infant, impacts of non-parental human milk on development of the immune response and microbiome, and risk abatement practices by participants in private arrangement milk sharing. She has been specifically trained in health disparities sciences and engages in research with a perspective on social justice, gender equity, and health equity. As a Hawaiian and Cherokee heritage scholar, she has a particular passion for colonial impacts on infant care and feeding practices.

Angela Gooden, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with dual certification and expertise in pediatric cardiology, is the Director of Advanced Practice Providers at Texas Children's Hospital. Ms. Gooden has a special interest in reducing morbidity and mortality for infants born with complex congenital heart defects who require staged palliative surgical interventions. Additionally, in her leadership role, Ms. Gooden is focused on promoting the advanced practice role through advocacy, organizational engagement, professional development, and mentorship. She currently serves as a legislative ambassador for the Texas Nurse Practitioners organization.

Angela Lober has been an educator and clinician for over 19 years. She has been an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 2005 providing evidence-based care within an academic medical center and within her community. Angela is the Director of the Arizona State University Lactation Education Programs offering on-line and academic elective on breastfeeding and lactation. She completed her PhD at Arizona State University's College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation focused on the breastfeeding complexities of late preterm infants.

Dr Reitter is a fetal maternal medicine specialist working at present as the lead consultant at the Obstetrics and prenatal medicine department at Sachsenhausen Teaching Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. One of her main research interest focuses on upright birth. She is lead author in major work regarding upright breech delivery and provides opportunities for pregnant women. She is actively engaged in national and international teaching programs related to breech.

She finished her medical training in Germany, started her career in UK, has worked in India, the US and recently in Sydney/Australia.

Dr. Ankita Shah is a leading Airway Focused Dentist. She is also the President of the India Airway Co-LAB Chapter initiated by AAPMD, New York & The Breathe Institute, Los Angeles. Dr. Ankita is also the only Indian Ambassador to be trained by the renowned ENT & Sleep Surgeon Dr. Soroush Zaghi. The Tongue Tie & Sleep Institute headed by her focuses on providing a comprehensive, holistic and multidisciplinary approach to all problems Tongue Tie, Airway & TMJ. She wishes to change the way in which medicine has approached problems in the past and provide patients with a redefined experience to dentistry.

Ann Douglas sparks conversations that matter about parenting and mental health. She is the creator of Canada's bestselling series of pregnancy and parenting books, The Mother of All books series, and the author of two critically acclaimed parenting guides: Happy Parents, Happy Kids and Parenting Through the Storm. Her most recent book is Navigating The Messy Middle: A Fiercely Honest and Wildly Encouraging Guide for Midlife Women.

If you've already met Ann via one her books, you know what you can expect from one of her presentations: to be inspired, informed, and entertained. Not only will she shift your thinking about what the challenges that parents and children are facing in 2023: she'll move you to action as well. By the end of Ann's presentation, you'll be eager to embrace the important role that you have to play in supporting parents: in helping them to feel confident and capable as opposed to anxious, guilty, or overwhelmed.

Anna Axelin’s academic career has included conducting quantitative and qualitative research on maternity and neonatal care in multidisciplinary and international research groups. In the Academic year 2011-2012, she joined the faculty of Department of Family Health Care Nursing in University of California San Francisco for her post-doctoral research. Since 2018, she was appointed as an associated researcher in the Department of International Maternal and Child Health at University of Uppsala in Sweden. In addition to the academic career, she has ten-year working experience as a NICU nurse.
She is leading the Health in Early Life and Parenthood (HELP) research group which aims to promote health and welfare in the early stages of life. Her special research interest is how to keep parents and sick newborns together throughout the infant hospital stay and strengthen their relationship already during pregnancy. Anna Axelin’s other research interests include pain and sleep in neonates, and the implementation of evidence-based practice in maternity and neonatal care with the help information technology.

Anna is an IBCLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They started their work in the lactation field as a La Leche League Leader in 2015 and achieved board certification in 2018. Her three years with La Leche League included a two-year position as Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Administrator of LLL of Minnesota and Dakotas. Anna has worked with the Twin Cities' Queer Birth Project and currently serves as IBCLC for St. Paul- Ramsey County WIC and Baby Cafe. She holds a BA in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies from the University of Minnesota, and works to break down barriers to lactation support and create space in the intersections of gender, sexuality, anti-racism, self healing, social and environmental justice, and natural infant feeding. She has presented for the Breastfeeding and Feminism International Conference, iLactation, La Leche League, the Twin Cities Birth and Baby Expo, and the Minnesota Department of Health. Anna holds down a homestead where she raises two kids and a bunch of animals and makes art. Find her at annabrauchlactationsupport.weebly.com.

Anna has been working as a midwife since 2009. From the very beginning of her studies she has been fascinated with breastfeeding. During her studies for her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Midwifery, her main area of interest was promotion and support for breastfeeding among women. Anna's interest in breastfeeding turned into a passion that led her to pursue the Polish Certification of Lactation Consultant and she is working toward certification as an IBCLC. She opened a private practice and a support group for local women in Krakow (cracko). Anna’s Interest and passion for lactation and breastfeeding have deepened during her current PhD studies. She is a PhD candidate in 2018 at University Medical College and is the coordinator of the Krakow Human Milk Bank.
Her scientific area of expertise: change in milk composition (macronutrients), human microbiota during pregnancy, lactation as well as tandem breastfeeding. Her research is carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology. Anna is the author of many lectures and workshops for students of midwifery and medicine in area of breastfeeding, lactation and the variation of composition of human milk. Since 2016 she has been popularizing the science of human lactation in Poland and she is always finding new ways to promote and support breastfeeding women. In her spare time she practices meditation, yin yoga and is learning how to dance rock and roll.

Anna Le Grange is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Pediatric Nurse, Mindfulness teacher and Author. She has worked with new families for over 20 years in a variety of clinical roles. Anna brings her passion for psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness into her lactation support work and facilitates other professionals to incorporate emotional well-being tools into their own lactation practice. Mother to 3 children, Anna breastfed her 3rd child following breast reduction surgery and experienced first-hand, the emotional challenges that so often relate to infant feeding complexities. She used her personal experiences alongside mindfulness and lactation knowledge, to create a toolbox of techniques for breastfeeding families, which she includes in her courses and book, The Mindful Breastfeeding Book. Anna believes whole-heartedly in prioritizing calm and connection within our breastfeeding support practices, both for our clients and ourselves. Anna is currently studying for a MSc in Positive Psychology at Buckingham New University and has spoken at various events including the Gold Lactation, ILactation Conference and Nurturing The Future.

Anna Reyner, MA, ATR, LMFT, is the founder of CreativePlayLA a training & consulting business that uses art-based approaches to positively impact children and families. She has successfully merged the principles of art therapy into early childhood education, and specializes in helping teachers add trauma informed art into their classrooms. Anna is the author of two awarding winning books, Smart Art and Smart Art 2, and has presented over 800 trainings at state, national and international conferences in her 40 years as a teacher, art therapist and mental health advocate. Her new and groundbreaking book "Trauma-Informed Art Activities for Early Childhood: Using Process Art to Repair Trauma & Help Children Thrive: is now available on Amazon for pre-purchase.

After working in the UK and France, lecturing and then in film and TV production, Annabelle became a breastfeeding support volunteer in France 10 years ago, after the birth of her first child. She then worked in lactation support in the UK NHS in London, whilst also volunteering for the National Childbirth Trust (NCT). Since 2016, she was the Infant Feeding Coordinator at Suffolk County Council Health and Children’s Centres, and had a small private practice. In her county council role, Annabelle took the Health and Children’s Centre staff through Stage 1 of UNICEF Baby Friendly Accreditation, and left the department well prepared for Stage 2. Whilst there, she oversaw an increase in breastfeeding rates, and contributed to Public Health initiatives to promote breastfeeding, including help to improve breastfeeding knowledge amongst doctors. Annabelle qualified as an IBCLC, lactation consultant in 2017. In October 2018, Annabelle took up her current post as lactation consultant for the 48th medical group at RAF/USAF Lakenheath.

Anne M. Estes, MS, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences in Towson University. Her research focuses on how microbes and their animal hosts work together throughout host development. With the birth of her first daughter and the sequenced genome of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis in 2008, Anne became interested in the human microbiome and evidence-based parenting. She founded her blog Mostly Microbes to provide a reputable voice on human microbiome research. Anne enjoys creating and finding interactive approaches to make science interesting and understandable to people of all ages and backgrounds. Anne is also a contributing blogger to the Lamaze International blog, Science and Sensibility, and MicroBE.net, an academic blog about the microbiome of built environments.

Annet Mulder became interested in breastfeeding when she became a mother in 2000. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer at the Dutch breastfeeding organisation. In 2008 she passed her exam and started working as an IBCLC in a BFHI hospital in the Netherlands. In 2011 she started her private practice. Annet has spoken on several symposia and conferences. Teaches different subjects to lactation consultants in training and is vice president at the Dutch Association of IBCLC’s. (NVL)

Annette Leary is a registered nurse with over 33 years of experience working in Maternal Child Health (pediatrics, postpartum, home health care and level 2 NICU). She became an IBCLC in 1995. She owns a private practice providing office, in home, and virtual visits at Orlando Lactation and Wellness. In 2022 she formed a collaborative company Baby B.L.I.S.S. : Central Florida Feeding Collaborative where she and her business partners help families prenatally, antepartum and post partum navigate the growth, development and feeding journey of their children. She began her craniosacral therapy training through the Upledger Institute in 2015, taking advanced maternal and pediatric specialty classes. Annette has found great improvement incorporating craniosacral therapy techniques with lactation consulting. Helping Families Latch onto Parenting has always been her mantra.

Annie Frisbie has been an IBCLC in private practice since 2011. Her background is in media, where she worked very closely with producers, content developers, and tech thought leaders on business strategy, content development, contracts, legal clearances, and more. She has also produced training for professional media software solutions as well as created and managed print and video content for media professionals.
In 2018 she was honored with the US Lactation Consultant Association's President's Award, "awarding those that demonstrate extraordinary service to the association and profession."
She is a produced screenwriter and proud member of the Writers Guild of America, East. She have a BA from Franklin and Marshall College, and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University. In a previous life I was a film critic. I live with my husband and our two children in Queens, New York.

Anya Kleinman is a general pediatrician who works at Akron Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio caring for the range of patients from birth to late adolescence. She uses her IBCLC expertise to counsel new parents and promote breastfeeding in the ER.

Dr Aruna Savur lives and works in Bengaluru, India as a pediatrician, IBCLC and certified infant massage instructor in private practice. She graduated MBBS from Mysore Medical College and Research Institute in 1990. She certified the Diplomate National Board exam in Pediatrics in 1997 from Father Muller's Medical College, Mangalore. She subsequently worked in private pediatric practice. In 2015 she trained in Neonatal Intensive Care from Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru. In 2018 she qualified as an IBCLC. In 2020 she certified from IAIM ( International Association of Infant Massage) as a infant massage instructor. She worked in various hospitals in Bengaluru as a pediatrician and IBCLC. She has been working on educating herself by delving deeper into various lactation education certifications. She is currently training in craniosacral therapy for babies.

Doctor Asma'a Kurdi , Syrian family physician MRCGP member certified since October 2013, was the first lactation consultant doctor in Ajman certified on October 2008 ,recertified October 2013. worked as a GP in UAE , Ajman PHC since 02/2006 till 08/ 2016, with big efforts to enhance breastfeeding practice among colleagues and patients, was an active member in the breastfeeding support group ,she presented many lectures in the basic 20 hours breastfeeding training courses for health workers in Ajman .a mother of 4 children , 3 of them are PKU , with her knowledge and faith in breastfeeding she managed to breastfed them for more than 2 years and kept them healthy and normal children. She had special interest in PKU researches and but huge efforts to initiate a PKU family association in UAE . an active member in Arabic PKU mothers what's up support group ,and low protein recipes instagram page .

Asti Praborini, MD, Pediatrician, IBCLC has 25 years of experience as a pediatrician, which has convinced her that nothing is more important and valuable than breastfeeding for both mother and baby. As a national speaker, she continues the campaign promoting the benefits of breastfeeding, despite formula marketing that is pervasive in the country. She established the first hospital-based lactation team in Indonesia that works ultimately to help mothers breastfeed their babies, and now leads three lactation teams in different hospitals. She is practicing frenotomy for anterior as well as posterior tongue tie and lip tie, established her own method for hospitalization of nipple confusion, supplementation, adoptive nursing, and many others. She also devoted her time to give pro bono service to the poor in the pediatric clinic of LKC Dompet Dhuafa and received the LKC award in 2011. She is now the chairwoman of the Indonesian International Lactation Consultant Association.

Augustine is an internationally recognized midwifery educator, experienced business executive, and veteran midwife with a heart focused on the underserved, marginalized, and under-resourced. She respects the importance of being empowered and undisturbed during labor, and balances this attention to the sacred with 20+ years experience attending births in hospitals, birth centers, and homes in rural, urban and suburban environments in the US and abroad. Augustine’s focus is finely attuned to the process of letting go and opening to the unknown in labor and in life. Additionally, Augustine has a master’s degree from Bastyr University in Seattle, WA where she majored in Maternal/Child Health Systems.

Her life's mission is to mainstream midwifery and deconstruct the culture of fear and misinformation that surrounds the maternity world globally. To that end, Augustine 'midwife's the midwife' through her many education programs, consulting services, product development, podcasts and video production, business site visits, and with private coaching services for midwives, students, maternity practice owners, & birth center administrators through her consulting firm, The Midwifery Wisdom Collective. It is her profound honor to illuminate the sacred path to joyful and sustainable midwifery practice. She lives and works in India.

Aunchalee Palmquist is a medical anthropologist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She completed postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health and in the Global Health Initiative at Yale University. Palmquist is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies at Elon University. Her recent research focuses on critical biocultural contexts of breastfeeding, human milk sharing, and infant and young child feeding in emergencies. She blogs at anthrolactology.com.

Autumn R. Henning, MS, CCC-SLP, is a certified and licensed Speech-Language Pathologist with Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Kentucky with her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Communication Disorders. Autumn is a recognized provider by Ankyloglossia Bodyworkers, has been a guest presenter for Creating a Care Plan for Tongue Ties and delivered a webinar through Innara Health entitled Tethered Oral Tissues: What’s a Therapist to do?. She has served on local breastfeeding professional panels and delivered numerous presentations to parents and medical professionals. Autumn has completed specialty continuing education including Beckman Oral Motor, Vital Stim, and Foundations in Myofascial Release for Neck, Voice, and Swallowing as well more than a dozen professional courses on pediatric feeding and related topics. She is pursuing further education in the areas of lactation and orofacial myology. Autumn has experience working in the school system, early intervention, an ABA center and outpatient clinics including a nationally award-winning intensive feeding program. Autumn currently specializes in pediatric feeding at a non-profit outpatient clinic in Greenville, SC and serves on the board. She recently founded a continuing education company, Chrysalis Feeding, LLC. The flagship course is TOTS: Tethered Oral Tissues Specialty Training that launched this Fall.

Avril is the founder and creatrix of the Midwife Method, a midwife-led, supportive and educational online program dedicated to empowering all birthing people with the skills, knowledge and tools they need to thrive through pregnancy, birth and beyond. She believes that maternal and neonatal outcomes can be improved when all obstetrical providers (doctors and midwives alike) collaborate and practice the Midwifery Model of Care and when all pregnant women have access to this kind of care. Until there is a midwife available for every women, the Midwife Method provides birthing people with all the elements of midwifery care that can be delivered in the online format; comprehensive and holistic education, compassionate and consistent support and expert guidance designed to inform, complement and enhance the medical care women receive in their home communities.

For the past three years, she has loved being the office manager and instructor with Birth Emergency Skills Training® (B.E.S.T.) workshops, as well as co-developer of the Online and Hybrid programs. She has been involved with birth since 1998 as a childbirth educator, doula and then midwife (CPM) and has served birthing families in the home and birth center settings since 2003. Together with her partner, she has home-birthed, home-schooled and raised 3 incredible human beings (17, 23 and 25)!

With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and desire to support a broader population in attaining their health goals, she returned to school, completing a Bachelor of Science and became a Registered Nurse in 2016. Continuing on with this goal, she pursued a Family Nurse Practitioner degree at Georgetown University which she was unable to complete due to unforeseen circumstances.

Following a devastating motorcycle accident, she put to use her diverse education in herbal medicine, alternative therapies, nutrition, body movement and mechanics, medical training and personal growth and transformation strategies to well surpass her expected recovery, fully heal from the severe injuries sustained and become the healed healer that she is today. B.E.S.T CEUs

Barbara D. Robertson, IBCLC, has been involved in education for over 34 years. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1988 and her Master’s in Education in 1995. Barbara left teaching elementary students in 1995 to raise her two children. Barbara is now the Director of The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and of the brand new business LactaLearning.

The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor will still continue to serve breast/chestfeeding families and now LactaLearning will be dedicated to all of Barbara’s professional lactation trainings. Barbara has developed two 95 hour professional lactation training, a group training and a completely self study training with Nancy Mohrbacher. Barbara’s idea of creating professional book groups has exploded with her hosting Making More Milk with Lisa Marasco, Supporting Sucking Skills with Cathy Watson Genna, Breastfeeding Answers, 2nd Edition with Nancy Mohrbacher, and new for the fall, Safe Infant Sleep with Dr. James McKenna. Barbara will be hosting a one day online conference in the fall with Lisa Marasco and Cathy Watson Genna using all of her tech savvy skills to make this a one of a kind experience. Barbara is also a speaker for hire on a wide variety of topics including Motivational Interviewing. Barbara volunteered for the United States Lactation Consultation Association as the Director of Professional Development for 4.5 years.

She just retired as Associate Editor for Clinical Lactation, a journal she helped create for USLCA. Barbara has free podcasts, a blog, and Youtube videos which can all be found on her websites lactalearning.com and bfcaa.com. She has written many articles as well. She loves working with parents and babies, helping them with breast/chestfeeding problems in whatever way she can.

Barbara Harper is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and gentle birth. She is the Executive Director of Waterbirth International, founded in 1988, with one goal in mind – to ensure that waterbirth is an “available option” for all women. During the past four decades Barbara has influenced and educated hundreds of thousands of professionals and parents through her writing and publishing, and her work as a pediatric nurse, midwife, midwifery instructor, doula trainer, and Blissborn Birth Hypnosis instructor and trainer. Her vast experience helped her develop unique seminars and workshops which she teaches within hospitals, nursing schools, midwifery and medical schools and through her online Gentle Birth World Institute. Lamaze International recognized her in 2002 for contributions in promoting normal birth on an international level. She has published articles in many journals including a new work for the Journal of Perinatal Education (July 2021) on protecting waterbirth, even during a global pandemic. Her bestselling book and DVD, ‘Gentle Birth Choices,’ has been translated into 9 languages, including a 2016 Mandarin Chinese edition. Barbara has dedicated her life to changing the way we welcome babies into the world. She is the mother of three adult children, two of whom were born at home in water, and grandmother of a college senior and a three-year-old. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Her website is www.waterbirth.org

Barbara Morrison, PhD, CNM is an associate professor in the Janice M. Riordan Distinguished Professorship in Maternal Child Health at Wichita State University School of Nursing, Wichita, KS, USA. Dr. Morrison’s mission is to advocate, educate and inspire health care reform to enhance physiologically and ecologically appropriate care for the mother-newborn dyads especially as it relates to establishing breastfeeding, frequent Kangaroo Care (KC) and holding, and optimal attachment. Dr. Morrison’s research interests include the impact of breastfeeding and KC on psycho-neuro-endocrine development of newborns and parents, and implementing best evidence-based breastfeeding and attachment practices in hospital birthing and postpartum units and in the community. Dr. Morrison shares her research and passions through presentations, writings, radio shows and her website www.DrBarbCNM.com.

Barbara Wilson-Clay became a La Leche League Leader in 1982. She certified as an IBCLC and entered private practice in Austin, Texas in 1987. Barbara was named a Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association in 2008. She recently retired from her practice, which specialized in difficult breastfeeding situations. With a client load of 400-450 visits yearly, Barbara garnered a wealth of clinical and counseling experience and a trove of clinical teaching photos. In partnership with Kay Hoover, she created The Breastfeeding Atlas, which was translated into Chinese in 2019 by Fudan University Press. A Korean translation will be published in September 2020.

Barbara has been a citizen advocate for breastfeeding in the Texas legislature and helped pass a landmark law protecting breastfeeding rights. She is one of the co-founders of the non-profit Mothers Milk Bank at Austin, and retired as Vice President of the Board of Directors in 2010. She continues to serve on the Advisory Board. Barbara's research and commentaries have appeared in the Journal of Human Lactation, Archives of Disease in Childhood, the International Breastfeeding Journal, and others. She has served on various editorial review boards and contributed chapters to several lactation textbooks.

Ben Kingston-Hughes is an international keynote speaker, author and multi award-winning trainer. He is also the Managing Director of Inspired Children and has worked with vulnerable children across the UK for over 30 years. He has appeared on television several times working on a variety of children’s projects and his distinctive blend of humour, neuroscience and real-life practical experiences have made his training invaluable for anyone working with children. His new book, “A Very Unusual Journey into Play.” is now available.

Bernadette is a midwife with a Master in Public Health (MPH), core and pelvic floor specialist, published author and previous pant wetter. She has worked in midwifery across Australia from remote Aboriginal Communities to big city hospitals to publicly funded homebirth. She spent a year volunteering as a midwifery educator in the Solomon Islands and teaches midwifery emergency courses in rural and remote areas around Australia. She was awarded the Sidney Sax award for best overall performance in her MPH. She is also the Founder and Creator of Core and Floor Restore – online education and exercise programs, workshops, and consultations. Her passion is to enable people to use their bodies and minds to their greatest ability in all aspects of life. A big part of her work is centered around emotional and physical birth trauma and postpartum recovery. She offers free online antenatal classes and co-host's "The Great Birth Rebellion" an evidence-informed podcast. Bernadette’s life mission to bring the rate of birth trauma down to zero whilst simultaneously improving postpartum care. She has epically birthed two babes at home and recovered from incontinence and prolapse. When she isn’t working or studying you can find her out bush, camping and hiking or splashing in the bath at home with her boys.

Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk is Vice President for Health Promotion, University Chief Wellness Officer, Dean and Helene Fuld Health Trust Professor of Evidence-based Practice, the College of Nursing, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the College of Medicine and Executive Director of the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice at The Ohio State University. Dr. Melnyk is recognized nationally and globally for her clinical knowledge, expertise in evidence-based practice, mental health, and intervention research as well as her innovative approaches to health and wellness. Dr. Melnyk was the first Chief Wellness Officer appointed at a University in the U.S. She founded and is the current president of the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities. Dr. Melnyk is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She is a member of the board of directors for the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. Dr. Melnyk has over $33 million dollars of sponsored funding from federal agencies and foundations as a PI, is an editor of seven books, and has authored over 450 publications. As a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-being and Resilience, she is working to address the national crisis of healthcare provider burnout.

Bethany Sasaki is an advanced practice nurse, lactation consultant and the co-founder of Midtown Lactation Consultants (MiLC). Her nursing background includes pediatrics, women’s health, emergency/trauma nursing and clinical research. She is currently completing the nurse midwifery program at Frontier Nursing University. She plans to continue conducting breastfeeding research focusing on nipple wounds and breast infections. Bethany and her husband Brent live in Sacramento California, USA with their 5 year old son named Leo and 3 year old daughter named Piper.

Betsy Schwartz is a pioneer and a visionary. She established Tenth Month Doula Services in 1994, the first of its kind in South Florida. She has trained hundreds of postpartum doulas. Betsy is a former CAPPA and DONA International Postpartum Doula trainer, and is an active member of both. She now offers online courses at BirthElearning. Betsy’s most recent accomplishment is the creation of Down the Canal –The Game of Birth. Betsy continues to pioneer in Citrus County Florida as a committee member of the Florida Healthy Babies Initiative. Betsy holds a master’s degree in management of human services. She is also a Reiki Master and a yoga enthusiast.

Betty-Anne Daviss MA, RM has been a midwife for 45 years on various continents, and a researcher in the social sciences and clinical epidemiology for 30. She cites learning from traditional midwives from Guatemala to Afghanistan as one of the highlights of her career. While acting as the project coordinator for the Safe Motherhood Initiative of FIGO in 2004, the follow-up to the Term Breech Trial was published and she switched focus to search across Europe for best breech practice. In 2009, she persuaded Andre Lalonde of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to bring Frank Louwen, from Frankfurt to the SOGC AGM to present on upright breech and helped organize several breech conferences in Ottawa, Washington D.C., and across Europe 2009-2019. She has provided lectures in China, India, Africa; and Latin America on Human Rights in Childbirth, using the return to breech as one model solution. Working between Ottawa and Frankfurt 2008-2016, she became the co-principal investigator and principal writer for the Frankfurt study comparing vaginal breeches born with the mothers upright vs on their backs (2017) and co-authored other articles with the Frankfurt team on twins and MRIs in the breech. In 2013 she introduced a new technique to retrieve the aftercoming head in the vaginal breech to avoid forceps. Her manual “Rethinking The Physiology of Vaginal Breech Birth,” describes vaginal breech history, new manoeuvres of upright breech, and the research to support them. She is the principal editor of a recently published book, Birthing Models on the Human Rights Frontier: Speaking Truth to Power, a colourful combined activist/academic treatise on social justice issues (2021).

Betty-Anne Daviss MA, RM has practised as a midwife for over 40 years on various continents, and as a researcher in the social sciences and clinical epidemiology, for over 25 years. An Adjunct Professor in Ottawa, Canada, she has taught since the 1980s about the politics of gender and health. She has worked towards midwifery legislation in Canada and the U.S. and acted as the project coordinator for the Safe Motherhood Initiative of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). Engaged with the SOGC when it first began to reintroduce vaginal breech birth to Canada, she has helped to organize several breech conferences and was the co-principal investigator and principle writer for the Frankfurt study comparing vaginal breeches born with the mothers upright vs on their backs (2017). She was a co-editor of Birth Models That Work (2009) and is principal editor of Speaking Truth to Power: Childbirth Models on the Human Rights Frontier (forthcoming 2019).

Bianca Balassiano has been working with families in private practice since 2008 as an IBCLC and perinatal psychologist/maternal-child health specialist. As a natural consequence of her professional background, has supported breastfeeding families into achieving individual goals while maintaining mental health and stimulating a holistic look towards the subject. Since 2014 is also working as an educator for healthcare professionals in one of the most recognized breastfeeding courses in Brazil, currently offering virtual classes and all over the country. Lives with husband and two children in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2020, she launched her first book aimed at families with the title "Gradual Weaning: How to Bring Your Breastfeeding Story to a Happy End".

Bianca completed her undergraduate nursing and midwifery training at the University of Queensland. She has been neonatal nursing for the last six years, and in that time completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Nursing Practice (Neonatal Intensive Care) and her Masters of Advanced Nursing Practice (Minor Thesis) at the University of Melbourne.

In 2016, Bianca participated in a Nursing Research program entitled ‘Building Evidence with Support to Transform (BEST) Practice at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne, Victoria Australia, which were the beginnings of her nursing research journey. She investigated nursing assessment of pain in neonates, and instigated a hospital-wide change in the pain assessment tool utilised in neonates. Since then she has evaluated the clinical utility and inter-rater reliability of the modified Pain Assessment Tool (mPAT) that is now used at the RCH. She is currently a Nursing Research Clinical Nurse Consultant at the RCH.

Billie has been serving birthing families for 35 years as a mentor, breastfeeding counsellor, childbirth educator, doula, and traditional birth attendant. She is the Founder and Director of Birth Trauma Ontario, an agency that advocates on behalf of parents for universal training in trauma-informed care for all perinatal health care providers and provides training and skills development for primary and allied health care professionals. Billie authored the world's first accredited certification course for becoming a trauma-informed professional specific to caring for the perinatal client. She has devoted decades to following the research that explores issues of maternal and infant health, birthing safety, and midwifery and obstetric practices in the context of culture and structural violence. She has educated doulas, midwives, physicians, nurses, and lactation counsellors in over 120 countries. Billie has been blessed with a very full life with 7 wonderful children, several amazing in-laws, some adorable grandchildren, a couple of decades of homeschooling, and hundreds of families who invited her into their families as they welcomed their precious babies.

Birdie is an RN with a Master’s Degree in Psychology/Counseling. She is a past president of Postpartum Support International (PSI), past Chair of Education and Training, and is currently serving as Director of Certification. Birdie is a Perinatal Mood Disorders International Trainer with Postpartum Support International and speaks frequently to communities, nursing schools, grand rounds, and conferences. Birdie specializes in the recognition and treatment of pregnancy and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders. She is the coordinator of the Perinatal Mood Disorders Program at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, Indiana. Birdie is highlighted as a PMD expert in PSI’s DVD that is shown around the world: “Healthy Mom, Happy Family: Understanding Pregnancy and Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders”.

Saraswathi Vedam

Saraswathi Vedam is Lead Investigator of the Birth Place Lab and Professor of Midwifery in the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia. Over the past 34 years, she has served as clinician, educator, researcher, and mother to four remarkable women. Professor Vedam has coordinated several transdisciplinary and community-led research projects. In the US, she led the Access and Integration Maternity care Mapping (AIMM) Study examing the impact of integration of midwives on maternal-newborn outcomes, and the Giving Voice to Mothers Study that explored experiences of respect, discrimination, and mistreatment among communities of color in the US. In Canada, she led the Canadian Birth Place Study examining attitudes to place of birth among maternity care providers; and Changing Childbirth in BC, a provincial, participatory study of women’s experiences of maternity care. She is currently PI of a CIHR-funded national research study to evaluate respectful maternity care across Canada. She and her team have developed pragmatic tools that improve person-centered care, including patient-designed quality measures: Mothers’ Autonomy in Decision Making (MADM) scale and the Mothers on Respect (MORi) index, which received the 2017 National Quality Forum Innovation Prize. She was selected as one of the inaugural Michael Smith Health Research Institute Health Professional Investigators.

Professor Vedam has been active in setting national and international policy on place of birth, and midwifery education and regulation. She has provided expert consultations to policy makers, public health agencies, and legislators in Mexico, Hungary, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Canada, the US, and India. She was Convener and Chair of 3 national Home Birth Summits. At these historic summits a multi-stakeholder group of leaders (clinicians, consumers, policymakers, legislators, researchers, ethicists, and administrators) crafted a common agenda to address equitable access to high quality care across birth settings in the United States.


Monica McLemore

Monica McLemore, RN, MPH, PhD, is on faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. She is in high demand as an expert on inequities in health services, research, and as a policy advisor nationally. She has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking scholarship and excellence in service, including Person of the Year, Abortion Care Network, 2018, Agent - Provocateur of the Year Award, The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health, 2017, Amazing Women in Reproductive Health, Association for Reproductive Health Professionals, 2017. Hellman Family Award for Early Career Faculty, 2015-2017, and she was Speaking Race to Power Fellow, CoreAlign, from 2015-2016. Her research is focused on understanding the factors that influence the health, wellbeing and livelihood of low-income and women of color who she serves clinically at Zuckerberg San Francisco General. Using the intersectional human rights middle range theory called reproductive Justice (RJ), enables her to design rigorous studies that answer novel and complex research questions because RJ is simultaneously a theory, practice and a strategy that is grounded in four principles. Simply put, RJ posits that every person has the right to decide if and when to become pregnant and to determine the conditions under which they will birth. Next, every person has the right to decide they will not become pregnant or have a baby and options for preventing or ending pregnancy are accessible and available. Third, individuals have the right parent children they already have with dignity and has the necessary social supports in safe environments and health communities without fear of violence from individuals or the government. Finally, individuals have the right to disassociate sex from reproduction and that health sexuality and pleasure are essential components to whole and full human life.


Kimberly Gregory

Dr. Kimberly Gregory is Vice Chair of Women’s Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Board certified in Ob/Gyn and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, she is a Professor at Cedars with a joint appointment at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She has received federal and foundation funding to support her research interests, which include developing maternal quality indicators, patient safety, obstetrical healthcare utilization, variation and appropriateness of cesarean delivery, and complications of childbirth. She has developed algorithms for determining indications for cesarean delivery, cesarean after labor, and elective (no labor) cesarean delivery using hospital administrative data, demonstrating wide variation in cesarean rate by hospital. Additionally, she developed framework and proposed indicators for monitoring quality of care during pregnancy and childbirth. She is currently working on patient reported outcomes and measures of patient reported satisfaction with childbirth services. Dr. Gregory has served in various leadership positions including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Institute of Medicine Committee on Preventive Services for Women, the Board of Directors for the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine, regional Section Chair for American College Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG), and numerous health and public policy committees at both the state and national levels.


Melissa Cheyney

Melissa Cheyney PhD CPM LDM is Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Anthropology at Oregon State University (OSU) with appointments in Public Health and Women Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is also a Licensed Midwife in active, community practice, and the Chair of the Division of Research for the Midwives Alliance of North America. She is the author of an ethnography entitled Born at Home, co-author and editor of Birth in Eight Cultures, and of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles that examine the cultural beliefs and clinical outcomes associated with midwife-led birth in the United States. In 2014, Dr. Cheyney was selected for Oregon State University’s prestigious Scholarship Impact Award for the prolific and highly relevant research outputs of her International Reproductive Health Laboratory and with the MANA Statistics Project. Her research projects span topics from reproductive biology to cultural anthropology, epidemiology and clinical outcomes associated with patient experience, health equity, interprofessional relationships, and place of birth. She is currently the PI on an NIH-funded study examining the outcomes of care for culturally and socially matched doulas serving Medicaid priority populations in Oregon. Dr. Cheyney serves as an expert consultant on numerous interdisciplinary research institutes including the ACOG ReVitalize Task Force, the Home Birth Summit Research and Data Task Force, the Oregon Health Evidence Review Commission, the International Quality Maternal and Newborn Care Research Alliance, and the National Academies of Medicine Committee on Birth Setting. She is Vice-Chair of Oregon State University’s (OSU) Human Subjects Research Institutional Review Board and the Graduate Program Director for OSU’s Applied Anthropology Program. She is a beloved and award-winning teacher, a highly sought mentor and doctoral advisor, and is known for her intentional approach to creating a culturally safe environment for her research team and mentees. Dr. Cheyney is the mother of a daughter born at home.


Michele Goodwin

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She is also faculty in the Stem Cell Research Center; Gender and Sexuality Studies Department; Program in Public Health; and the Department of Criminology, Law, & Society. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. A nationally recognized advocate for civil liberties and civil rights, Professor Goodwin serves on the executive committee and national board of the American Civil Liberties Union. She has advised policymakers and chaired several sections of the Association of American Law Schools, served as a trustee of the United States Law and Society Association, and was elected secretary general of the International Academy of Law & Mental Health as the first woman. Gov. Paul Patton of Kentucky commissioned her as a colonel, the state’s highest title of honor. In 2018 she was bestowed the Sandra Day O’Connor Legacy Award by the Women’s Journey Foundation. Professor Goodwin’s scholarship is hailed as “exceptional” in the New England Journal of Medicine. A prolific author, her publications include five books and over 80 articles, essays and book chapters.


Indra Wood Lusero

Indra Lusero, Esq., is the President and founder of the Birth Rights Bar Association and the director of Elephant Circle, where they work as an organizer, trainer, and lawyer practicing family formation and regulatory law. Indra’s law review articles "Challenging Hospital VBAC Bans Through Tort Liability" and "Making the Midwife Impossible: How the Structure of Maternity Care Harms the Practice of Home Birth Midwifery" are published in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law and the Women’s Rights Law Reporter respectively. Indra is honored to have been named "All Around Reproductive Justice Champion" in 2013 by the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights. She is the recipient of numerous reproductive justice awards including the Most Audacious Award, Honoring a childbirth professional who has shown remarkable courage and boldness to change childbirth or maternity care, from The Association for Wholistic Maternal & Newborn Health and Human Rights in Childbirth, May 2016. Indra is a genderqueer Latin@ parent with a diverse family of people from all over the world.

Monica Simpson

Monica Raye Simpson, Executive Director of Sister Song, a queer, black, NC native, has organized extensively against human rights abuse, the prison industry, racism, and systemic violence against Southern black women and LBGTQ people. A proud graduate of the historically black Johnson C. Smith University, she earned a bachelor’s in Communications and organized for LGBTQ rights on and off campus. She then became the Operations Director and the first person of color at the Charlotte Lesbian & Gay Community Center. Next, she trained black youth in activism, philanthropy, and fundraising as the Ujamaa Coordinator for Grassroots Leadership. In 2010, she moved to GA to be our Development Coordinator; she was promoted to Deputy Coordinator in 2011, Interim Executive Director in 2012, and Executive Director in 2013.

Monica is a nationally sought-after facilitator, speaker, and organizer, constantly called upon to travel the country for appearances. She is the only woman among the 4 founders of Charlotte, NC's Black Gay Pride Celebration, the first in the Bible Belt, which received awards from the National Black Justice Coalition and the Human Rights Coalition for its incredible launch with 7,000 participants. She has been featured in many publications for her activism, and has written many articles on LGBTQ issues, RJ, over-policing of black/brown communities, philanthropy, and Southern activism. In 2014 she was named a New Civil Rights Leader by Essence Magazine, and in 2015 was chosen as a panelist for the Women of the World Summit. Also a full circle doula certified through the International Center for Traditional Childbirth, she serves on the boards of the Fund for Southern Communities and the legendary Highlander Center.


Paula Rojas

Paula X. Rojas is a community organizer, licensed midwife and social justice trainer. Born in Chile, then growing up in Houston, TX, she spent over a decade working as an organizer in Brooklyn, NY before returning to TX in 2008. For over 25 years, she has worked on issues of gender violence, racial justice, women’s reproductive health, childcare access, health care access and community alternatives to policing. Rojas co-founded a number of community-based organizations working at the intersections of race, class and gender including Sista II Sista, Pachamama, Mamas of Color Rising, Mama Sana Vibrant Woman, Refugio: Center for Community Organizing and the New York Organizing Support Center. As a result of her own challenges experienced while pregnant on Medicaid, Paula became a doula and then a licensed midwife in 2014. In 2012 she co-founded Mama Sana Vibrant Woman and developed a model that integrates cultural congruence, midwifery and community organizing in order to put a more just and loving maternal health model into practice. Paula is a contributor to the INCITE! collections: The Color of Violence and The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. She co-authored the recent report by the National Perinatal Taskforce: Building a Movement to Birth a More Just and Loving World, that lays out local models and national recommendations to address the current crisis in maternal and infant mortality in communities of color in the U.S. She is the mother of two amazing kids, Xue-li and Camino, and loves to dance!


Micaela Cadena

Micaela Lara Cadena is a chicana New Mexican from a family/chosen family of resilient mujeres in the Mesilla Valley. Micaela is the Research Director at Young Women United (YWU), an organization that leads policy change, research, place-based organizing, and culture shift by and for women and people of color in New Mexico. For many years, Micaela has worked to improve access to pregnancy related care that New Mexicans may need over their lives, including perinatal care for pregnant people in cycles of substance use and addiction and midwifery care as a respectful model that can positively impact disparities in health outcomes within our communities. Previously, Micaela worked at the New Mexico Corrections Department as the Bureau Chief of Recidivism Reduction. With the intention of better identifying and serving the risks and needs of women and people in NMCD custody, Micaela worked to build feasible strategies for making the New Mexico prison system gender-responsive, trauma-informed and evidenced-based. Micaela was also responsible for implementing a state law passed in 2015, Medicaid for Incarcerated Individuals, that mandated the Corrections Department to determine Medicaid eligibility of inmates prior to their release from prison. In 2018, Micaela was elected to serve as a State Representative (District 33) in the New Mexico House of Representatives.


Brenda Blasingame

Brenda Blasingame is Executive Director of Health ConnectOne. HealthConnect One is best known for their Community Based Doula model that has been nationally replicated, their leadership in the development of a Peer to Peer Lactation/Breastfeeding approaches as well as supporting and training of Community Health Workers. She has served over 20 years in the public and non-profit sectors at the local, state, and national levels leading organizations and teams towards a common vision and through her work has demonstrated a deep commitment to issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. Brenda served as the Senior Director of Programs and Partnerships for Save the Children U.S., overseeing the U.S. portfolio of education and psychosocial programs in approximately 16 states and serving as a member of the organization’s U.S. programs’ senior leadership team. During her tenure at Save the Children, she was responsible for leading the development of a community engagement approach to create a place-based community continuum for children and families pre-natal through 3rd grade focused on literacy, safety and resiliency. Prior to joining Save the Children in 2012, Brenda was the Director of Programs at Thrive Washington, where she implemented two early learning demonstration communities, in partnership with the Gates Foundation and working with other national partners such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Ounce of Prevention Fund. Brenda also served as the Executive Director of First 5 Contra Costa (California) from 2000-2005, where she founded and led the development of a comprehensive set of early childhood development programs, services and activities for children 5 years of age and younger and their families living in marginalized communities.


Rebecca Polston

Rebecca is the founding, owner and director of Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has a passion for creating a safe space for all birthing families. She is the community partner lead for a Robert Woods Johnson research project on understanding ways to reduce racial inequities in birth outcomes, co-led by Rachel Hardeman, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Katy Kozhimannil, Ph.D., M.P.A., researchers and professors with the School of Public Health.

Dr. Blanca Aguilar Uscanga is a Biochemical Engineer in Food Science and has a Masters in Food Science. She graduated from the Institute Technologic of Veracruz (ITV) México. She completed her doctoral studies in the specialty of Biotechnology at the National Institute of the Sciences Appliqués of Toulouse in France.

She is currently a full-time research professor (since 2006) at the Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías (CUCEI) de la Universidad de Guadalajara. Dr. Aguilar Uscanga is adjunct professor to the Department of Pharmacobiology, where she teaches courses of Applied Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Science to undergraduate and PhD students.

She is a member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico recognized by CONACYT, with level 2. The research areas are: Food Biotechnology and Microbiology, which cover different areas of research such as: Obtaining bioactive compounds and metabolites of industrial importance through of microorganisms, production and development of functional foods, fermented beverages, probiotics, prebiotics and food safety.

She has international collaborations with the Institute Armand Frappier, Canada and the Institut sur la nutrition et les aliments fonctionnels (INAF) in Québec. Currently she is member of INRS and has an honorable mention of “Professeure associée” provided by the INRS- the Institute Armand Frappier in Laval, Canada.

Bobby Bellflower is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner with extensive experience in clinical practice, education, and administration. Her undergraduate nursing degree is from University of Memphis, and her masters and doctorate is from University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). Currently, she is the Director of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs at UTHSC in Memphis, TN and does her clinical practice at Regional One Health, Level IIIc NICU. In the past, she served as director of the NNP program at UTHSC and, most recently (2010-2016), was the manager of the NNP Service at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. Her research interests include prevention of NEC in neonates, evidence-based practice for APRNs and bedside nurses, and QIs.

Bobby Ghaheri, MD is a board certified ear, nose and throat specialist with The Oregon Clinic in Portland, OR. His interest in treating children with tongue and lip-tie stems from his ardent support of breastfeeding and was furthered by his personal experiences, as his youngest child benefited from treatment for it. He enjoys working with children and has an interest in traditional and non-traditional approaches to pediatric pain control. To communicate with him, feel free to email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @DrGhaheri.

Bonnie Holt Logsdon (she/her), is a Registered Dietitian, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and Certified Lactation Educator™ through CAPPA, and a DONA-trained birth doula with over 18 years of experience in community-based practice.

In her private practice, Bonnie Knows Breast, she blends her nutrition and lactation work to support families during the prenatal and postpartum periods. Bonnie also mentors IBCLC candidate students, teaches the Certified Lactation Educator (CLE) course, and offers public speaking on lactation and nutrition-related topics.

Bonnie is committed to giving personalized, affirming care and education to each family, individual, and professional she works with! Supporting families during this critical and emotional time in their lives is such important work. Bonnie promises compassionate, non-judgmental support and information.

Bonnie and her husband Brent, have a 7-year-old son, Finley. They enjoy quality time together playing board games, cooking, traveling, and hiking in as many National Parks as possible.

The mission of Bonnie Knows Breast is to empower people with education to make informed decisions related to their health and the health of their babies. Bonnie supports families of all backgrounds, structures, and identities and believes everyone deserves to be supported in their journey.

Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg, CNM, MSN, CRNP, is the award-winning author of Birth Emergency Skills Training; Manual for Out-of-Hospital Midwives, and co-developer of the workshop by the same name. In 2023, her long-awaited seminal work, Birth Emergencies for Community Midwives, will come to press. She has caught more than 2,100 babies to date in the home, in a free-standing birth center, and in the hospital. She currently works for Wellspan Health in Lancaster County, PA. Bonnie has written and illustrated 12 books on topics ranging from midwifery and maternity care to wild horse management. She enjoys painting, photography, and hobby farming.

Dr. Brandi is the pediatric chiropractor in a practice that provides chiropractic care for women and children. Her focus is on infants with feeding difficulties and children with neurodevelopmental delays. Dr. Brandi created a program at her practice which incorporates chiropractic, optimal nutrition, myofascial/cranial-sacral techniques, and neurofunctional exercises into one comprehensive program. Her ultimate goal is to naturally support the body (brain, gut, spine and immune system) to work together in balance and help children achieve their maximum life potential. Dr. Brandi attended Cleveland Chiropractic College after earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri- Kansas City. She is also certified by the Academy of Chiropractic Family Practice. In her free time, Dr. Brandi enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and two sets of fraternal twins.

Brandi Gates-Burgess is a Lactation Consultant at Highland Hospital, Community Engagement specialist for the MILK Research Lab, serves on the Community Advisory Board of the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative, and Co-chairs The Breastfeeding Cultural Outreach Taskforce (BCOT). Recently, Brandi transitioned from her 16-year career providing lactation support to families of the California WIC Program and decided to live her dream. She started her non-profit organization Breast Friends Lactation Support Services where she provides group lactation education and support to Black Families in the Bay Area. She is a mother to 4 breastfed children, wife and world traveler.

Brian is the Provincial Coordinator for Dad Central Ontario, which is devoted to promoting responsible father involvement in Ontario, Canada and has acted as a catalyst for other provinces and territories within Canada to form their own regional father initiatives. He has taught and trained extensively on understanding fatherhood and ways to engage men as parents. He is also a Marriage and Family Therapist in Toronto. He brings an important perspective to the couple relationship in families, where trust and respect are key elements to building strong families. He is married with three teenage daughters.

Briana Tillman received her undergraduate degree in International Relations from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She has been a La Leche League Leader for 9 years and is a board certified lactation consultant. After spending 10 years as a stay-at-home mom, she is currently attending medical school at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colorado. She loves spending time with her husband and three elementary-school-aged children—as a family they like to play board games, go camping, and play bluegrass and chamber music.

Bridget Liriano is a registered nurse with over 15 years of experience in pediatrics and holds a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. As the Quality Leader and a Transport Clinician for the Acute Care Transport Service (ACTS) Team at Sick Kids, Bridget is committed to providing expert medical care in the stabilization and safe transport of acutely ill neonates and children. She is a strong advocate for quality and safety, which is demonstrated through her involvement in clinical research, team-based projects and quality improvement initiatives. She has formerly covered the role of Interprofessional Education Specialist, working in collaboration with the leadership team to support the educational needs of her ACTS colleagues. Bridget has a passion for clinical education and simulation-based training, with a focus on interprofessional collaboration, peer mentorship, clinical debrief and neonatal resuscitation.

Dr. Brigit Carter, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, joined the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) in 2010. From 2015-2018 she served as the Director of the DUSON Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program. Dr. Carter earned her BSN at North Carolina Central University in 1998, a Master of Science in Nursing Education from University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2002 and PhD in Nursing from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009. She served as project director for two HRSA Nursing Workforce Diversity grants. The current grant, The Academy for Academic and Social Enrichment and Leadership Development for Health Equity II, focus is to increase underrepresented minorities in nursing and understanding of individual social determinants among undergraduate nursing students. Dr. Carter teaches the DNP and ABSN programs.
Dr. Carter's clinical research focuses on nursing care of premature infants (<1500 grams) with feeding intolerance and identification of measurable methods for early detection of feeding intolerance. She continues her clinical practice as a staff nurse in the Duke University Hospital Intensive Care Nursery, where she has 21 years’ experience.
Dr. Carter retired in 1/2018 from the U.S. Navy as a Commander after 28 years of service.

Dr. Britta Bushnell (she/her) is author of Transformed by Birth, host of the podcast Transformed, veteran childbirth educator, celebrated speaker, mythologist, wife and mother, and specialist in childbirth, relationship, and parenting. For over 20 years, Dr. Bushnell has worked with individuals and couples as they prepare for the life-changing experience of giving birth. Her work with parents has been enriched by her doctoral work in mythology and psychology, her years spent as a co-owner of Birthing From Within, as well as her dedicated study of solution-focused brief therapy, storytelling, and skills for supporting intimate relationships while parenting.

Britta is an engaging teacher, speaker, and presenter. Whether addressing a room of expectant parents, new mothers, or seasoned birth professionals, Britta has a way of captivating and inspiring them all. She has presented at conferences such as DONA International, MANA, ICEA, and Lamaze. Additionally, Britta has been featured on several popular podcasts including Informed Pregnancy, Birthful, and Atomic Moms. In 2016, in recognition of her transformative childbirth classes, Britta was awarded "Educator of the Year" by the Southern California Doula Association (DASC).

Bryna is a lactation consultant, mentor, educator, and birth doula in the Pacific Northwestern United States. They are active in their community as an advocate for mutual aid, reproductive justice, and reduction in barriers to care. They also own and manage an inclusive private practice. As a member of both Queer and Neurodivergent communities, offering inclusive care on every level is very important to Bryna. Their vision is to offer information and tools to providers to build a community of comprehensive, concordant, and individualized care for all families in the perinatal period.

Camie Jae Goldhammer, MSW, LICSW, IBCLC, (Sisseton-Wahpeton) is a Clinical Social Worker and Lactation Consultant. Camie received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Washington in 2006, specializing in Maternal Mood Disorders and the affects of complex/Intergenerational trauma on attachment, bonding and the parenting practices of Native families.

Camie is the founder and chair of the Native American Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington. She is also a founding mother and President-Elect of the National Association of Professional and Peer Lactation Supporters of Color. In 2013 she became Washington state's first Native American IBCLC. Camie is a consultant with CHEER and is also a part of the Center for Social Inclusion’s First Food Racial Equity Cohort. Recently she worked as a Campaign Director with MomsRising working to bring paid family and medical leave to Washington State which was signed into law in July 2017. She is now a member of the MomsRising breastfeeding team. She is a National leader on topics of racial equity and first food justice and recently launched the Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor training.

Dr. Camila Palma obtained her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from Universidad Tecnológica de México (UNITEC), Mexico City. She also holds a Master of Science in Dentistry in Pediatric Dentistry (MSc) from the University of Barcelona, Spain and was certified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2019. Dr. Palma is Associate Professor in the Pediatric Dentistry Postgraduate Department, Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia, and Vice-president of the Peruvian Society of Pediatric Dentistry (2021-2023). She also has her own Pediatric Dentistry dental practice in Lima, Peru (Chis Dental). Dr. Palma is the author of several scientific articles, especially in caries prevention and infant oral healthcare. She is also a lecturer in Latin American and European Dental and Lactation Conferences and content creator on children´s oral health for parents through her YouTube channel (Dra. Camila Palma), instagram and Facebook accounts (@chisdental).

Dr. Cara graduated from Arizona State University of with Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner in addition to having her IBCLC certification. Dr. Cara is also a diplomate of the American Board of Laser Surgery, specializing in “Oral Surgery in Infants, Toddler, and Adults. Dr Cara describes her career as a diversifying adventure: research, teaching, nursing, and now breastfeeding medicine specialist. She strives to provide meaningful, evidence-based care to mother-baby dyads. Her mission is to support mothers where they are at and help them journey into the breastfeeding relationship they desire. She strives to make sure that each patient is able to reach their desired goal and have an amazing breastfeeding relationship.

Dr. Caraciolo Fernandes is an academic neonatologist whose clinical experience and training spans three different countries/continents and over three decades. He received his medical degree from Grant Medical College in India, and did Fellowships at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Australia and Baylor College of Medicine, USA before joining the faculty at the Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor in 1998. He recently acquired a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee in 2018.

A clinician-educator and practicing neonatologist, he is actively involved in teaching Baylor College of Medicine medical students, pediatric residents and neonatology fellows. At Texas Children's Hospital, he has served as the Medical Director for Neonatal Transport since 2008, and is involved in multi-disciplinary clinical research, and quality improvement initiatives. He also is a QI Coach at Baylor College of Medicine Institute for Continuing Professional Development in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.

Nationally, he is a past member of Executive Committee of the Section of Transport Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and an editor of the inaugural edition of the Field Guide for Air and Ground Transport of Neonatal and Pediatric Patients that was introduced at the AAP National conference in Orlando, FL in November 2018. He is a senior editor of "Guidelines for the Acute Care of the Neonate," currently in its 28th annual revision, a handbook that has served as a resource for health-caregivers at Baylor-affiliated institutions for over two decades, and, currently via free online download, for practitioners in over 50 countries.

Carlos González was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1960. He is married and is the father of three children. In 1983 he graduated in medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and between 1984 and 1987 he studied pediatrics at the Hospital of Sant Joan de Déu in that city.
He is founder and president of ACPAM (Catalan Association for Breastfeeding) since 1991. Since this association he has directed and taught in more than 100 courses on breastfeeding for health professionals. He is the author of several books, including My child won’t eat, Kiss me!, and Breastfeeding made easy. He has lectured for professionals or general public in Germany, Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, United States, France, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, United Kingdom, Dominican Republic, Russia, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Since 1994, he has been a regular contributor to Ser Padres magazine , where he attends a nursing and child feeding office. He has also collaborated with other publications, such as the magazine Tu Baby, Mente Sana, Lecturas, the disappeared Solaica and the newspaper in Catalan Ara.

Carlota López-Peredo has a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Special Needs Education from Madrid Complutense University. She is an inspirational trainer, the owner of a clinic in Madrid, and the Program Liaison for Breakthroughs International. As a certified International Faculty for both the Brain Gym® and Movement Based Learning programs, Carlota provides experiential training worldwide for educators, families, caregivers, developmental specialists, and others, providing a large range of tools focusing on early intervention, developmental delays and disorders, as well as learning disabilities.

After working in the classroom for five years, she opened a clinic for developmental delays and learning difficulties. At her clinic, parents appreciate her commitment, connection with the children and professionalism. In her classes, her students enjoy the passion she communicates when teaching, and her ability to make learning a fun process. Carlota's passion is helping families and educators using designed movements to enhance the individual developmental foundation and reach a higher functioning level.

Carmela is a family medicine MD, bachelor´s degree in Public Health Education, and IBCLC since 2005. She is also a BFHI Evaluator and the co founder and past president of the Spanish Lactation Consultant Association (AECCLM). She works in a private Family Wellness Clinic, Raices, as person in charge of the lactation program, which includes two IBCLCs attending breastfeeding families and an extensive offer of breastfeeding training for health care professionals and breastfeeding peer counsellors. The team has trained over three thousand doctors, midwives and nurses from both the Spanish National Health Service and the private sector in Spain. She is a frequent lecturer at national conferences, and has also lectured internationally, both on-site and online. She is the author of several scientific papers on breast pain, mastitis and tongue tie. She is also the author of a breastfeeding/parenting book, “Amar con los Brazos Abiertos” (To Love with Open Arms). She is married to Carlos and they homeschool their four children.

Carol has been a therapeutic bodyworker in Portland, Oregon for over 26 years. She is a retired home birth midwife. She specializes in infant and maternal Craniosacral Therapy.
Carol is convinced that if women are appropriately supported in growing, birthing and nurturing their babies, their lives will improve. When women's lives improve their children's health improves. Healthy children grow up to be healthier adults who create healthier communities and a saner, more peaceful world. Carol believes that when things are out of balance even the smallest intervention can bring about great healing. Our need for it is so great. Carol is passionate about using her CST skills to gently make space in maternal bodies so babies can assume ideal positions for gestation and birth. She is currently developing specialized prenatal yoga classes to support and enhance the maternal bodywork techniques she practices and teaches.

Carol Smyth is an IBCLC and Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist working in a busy private practice in Northern Ireland. With a background in psychology she is driven by a passion to promote attachment based and trauma informed care to families and babies. She is the author of the Why Infant Reflux Matters book, both an HCP education resource and a self-help book for families worried about their baby’s reflux symptoms. Her interest in fertility while breastfeeding began when breastfeeding and wanting to grow her own family, and finding that research on the topic was very scant. Pulling together what was available she created a series of resources on her website, which are highly viewed.

Dr. Wallman is an Assistant Professor at the Loretto Heights School of Nursing and the Coordinator of the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program. She has over 30 years’ experience as an NNP with clinical experience ranging from low to high risk neonates including air transport. She has had a particular interest in perinatal substance use disorders and the impact on the neonate and family. She has been the co-chair of the Perinatal Substance Abuse Advisory Panel for UCHealth North and on the Colorado Substance Exposed Newborn Steering Committee since 2008. In 2015 she was the recipient of the Colorado Nightingale Award and in in 2006 the Distinguished Service in Neonatal Nursing Award from the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. She also served as the only nurse in the nation on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Fetus and Newborn where best practice standards for the care of neonates are developed and she currently serves on the Editorial Board of NeoReviews for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Carole Hervé is a private IBCLC (since 2011). She helps breastfeeding mothers at home or location of their choice, mostly in Paris and in the nearest neighborhood.

Prior to opening her private practice, she has been a La Leche Leader since 2008. Carole is passionate about information-gathering, education, articles writing, communications and training to provide lactation consulting and sensitive support to the families she works with.

She has been trained to support families with Sensory Food Aversion issues by Catherine Senez, a speech therapist in 2013 and is also BNCLC (Biological Nurturing Certified Lactation Consultant®).

She has been a speaker at the GOLD Lactation Online Conference in 2012, and in 2013 she translated 20 presentations from the GOLD Lactation Online Conference into French.

Carole has been strongly involved in the coordination of the International Breastfeeding Day (Journée Internationale de l’Allaitement), an event organized by La Leche League France. Carole is the mother of three children born in 2001, 2003 and 2006.

For over 25 years, Caroline has had the pleasure of advising new mothers, growing families, and breastfeeding babies. Along with being a certified lactation consultant in private practice, she leads a weekly parenting and breastfeeding support group for moms and their babies through six months of age. For nearly two decades at a community hospital, she taught prenatal breastfeeding classes. She works among a team of lactation consultants in a thriving postpartum unit. Caroline also practices as a nurse practitioner at a pediatrician’s office. As a provider, she enjoys integrating her knowledge and skills from pediatric nutrition and lactation into primary care. Currently working on a breastfeeding book for new moms, she remains passionate about using various means to teach breastfeeding and help families get off to a great start.

Caroline Kruger read notarial civil law at Groningen University (NL) and worked in Rotterdam (NL) for one of the biggest law firms of The Netherlands, practicing family law and estate planning for close to ten years. Then she started a family. Her own journey in breastfeeding led her to read up on breastfeeding a lot. She began the VBN training for peer-to-peer breastfeeding counseling and also volunteered at a local hospital. She went to Artevelde Hogeschool in Ghent (BEL) to follow lectures by Gonneke Veldhuizen-Staas (amongst others). She then assisted the start up of the only milk bank in The Netherlands (while still in Rotterdam). After the milk bank moved to Amsterdam, she started her private practice Nultien Borstvoeding.

Carolyn Lund has been a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the NICU at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland for over 30 years, and is also an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

She has contributed to knowledge of neonatal skin care through original research in the areas of skin maturation, skin integrity and adhesive damage, and bathing. Under her leadership, the first evidence-based Neonatal Skin Care Guideline was developed and evaluated in 51 nurseries in the US in 2001. She then served as team leader on revisions of guideline in 2007 and 2013 and is currently working on the 4th revision due in 2018.

In addition to neonatal skin care, Carolyn has lectured extensively on surgical care and vascular access for neonates.

Carrie Sue Halsey is a Clinical Nurse Specialist located in Houston, Texas. She earned her advanced nursing degree from the University of Cincinnati and her BSN from the University of West Florida. She is NCC certified in inpatient obstetrics and is an NRP and AWHONN instructor. She is a Trained Breastfeeding Educator and enjoys assisting parents with their breastfeeding goals. Carrie is a natural birth and breastfeeding advocate. Carrie advocates for education and empowerment for nurses and parents through on her blog, PerinatalEmpowerment.com and YouTube Channel. Her experiences of pregnancy, labor and birth as a mother, nurse, writer and educator have made her a passionate crusader for perinatal empowerment.

Dr. Briere is a Nurse Scientist and Postdoctoral fellow with a joint appointment at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and the University of Connecticut, School of Nursing. Her clinical background is as a nurse in a level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As a nurse in the NICU, Dr. Briere was passionate about getting mothers to hold and feed their babies, and be directly involved in the care and decision making during their infant’s hospitalization. During her doctoral program Dr. Briere’s research focused on the importance of direct-breastfeeding in the NICU. Towards the end of her program, she learned about the presence of stem cells in breastmilk. Since then, she has transitioned into a bench to bedside translation research trajectory where she is studying breastmilk stem cells. Her work is focused on breastmilk stem cells from mothers of preterm infants and their involvement in infant growth and development, specifically their protective and regenerative mechanisms.

I studied Biology at the University of York (UK) before training as a midwife in Norwich (University of East Anglia, UK) I have been a stay at home parent for the past few years but continue to read on the physiology of birth which is my passion and have written for MIDIRS midwifery magazine. I am a member of AIMS (Association for the Improvements in the Maternity Services) UK and an Associate member of the Royal College of Midwives.

Dr. Pound is a Clinical Investigator at the CHEO Research Institute, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, and the Resident Research Coordinator for the Pediatric Residency Program at the University of Ottawa. She is a specialist in the field of Consulting Pediatrics and has presented at national meetings, and published in the area of breastfeeding, and has authored a position statement on breastfeeding for the Canadian Pediatric Society.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in New York City. Certified in 1992, Catherine is particularly interested in helping moms and babies breastfeed when they have medical challenges and is an active clinical mentor. She speaks to healthcare professionals around the world on assisting breastfeeding babies with anatomical, genetic or neurological problems. Her presentations and her writing are enriched by her clinical photographs and videos. Catherine collaborates with Columbia University and Tel Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering on research projects investigating the biomechanics of the lactating nipple and various aspects of sucking and swallowing in breastfeeding infants. She is the author of Selecting and Using Breastfeeding Tools: Improving Care and Outcomes (Praeclarus Press 2009) and Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants (Jones and Bartlett Learning 2008, 2013, 2017) as well as professional journal articles and chapters in the Core Curriculum for Lactation Consultant Practice and Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Catherine served as Associate Editor of the United States Lactation Consultant Association’s official journal Clinical Lactation for its first seven years.

Cathy Carothers is co-director of Every Mother, a non-profit organization providing lactation training for health professionals. An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1996, she has provided more than 600 training events and conference presentations in every U.S. state/territory and several countries. She is past president of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), a fellow of ILCA, and past chair of the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. She chairs the design team for the equity initiative in the lactation consultant profession, and chairs the Monetary Investment for Lactation Consultant Certification (MILCC), which works to reduce financial barriers to the IBCLC exam. She has directed several national breastfeeding promotion and support initiatives for the U.S. federal government, including the national USDA WIC peer counseling program, and national workplace support initiatives through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She was honored with the 2014 National Leadership Award from the National WIC Association.

Cecilia Jevitt is the Midwifery Director and a tenured associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. From 2013 to 2018, she directed the Yale School of Nursing’s Midwifery and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner master’s degree programs. She has done capacity-building teaching and curriculum consultations in Switzerland, Laos, China and Ghana.
Jevitt studied midwifery at Emory University. Her 1993 doctorate in applied medical anthropology is from the University of South Florida. She established an academic division of midwifery with the University of South Florida College of Medicine while jointly appointed to the Colleges of Nursing and Public Health.
She is an elected Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and is the At Large Member of the FACNM Board. Jevitt was a Florida Nurses Association Great 100 Nurse in 2009, the 2010 Reviewer of the Year for the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, the University of South Florida Department of Anthropology’s Distinguished Alumni in 2012, and a 2014 Connecticut Nightingale Excellence in Nursing Award winner.
Jevitt’s scholarship focuses on perinatal weight gain optimization and integrating obesity prevention and management into women’s health especially the perinatal and lactation periods.

Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a Hungarian American anthropologist and public health scholar whose work investigates the structural and sociocultural drivers that shape health, illness and health inequities. Dr. Tomori is an internationally recognized expert on breastfeeding, infant sleep and maternal child health.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has supported numerous organizations focused on maternal child health and health equity and advocated for equitable pandemic policies. She has authored three books on breastfeeding and reproduction, and published numerous articles on a range of public health and anthropological topics.

Chauntel Norris is a native of Birmingham, AL. She attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she earned her B.A. in African American Studies & her B.S. in Psychology.
Chauntel is a DONA trained Birth & Post-Partum Doula, a Lamaze trained Childbirth Educator and a Certified Lactation Counselor. She is the Co-founder of Baobab Birth Collective and currently serves as the Mother's Milk Initiative Coordinator for the Alabama Prison Birth Project.
Chauntel is the mother of two brilliant children Amaiya and Ozell.

Cheri Grant RN, ICCE, CLC, ICD, CLD, CD BDT(DONA). Is the Coordinator of LifeStart Program at St John Owasso Hospital. Childbirth Graphics named her “The Peanut Ball Lady” She is the founder and consultant for Premier Birth Tools a website that has resources for peanut balls and its mission is to get peanut balls in every hospital in the United States with resources for everyone in the world, and to teach how to use it correctly. She continues to guest lecture to OU, OSU residents and nurses on maternal and child health topics such as the "Secrets of Labor Support." She spoke on the peanut ball at the National LAMAZE convention “The Peanut Ball- New Tool for Your Doula Bag and Its Effect on Laboring Women “She has also published several an articles on the peanut ball including " The Peanut Ball: A Remarkable Labor Support Tool " in the DONA international magazine and the "Peanut Ball, Improving Options for Women Laboring with an Epidural" in Australian Midwifery News. She has recently been featured on the Podcast “How do Peanut Balls Support Labor? “ for Evidence Based Birth. She is an Authorized Peanut Ball Trainer and has developed many educational tools for the peanut ball. She also has given over 100 in-services on the peanut ball. She is the Founder of Tulsa Doulas Inc. Doulas of Northeastern Oklahoma which she started 25 years ago. She is a Birth DONA Doula Trainer her certificate number is #2 as a trainer for DONA. She is certified as a Doula through DONA, ICEA and CAPPA. She is an internationally certified childbirth educator through ICEA for over 30 years. Cheri is an author of “Labor Support Forms – A Guide to Doula Charting” which is in its Third edition and on the app Mobile Doula . Several of her articles have been published in ICEA and DONA Journals. She has lectured at DONA international conventions and AWHONN State conventions “. The Peanut Ball" and Implications for Women Health”. She also produced and directed a Video on “Comfort Measures for Labor.” She teaches and coordinates training workshops for Birth Doulas and nurses talking about the profession of doulas around the country. She previously was a lactation consultant IBCLC for over 10 years. She also maintains her lactation educator. Previously she was also AWHONN certified in-patient obstetrical nurse for many years. She was also featured on the front page of the Tulsa World for her 42 years of work with pregnant and laboring women. Teaching and speaking about how to correctly use the peanut ball is her passion.

Cheryl has been a practicing educational psychologist for 37 years. She has spent the last 34 years of her career providing psychological, neurodevelopmental and infant mental health services in neonatal intensive care units and developmental follow-up clinics. Cheryl currently is working with NICUs to provide staff professional development and self-care education. This work nurtures the NICU professional team so they can nurture and support infants and their families. Cheryl is the National Perinatal Association’s Director of Development and Outreach. Cheryl is a member of the World Association for Infant Mental Health, The Pennsylvania Association for Infant Mental Health. She advocates for families with substance use issues during the perinatal period.Cheryl’s passion is helping families and staff to give optimal care to infants and young children. This care provides the infant or child with the foundation they need to live full, rich and healthy lives.

Dr. Beck is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Connecticut, School of Nursing. Her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing is from Western Connecticut State University. She received her Master’s degree in maternal-newborn nursing and became a certified nurse-midwife at Yale University. Her Doctor of Nursing Science degree is from Boston University. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She has received numerous awards such as the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nursing’s Distinguished Professional Service Award and the Distinguished Alumna Award from Yale University. Over the past 30 years Cheryl has focused her research efforts on developing a research program on postpartum mood and anxiety disorders. She developed the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) which is published by Western Psychological Services. She is a prolific writer who has published over 140 journal articles. Cheryl’s textbook, Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice, received both the 2007 and the 2011 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. Her book entitled Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide received the 2006 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. She recently published another book, Traumatic Childbirth.

Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is an innovator, author, organizational executive and educator. Throughout her career, Cheryl has focused on the well-being of children, families, communities and the environment that supports us all. Cheryl is the Co-Founder, President and CEO Emerita of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), www.childrenandnature.org. She currently is Adjunct Faculty and Executive Director of the Nature-based Leadership Institute at Antioch University New England, an elected local school board member, a member of the Steering Committee for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and Communication and Co-Chair of IUCN’s #NatureForAll, www.natureforall.global. She served as founding National Director of the pioneering K-12, interdisciplinary environment education programs, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD. Cheryl is author, editor and designer of a wide variety of publications. She lives in Vermont, USA, a short walk through the woods from her son, daughter-in-law and two nature-loving grandchildren.

Chesney Willis, MHS, CCC-SLP, IBCLC is a certified speech language pathologist and lactation consultant from the University of Missouri Women’s and Children’s hospital. She earned her master of health sciences degree from the University of Missouri in 2008 and obtained her IBCLC in 2017. Chesney has over 13 years of experience working across outpatient rehabilitation, home-health, inpatient care for pediatrics and neonates in level II and III NICU settings. Clinical expertise includes evaluation and treatment of disordered swallowing and feeding in special neonate populations. Experience includes the development and dissemination of education for best feeding practices for late preterm and preterm infants to families and inter-disciplinary health care providers. She is passionate about supporting mother-baby breastfeeding dyads with special feeding considerations from hospitalization through the transition to home.

Dr. Christina Hibbert is the bestselling author of This Is How We Grow, Who Am I Without You, 8 Keys to Mental Health Through Exercise, & the forthcoming Mastery of Motherhood (www.MasteryOfMotherhood.com). She is a clinical psychologist specializing in women’s and maternal mental health, parenting, grief/loss, self-worth, and personal growth, and host of the weekly web radio/TV show, “Motherhood.”.Dr. Hibbert is a popular speaker, founder of the Arizona Postpartum Wellness Coalition, and producer of the internationally-sold DVD, Postpartum Couples. A mother of six, Christina was named “Mother of the Year” AZ, 2018, and lives in Flagstaff, AZ, with her husband and family. Learn more about Dr. Hibbert through her award-winning website and blog, “The Psychologist, The Mom, & Me,” at www.DrChristinaHibbert.com.

Dr. Smillie is an American pediatrician who founded in 1996 the first private medical practice in the USA devoted to the specialty of breastfeeding medicine. Board certified by both the American Board of Pediatrics in 1983 and by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners in 1995, she values her continuing education from colleagues, research, and breastfeeding babies and their mothers. She’s been a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine since 1996, and an ABM Fellow since 2002. She serves as an advisor to the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding and on La Leche League International’s Health Advisory Council. Dr. Smillie speaks nationally and internationally about the clinical management of a wide variety of breastfeeding issues, always stressing the role of the motherbaby as a single psychoneurobiological system, and emphasizing the innate instincts underlying both maternal and infant competence.

Christine Bishop is a neonatologist, bioethicist, medical educator, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. She founded and directs the Brenner Children’s Hospital Care Always ™ Neonatal/Perinatal Palliative Care Program that provides holistic care for infants with life-limiting and complex medical conditions. Dr. Bishop received her MD from The Ohio State University School of Medicine and Public Health and completed her pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio. She completed a Master of Arts in bioethics at the Wake Forest University Center for Bioethics, served as the lead clinical ethics consultant for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, chairs the Clinical Ethics Consultation Committee, and co-directs the undergraduate medical humanities course at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Christine is both a General Practitioner and senior lecturer in the Dept. of Paediatrics at The University of Auckland. She has taken a career long interest in Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy and is now a doctoral candidate with Prof. Ed Mitchell. She also has a Primary care liaison role at her local district health board and is a clinical editor for primary care web-based Auckland Regional HealthPathways. Her current programme of research involves implementing and evaluating a web-based SUDI risk assessment tool with wrap around care planning for babies at higher risk, in the Counties Manukau Health District Health Board area in Auckland, New Zealand.

Christine Morton is a medical sociologist at the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) at Stanford University where she conducts research on maternal mortality and morbidity and helps translate the findings into maternal quality toolkits.

As a sociologist, Dr Morton seeks to explore the social meanings of maternal quality among all stakeholders. Her speaking and writing connects her to nursing, obstetric, midwifery, doula, public and social science audiences.

Her book, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas & the Re-emergence of Woman-Supported Childbirth in America, documents the history and experience of the doula role in US maternity care and is on the required reading list for DONA International.

She is a long time Lamaze board member and currently chairs a Lamaze Work Group, which aims to demonstrate the value of childbirth education. She is married to an internet sociologist and they have a son and daughter, ages 22 and 17, who were born safe and healthy thanks to great teamwork.

Christine Staricka is a Registered, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and trained childbirth educator. As the host of The Lactation Training Lab Podcast, her current role focuses on training and coaching current and aspiring lactation care providers. Christine created and developed The First 100 Hours© concept, an early lactation framework designed to support lactation care providers with the knowledge and mindset they need to help families optimize early lactation. Christine worked as a hospital-based IBCLC for 10 years and has over 20 years experience providing clinical lactation care and support. She provides clinical lactation care to families at Baby Café Bakersfield and serves as its Director. Christine recently completed 6 years of service on the Board of the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA.) She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Phoenix. She has been married for 27 years, lives in California, and is the proud mother of 3 amazing daughters.

Christine Van Den Broecke-Schneider was born in Salzburg, Austria. She worked there mainly in the graphics and printing industry. During her first pregnancy she moved to Mechelen, Belgium where she still lives with her husband and her two children. Soon she came in contact with La Leche League in Brussels and in 1997 she became the first Dutch speaking La Leche League leader in Belgium-Flanders. Since 2001 she has been a member of the Belgium Federal Breastfeeding Committee. She is active in different national and local breastfeeding projects and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. She frequently writes articles for La Leche League publications and other publications. She also gives presentations about breastfeeding through various organizations, for midwives and other maternity care workers, and she is still an active La Leche League leader.

Christy Jo has over 25 years of teaching experience. She is passionate about teaching in ways that simplify learning. She has been awarded the United States Presidential Volunteer Award for her community service, the Phyllis Klaus Founder's Award for her contribution to the Mother/Baby bond and the Above and Beyond Award for innovative projects that exemplify the mission of Public Health. She has also been named Lactation Educator Faculty of the Year from Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association and earned their Visionary Award in 2015. Christy Jo is the author of Mommy Feeds Baby and co-author of Making Milk. She created the Grow Our Own Lactation Consultant/IBCLC Prep Course which has been used to train hundreds of students to become Lactation Consultants. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She continues to serve her community as a birth doula, Private Practice IBCLC, Health Educator for Public Health, and faculty for the CAPPA CLE© and Childbirth Educator Programs.

Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis is a Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Perinatal Community Health and was recently appointed the Women’s Health Research Chair at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. She is currently the principal investigator of seven large, multi-site studies and is a co-investigator on twenty-four other research projects concerning maternal, paternal, and infant health outcomes. She holds over $23 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and has over 170 peer-review publications. She is the lead author on eight Cochrane systematic reviews and has provided over 150 invited presentations.

Cody is a Clinical Nurse II and serves as chair of a pain and palliative care committee in a level 4 NICU at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in San Francisco, CA. He switched careers to nursing as a result of experiencing the death of his newborn daughter, Quinn, in the NICU. Cody is an experienced educator reflected by his years teaching Chemistry at the high school level. His graduate degree is in qualitative research, which has supported his efforts in improving neonatal palliative care.

Cora Beitel is a midwife and community organizer whose people are settlers of European Jewish ancestry. They work and live on the traditional and unceded homeland of the Coast Salish people. Cora is a founding member of the Strathcona Midwifery Collective, a practice located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver where they serve a diverse clientele, including many queer and trans clients. As well as provide clinical care, they run a Trans and Queer Pregnancy and Parenting group and provide education on inclusive care to diverse health care providers in the hospitals and the community setting. When not working, they are spending time with family, sharing food, on their bike or out in nature as much as possible.

Dr. Courtney L. Everson is an Applied Medical Anthropologist with a long track record of community engagement, research, teaching, and leadership in health and human services, non-profit management, and higher education. Dr. Everson is currently appointed as a Researcher with Colorado State University (CSU) in the Social Work Research Center, School of Social Work, College of Health and Human Sciences. Prior to Colorado State University, Dr. Everson was the Dean of Graduate Studies and Academic Faculty at the Midwives College of Utah, the Vice President for the Association of Midwifery Educators, and on the Board of Directors for the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council and the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health representing Direct-Entry Midwifery. As a mixed methodologist, Dr. Everson's specializations include maternal-infant health; midwifery care; evidence-informed practice; and knowledge translation. Dr. Everson is also the Director of Research Education for the Midwives Alliance of North America Division of Research, a Research Working Group member of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health, and a strategic consultant to higher education entities, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations on issues of equity, complex systems evaluation, and anti-oppression.

Courtney Polk is a registered nurse and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She is a native of New Orleans but currently resides in Dallas, Texas with her husband and their 2 children. Since graduating from Southern University School of Nursing in 2006, Courtney began her nursing career in labor and delivery and went on to earn a masters in nursing education in 2012. It wasn’t until having her son in 2014, and experiencing breastfeeding for herself that lactation became her focus and passion. Since becoming board certified she has helped countless families in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex area meet or exceed their breastfeeding goals. Courtney is also the current president of the Dallas Lactation Consultant Association.

Cristen Pascucci is an advocate for human rights in childbirth. She is the founder of Birth Monopoly and working on a documentary film exposing the epidemic of obstetric violence and the state-sanctioned suppression of midwifery in the U.S. With a background in public affairs, Cristen has led multiple consumer-based advocacy campaigns to get birth trauma and institutional mistreatment in maternity care into the media. Today she teaches birth and healthcare workers about their patients' human rights.

Crystal Karges, MS, RDN, IBCLC, is a Maternal Health Specialist, Child Feeding Expert, and Food & Body Image Coach for Mothers. Crystal is passionate about helping mommas build a peaceful relationship with food & their bodies so they can confidently nourish themselves & their kids and bring joy back to eating. Crystal is committed to providing holistic, compassionate, and evidence-based nutrition care to mothers and families worldwide through her online blog and virtual nutrition coaching practice. Find more motherhood and meal time inspiration at www.crystalkarges.com

Cynthia Good, MS Clinical Psychology, is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Clinical Counselor, author, consultant, and internationally recognized speaker. She is the Director of LifeCircle Consulting, LLC and is Certified in Acute Traumatic Stress Management. She is based in the Seattle, Washington, USA area, where she formerly served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University where she taught counseling skills and is a therapist at Sandbox Therapy Group where she works with children, adults, and families. Cynthia has a strong interest in the emerging field of lactational psychology. She brings the evidence and insights of psychology and lactation consulting to her presentations, providing information and teaching skills that are essential to understanding and effectively responding to the complex psychosocial realities of families living in diverse contexts. The focus of her presentations includes communication skills and counseling techniques for perinatal care providers; equity, diversity, and inclusion; infant feeding rhetoric; perinatal mental health; perinatal loss, grief, and trauma; ethics; serving as an expert witness in lactation-related court cases; cultural competence and humility; vitamin D; and more.

Dr. Singley is a San Diego-based board certified psychologist and Director of The Center for Men’s Excellence. His research and practice focus on men’s mental health with a particular emphasis on reproductive psychology and the transition to fatherhood. Dr. Singley won the American Psychological Association’s 2017 Practitioner of the Year Award from the Division on Men & Masculinities. He is Past President of the APA’s Section on Positive Psychology and currently serves on the Board of the APA’s Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities as well as Postpartum Support International's Advisory Council. He conducts trainings around the country to assist individuals and organizations to enhance their level of father inclusiveness and founded the grant-funded Basic Training for New Dads, Inc nonprofit and Padre Cadre social networking application just for dads in order to give new fathers the tools they need to be highly engaged with their infants as well as their partners. In his free time, Dr. Singley likes to cook, surf, read, and drive his two sons to activities all over town so they can’t escape his annoying shrinky questions. Follow him @MenExcel and www.facebook.com/MenExcel/.

Darcia Narvaez, Professor Emerita of Psychology, University of Notre Dame researches moral development and flourishing from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating anthropology, neuroscience, clinical, developmental and educational sciences. Her earlier careers include professional musician, business owner, classroom music teacher, classroom Spanish teacher and seminarian, among other things. She grew up bilingual/bicultural but calls the earth her home. Dr. Narvaez’s current research explores how early life experience influences wellbeing and moral character in children and adults. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association and former editor of the Journal of Moral Education. She is on the advisory boards of Attachment Parenting International, Kindred, Your Whole Baby, and the Self Reg Institute. She has numerous publications, including more than 20 books such as Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom: First Nation Know-how for Global Flourishing; Basic Needs, Wellbeing and Morality: Fulfilling Human Potential and Embodied Morality: Protectionism, Engagement and Imagination. A recent book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom won the 2015 William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association and the 2017 Expanded Reason Award. She blogs for Psychology Today (“Moral Landscapes”) and hosts the webpage EvolvedNest.org.

David Carter-Plake, LM, CPM began his career in Maternal and Child Health over 25 years ago working in hospital systems as a labor and delivery nurse. After completing disaster relief work in New Orleans and Haiti, David started searching for alternative ways to provide services to people in need of maternity care. Finally deciding on the traditional midwifery path instead of nurse midwifery, David attended Midwives College of Utah graduating with an Associate of Science in Midwifery degree in 2018 and will complete a Bachelor of Science of Midwifery in August 2019. David is planning on continuing his education at MCU in the graduate degree program with a focus on midwifery education. David lives in El Paso, Texas where he has a solo midwifery practice, Imagine Midwifery Services, providing birth center and home birth care to birthing people of El Paso, Southern New Mexico, Chihuahua, Mexico and beyond. David has 5 dogs and one 20-year-old cat. He enjoys reading, travel, movies, and watching the performing arts in his leisure time.

David Elad is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University since 1985.  He received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering on 1973, M.Sc. and D.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering on 1978 and 1982, all from the Technion, Haifa, Israel. He was then awarded the Rothschild and Bantrell post-doctoral fellowships at Imperial College London and M.I.T.    
David pioneered computational studies of biofluid transport phenomena in the nasal cavity in the late 80's. In the early 90's he established a comprehensive research program in bioengineering of human reproduction, both at Tel Aviv University. He developed his expertise in the fields of Respiratory Biomechanics and Reproductive Bioengineering, from complete organs all the way to the cellular levels. The respiratory studies included integrative assessment of respiratory muscles, transport phenomena in the human nose, objective noninvasive evaluation of nasal function and mechano-transduction of nasal epithelial cells cultured under air-liquid interface conditions, including effects of air-pollution. The reproductive studies included the role of uterine peristalsis in early human life, pre-implantation embryo transport after IVF, feto-maternal blood circulations in the placenta, transport of nutrition, pharmaceuticals and carcinogenic materials across a tissue engineered placental barrier, mechano-transduction of cultured ovarian cancer cells and biomechanics of infant breastfeeding. He published over 120 articles in peer-review journals and was the leading editor of 5 special journal issues in reproductive bioengineering, respiratory biomechanics and biofluid mechanics.
David has been a visiting scholar at Imperial College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, City College New York and Columbia University. He is a member of the World Council for Biomechanics (2002-14) and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2004), the Biomedical Engineering Society, USA (2005) and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (2013).
Dr. Elad is currently on sabbatical leave from Tel Aviv University and affiliated with the Department of Biomedical Engineering of Columbia University.

I am a Board Certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Lactation Counselor since 2010. I work in a 52 bed level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As a bedside RN for 8 years I assisted in the advancement of our lactation program by hosting Lactation Counselor courses, developed the human mil technician role, and assisted in developing the hospital standards for donor milk use in preterm infants. I am currently the Clinical Leader in which my responsibilities include the development of our hospital-wide human milk for our 900 bed hospital, educate and train human milk technicians, and ensure all human milk in our institution is handled and stored according to the highest National standards.

Debbie Albert, PhD, BSN, IBCLC, is a full time lactation consultant at UC Davis Med Center--working with all facets of their lactation service; including maternity floor, level IV NICU, pediatrics, PICU, and Employee Breastfeeding Support Program. She is also a prenatal instructor with their patient education program, nursing staff educator, and chairs the UCD Breastfeeding Task Force and the UCD Breastfeeding Support Program Committee. She received an Employee Excellence Award June, 2013 and June, 2015, and a Nursing Excellence Award in May, 2016. In addition, UC Davis programs have received IBCLC Lactation Care Awards and Sacramento Coalition and California State Coalition Breastfeeding Awards. Debbie has lactation experience in Florida, Texas, and California. She is Member of the LEAARC Board, a member of ILCA’s Equity Committee, and UCD Status of Women Committee. She is married to Dan Albert for 33 years, and has two sons, Josh (28), and David (24).

Debbie Fraser is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Athabasca University and a neonatal nurse practitioner in the NICU at St Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg Manitoba. She is the editor-in-chief of Neonatal Network and is the Executive Director of the Academy of Neonatal Nursing. Debbie has published three textbooks and over 70 book chapters and peer reviewed articles on topics related to high-risk newborns.

Debby Gould is a ‘BirthCare’ consultant providing education, support and counsel to women, partners, families and health professionals. Her goal is to provide transformational care to support education, empowerment and healing. She is an author of the book, ‘How to Heal a Bad Birth – Making Sense, Making Peace & Moving On’ and Co- Director of Birthtalk.org. Originally, a registered nurse she further trained and worked as a midwife, and is now a birth; educator, worker and counsellor, international author, speaker and mother of two children. For over twenty years she has supported women and men in the journey to healing after a traumatic birth, enabling women to make sense of their experience and its impact, offering hope for healing, and providing support and tools to process and make peace with what happened. She has shared in receiving the honour of a Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Community Achievement award for this work. Debby has been Birthtalk’s primary educator and facilitator of Healing From Birth meetings. She has presented for the ACM, Hypnobirthing Australia, Capers, Homebirth Australia, Australian Breastfeeding Association and various other maternal health and midwifery conferences. She guest lectures to Bachelor of Midwifery students at several Universities, and gives presentations for The Australian Doula College, Friends of the Birth Centre, Red Tent festival and other community groups. She also provides professional development for hospital midwives and doulas on the topic of Birth Trauma and how to support women to heal and have better births. She has co-written articles for Birthtalk’s blog “The Truth About Traumatic Birth” and has appeared in the media including radio, newspaper, birth and parenting magazines and podcasts and in the recent birth documentary ‘Birth Time’ as an experienced health professional’s voice to the issue of the importance of birth and traumatic birth.

Deborah is Aotearoa/ New Zealand’s first Nurse Practitioner. Deborah’s research interests include the management of babies at risk of neonatal hypoglycaemia and their later development. The impact of her teams research has changed the treatment for millions of babies and families across the developed world. More recently, Deborah has been investigating the prevention and management of neonatal hypoglycaemia within the Pacific Islands.

Dr. Deborah MacNamara is a developmentalist and author of the bestselling book, Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one). She is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and is the Director of Kid’s Best Bet, a Counselling and Family Resource Center. Her book has been translated into 7 languages – Korean, Italian, German, French, Danish, Spanish, and Russian.

With a nursing background Debra gradu¬ated with a diploma in Acupuncture in 1989 while living in London. On returning to New Zealand build a practice using acupuncture for women’s health including pregnancy care. She commenced teaching acupuncture courses for midwives in 1997. This led to publications on the use of acupuncture and acupressure in obstetric practice including “The Essential Guide to Acupuncture in Pregnancy & Childbirth” in 2006, which has now been translated into German and French. Debra completed her PhD on the use of acupuncture in threatened miscarriage in 2014 through the University of Western Sydney and is currently the Director of Postgraduate Programmes for an online Masters course through New Zealand School Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is also a clinical supervisor at a hospital antenatal acupuncture clinic in New Zealand, and lectures internationally on the use of acupuncture in obstet¬ric care.

Since graduating with a Masters Degree majoring in Maternal-Child Health from Columbia University in 1986, Debrah has worked in public and private practice midwifery in New York, Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.

She is a founder and current Executive Director of Mamatoto Resource & Birth Centre in Trinidad where she remains in active midwifery practice. She is on the Board of the North West Regional Health Authority; works with the Nursing Council; and serves as an independent consultant on midwifery matters. Debrah precepts students from the USA, Canada and Europe, and has presented extensively regionally and internationally, including a TEDx Talk on fathers.

She was the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Americas Board Member from 2005 – 2011 and Vice-President from 2011 - 2014; a founding member of the Trinidad & Tobago Association of Midwives; and spearheaded the formation of the Caribbean Regional Midwives Association in 2012.

Debrah is the recipient of several awards including the Dorothea M. Lang Pioneer Award and a National Award for The Development of Women – Gold – for her work in Community Service and Midwifery in Trinidad & Tobago.

Decalie is a Registered nurse/midwife with over 40 years of experience collectively working as an IBCLC in a clinical roles within Primary Care and Community Health. Currently working as a Child & Family Health Clinical Nurse Specialist 2 in busy Community of the Blue Mountains, NSW Australia. She supports health professionals and parents with education of lactation/infant feeding/settling and behavioural issues for infants and children 0 to 5 years of age as a clinical specialist. A current BFHI Assessor. Has shared her extensive clinical experience in workshops at many ILCA, LCANZ and ABA conferences over the years. Her passion in support for mothers and babies.

Decalie has volunteered for Board of Director for the Australian Lactation Consultants Association (ALCA) 7 years on the ILCA International Lactation Consultant Association, last 2 years as President. On the Inaugural World Trends Initiative WBTI AUS Core group. Advisory committee for International Childbirth Education Ass. ICEA. World Health Organisation working group for revision of BFHI Education package, WABA advisory group. ILCA Nominations committee chair, IBCLC Care award Co chair.

Enjoying the next level of parenting being Mimi to her 3 year old grandson Cole.

Professor Declan Devane is Professor of Midwifery at the National University of Ireland Galway (in the beautiful West of Ireland) and Director of the Health Research Board-Trial Methodology Research Network. He is an Editor with the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group, an Associate Senior Lecturer with the UK Cochrane Centre and an author of numerous Cochrane systematic reviews predominantly in the field of fetal assessment. He has led a number of clinical trials recruiting from 100 to over 3000 participants and serves on a number of Trial Steering Committees and Data Monitoring Boards. He is a past member of the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee and the Midwives Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. He was a member of the Department of Health National Maternity Care Strategy Group (Ireland) and the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Maternity Standards Advisory Group (Ireland).

Demetria Clark is the Director of Heart of Herbs Herbal School founded in 1998, www.heartofherbs.com. She has been an internationally known herbalist and aromatherapist for over 20 years. Training thousands of practitioners and working with organizations all over the world to promote wellness and self-sustaining careers.

Denise Altman is a private practice lactation consultant and owner of All The Best in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to that, she has worked in a variety of roles in the healthcare system from staff nurse to clinical educator, with experience in Maternal/Child Health since 1992. She has authored numerous articles for parents and healthcare professionals in print, as well as two medical textbooks, and has served on the Editorial Review Board for the Clinical Lactation journal since the first issue in 2010. She has established herself as a business mentor and enjoys coaching other small and microbusiness owners about methods for success. Her website is DeniseAltman.net. On a personal note, Denise is the mother of three children, and has been married since 1994.

Dr Denise Harrison is a Professor and the Chair in Nursing Care of Children, Youth and Families at the University of Ottawa and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Canada. Her program of research titled Be Sweet to Babies focuses on pain management for neonates, infants and young children. She has co-produced a series of videos with parents and clinicians in multiple languages, showing effective pain management during painful procedures for newborns and infants up to one year of age. The videos are being used as knowledge translation interventions, and their effectiveness of implementation is being evaluated in diverse settings. Dr Harrison is an advocate for sick and healthy babies and their families, and argues that no non-urgent painful procedure should be performed without use of evidence-based pain management strategies.

Denise Love is a dynamic international speaker and educator. She is passionate about life and compelled to support women through their many transitions in life. With an ever developing interest in life and death, she walks the path with many around death, particularly women whose babies die, either in utero, at birth, or soon thereafter. With a Masters degree in nursing, living and working in remote villages in Asian countries as well as Australia, she is determined that women and babies be treated respectfully within their cultural expectations.

As a childbirth educator and an instigator of the introduction and training of doulas in Australia 20 years ago, Denise identified the vital need for birthing women to ""find their voice"" and trust their ancient internal ability to birth their babies. This recognition was stimulated by the developed world's highly structured interventionist and medicalised birthing paradigms and seemingly inflexible protocols and practices. Birth matters and so does the way we all die. Combining direct language, ritual and acknowledgement of grief when a baby dies, Denise brings a refreshing attitude and approach. In her early years, practising as a Registered Nurse in remote indigenous communities, Denise gained valuable insight into how to trust our innate ability to birth, live fully and die. Denise's view has since been further reinforced through her work with vulnerable marginalised villagers in developing countries, where death is accepted as just a normal part of living.

Desirée is a perinatal psychotherapist, trained birth doula, Reiki practitioner, and owner of Motherland Community helping women decipher the funk of motherhood through her practice in Baltimore, MD. A mother of 2 boys, Desirée ignited her passion for perinatal mental health after experiencing undiagnosed postpartum depression and OCD. Using her own experience and compassion in hopes to heal others, Desirée completed training as a birth doula in 2014 and the Postpartum Support International’s Components of Care Training on PMADs in 2015. Since then, she has immersed her free time in PMAD (Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder) awareness. Additionally, she serves as a Maryland co-coordinator for PSI (Postpartum Support International), co-founder of the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for Women of Color and her practice is a Perinatal Safe Spot through the National Perinatal Taskforce. Desirée’s philosophy is ‘every woman should be nurtured and cared for during her transition to motherhood. It is a rite of passage that has no manual, only the virtue of patience, sacrifice and sense of community that is necessary to hold space for a woman on the other side of birth.

Dia has written and/or edited over a dozen books for adults and children. Her passions in life include promoting the concepts and practices of attachment parenting, breastfeeding and safe infant sleep. She is founder and president of two publishing houses—Platypus Media and Science, Naturally! Their books have won numerous awards and have been translated into Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese, Russian, Turkish, French and Korean. Dia has led workshops at healthcare, education and parenting conferences across the country. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Washington, DC.

Dr. Barnes is an internationally recognized expert on women’s reproductive mental health. A past president of Postpartum Support International, she currently sits on their President’s Advisory Board and is also a member of the Los Angeles County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force and the statewide Maternal Mental Health Collaborative. Her work has been published in a number of academic journals. She wrote the assessment and treatment guidelines for perinatal illness for the Perinatal Advisory Council of Los Angeles County. In addition to private practice, she is often retained by legal counsel on cases of infanticide, neonaticide and pregnancy denial. The 2009 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Eli Lilly Foundation, Dr. Barnes is the co-author of The journey to parenthood: Myths, reality and what really matters (Radcliffe, 2007) and editor and contributing author to a reference text on Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan (Springer, 2014).

Diana West is an IBCLC in private practice. She is the co-author of “Sweet Sleep: Naptime and Nighttime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family,” the 8th edition of La Leche League International’s “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,” “The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk,” the clinical monograph “Breastfeeding After Breast and Nipple Procedures,” and ILCA’s popular “Clinician’s Breastfeeding Triage Tool.” She is the author of the “Defining Your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery.” She is on the Editorial Review Board for the “Journal of Clinical Lactation,” a La Leche League Leader and the Director of Media Relations for La Leche League International. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is the administrator of the popular BFAR.org, LowMilkSupply.org, and LactSpeak.com websites. She lives with her three sons and one husband in the picturesque mountains of western New Jersey in the United States.

Dr. Diane DiTomasso achieved a Diploma in Nursing from Newport Hospital School of Nursing; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing Education, and a PhD from the University of Rhode Island. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing.

Her research focus is human lactation and infant weight. She has multiple publications in journals such as Journal of Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing (JOGNN), Journal of Human Lactation, Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, and Nursing for Women’s Health and has presented her work nationally and internationally.

Dr. DiTomasso has received various honors and awards with the most recent being the 2020 Suzanne Feetham Nurse Scientist Family Research Award by the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) and the 2020 Best of JOGNN Award as first author of the article, “Systematic Review of Expected Weight Changes After Birth for Full-Term, Breastfed Newborn. She has served as Principal Investigator for a variety of neonatal research studies. Dr. DiTomasso is a member of AWHONN, the International Lactation Consultant Association, the Eastern Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International. She currently serves as a Member on the AWHONN Research Advisory Panel.

Diane Powers was a LaLeche League Leader for 13 years; after which she was an LC in private practice for more than a decade. In 1999, she was recruited by a hospital where she established a lactation service line in their maternity ward. This is where she currently sees more than 1000 mother-baby pairs a year, both in-patient and in the clinic setting.
She has completed two research projects that were Medical Ethics Research Board approved and has published results of both. The first article was published in 1996, and the second research article in JHL in 2004, both in the Journal of Human Lactation. She has also published several other articles connected with breastfeeding.
She finds it rewarding and satisfying to be able to articulate to new mothers how to breastfeed with ease - using words that create visual pictures - so that the next time they breastfeed, without assistance, they are able to do so. Empowering women to succeed is a very satisfying part of her job.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, is a co-author, with Diana West, Linda Smith, and Teresa Pitman, of La Leche League International’s Sweet Sleep Nighttime and Naptime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family. She is also a co-author, with Diana West and Teresa Pitman, of the 8th edition of LLLl's Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Other publications include chapters in Genna's Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants and Smith's The ABC's of Private Practice, and journal articles and essays on latching, lip ties, D-MER, motherhood in other mammals, and breastfeeding language. Diane self-publishes more than 75 breastfeeding handouts for mothers. She has spoken in over 40 states and provinces and in Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

Dianne Cassidy is a Lactation Consultant in Rochester, New York with Advanced Lactation Certification.  Dianne works in Private Practice, and in a busy Pediatrician office supporting mothers and babies. She also teaches prenatal breastfeeding and childbirth in the hospital setting.  In the fall of 2013, Dianne completed her MA in Health and Wellness/Lactation.  She is dedicated to serving mothers and babies, and has the unique ability to identify with the needs and concerns of new mothers.  Dianne has worked extensively with women who have survived trauma, babies struggling with tongue tie, birth trauma, milk supply issues, attachment, identifying latch problems, returning to work and breastfeeding multiples.

Dianne has 3 biological children, including twins, 3 step children and a wonderful husband.  Dianne is an author and public speaker and enjoys teaching caregivers how to support new families through breastfeeding struggles.

Divya Sinha Parikh MD, IBCLC, FAAP is a board certified pediatrician practicing in Columbus, OH. She received her medical training at The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed her residency in general pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at Case Western Reserve University. She formerly served on the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Committee at MetroHealth Hospital Systems in Cleveland, OH and created a breastfeeding medicine clinical rotation during residency. Within her practice, she has extensive experience managing lactation concerns and has taken a special interest in mentoring current and aspiring breastfeeding providers. She has presented her work at local and national meetings.

Divya Sinha Parikh MD, IBCLC, FAAP is a board certified pediatrician practicing in Columbus, OH. She received her medical training at The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed her residency in general pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at Case Western Reserve University. She formerly served on the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Committee at MetroHealth Hospital Systems in Cleveland, OH and created a breastfeeding medicine clinical rotation during residency. Her work has been presented in local and national meetings.

Dixie Whetsell, MS, IBCLC, has a Master’s Degree in Community Health Education from the University of Oregon. She began working with breastfeeding families in 1992 and became an IBCLC in 1998. She has worked as a lactation consultant in private practice, for county and state public health programs, and in healthcare settings. She began teaching lactation training courses in 2003, and has taught in hospital, community and academic settings. She currently works in Portland Oregon for Legacy Health in high risk maternal and pediatric hospitals. She also teaches lactation courses at Portland State University School of Community Health. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the US Lactation Consultant Association, and the International Lactation Consultant Association. She was a founding Board Member for Northwest Mothers Milk Bank, a HMBANA non-profit donor milk bank.

Dominic Wilkinson is Director of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medical Ethics at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. He is a consultant in newborn intensive care at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. He also holds a health practitioner research fellowship with the Wellcome Trust and is a senior research fellow at Jesus College Oxford.

Dominic has published more than 130 academic articles relating to ethical issues in intensive care for adults, children and newborn infants. He is co-author (with Julian Savulescu) of ‘Ethics, Conflict and Medical treatment for children, from disagreement to dissensus’ (Elsevier, 2018). He is also the author of 'Death or Disability? The 'Carmentis Machine' and decision-making for critically ill children' (Oxford University Press 2013) ("the best book of the decade in bioethics... this is a book that must be read by everybody who is seriously interested in the bioethical issues that arise in neonatal intensive care or, more generally, in decision making for children with chronic, debilitating or life-threatening conditions." (John Lantos, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews). He was Editor and Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics from 2011-2018.

Pediatrician, neonatology & Clinical Nutrition physician with 19 years’ experience, and IBCLC since 2008. A board member @MILCC. An Associate Alumni, Harvard Medical School & affiliate member @WABA and member @Task force analysis committee@IBLCE.
A volunteer@ILCA (conference committee, equity, study, research and publications and webinar task modules) since 2018 and currently.
A trainer at the Egyptian Board of Pediatrics and a former member committee of the Egyptian Board. In July 2022, she was nominated for USLCA award winner reward, assigned for excellency in breastfeeding medicine. Among USBC Equity champions 2023.
An “IBCLC & ILCA Award Winner” 2021, award to the most effective lactation consultant worldwide. In December 2021, she was selected as one of four leaders responsible for the Technical Assistance @ United States Breastfeeding Committee, responsible for training and technical assistance to the breastfeeding network of the state. She has been selected on 2018 as an expert on the IBLCE® Practice Analysis Task Force. She was nominated as a fellow of ILCA the year 2021. Her current book “The Ultimate Breastfeeding Study Guide” was released in January 2021, a reference book for healthcare professionals interested in Breastfeeding medicine. An international speaker at organizations supporting breastfeeding medicine; TalkTools, ABM, ILCA, iLactation, USLCA, Breastfeeding conferences, Australian Live Events and Appalachian Breastfeeding Network webinar series.

Duncan Fisher promotes and develops support for parents to advance child health and development. In the last year he has been working with breastfeeding researchers across the world and with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action to advance the idea of "breastfeeding as teamwork", following striking findings from research of the high gains from engaging with fathers and other family members. In UK he co-founded the Fatherhood Institute and for three years he served on the Board of the Government’s gender equality body, the Equal Opportunities Commission. He manages the website, FamilyIncluded.com, where all recent research on breastfeeding and fathers/families is reported. He initiated and currently manages a website for Cambridge and Princeton Universities reporting research on child welfare and development, ChildandFamilyBlog.com. He was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2008 for his “services to children”. Duncan lives in Wales and divides his time between family work and work to support sustainable economic development in his home country.

Dr. Dyah Febriyanti is a medical doctor, an IBCLC, a breastfeeding counselor, and a mother living in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has been working in hospitals since she graduated in 2012. She was facing many struggles to succeed breastfeeding her daughter for two years. She has been an IBCLC since 2017. She works with breastfeeding dyads in a team, called Praborini lactation team, consisting of all lady doctors in outpatient and inpatient care units. Concerning breastfeeding and nutrition in early life, she has published a semi-cookbook about complementary foods for breastfed babies and cooking videos to educate and help mothers feed their babies. She also has been working on scientific writing. She is a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, International Lactation Consultant Association, and a trainer of the Indonesian Society of Perinatology.

Edith Kernerman is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and clinician in Toronto, seeing over 2000 breastfeeding families each year. She is co-founder and President of the International Breastfeeding Centre (IBC), co-founder and Clinic Director of the Newman Breastfeeding Clinic, (NBC), senior faculty at IBC’s Centre for Breastfeeding Studies, and an IBLCE mentor. She is the creator and founder of the International Meeting of the Minds, co-creator of Dr. Jack Newman’s Visual Guide to Breastfeeding, the L-Eat Latch and Transfer Tool; author of GamePlan for Protecting and Supporting Breastfeeding in the First 24 hours of Life and Beyond, and creator of the Pain Algorithm for Sore Nipples and Breasts. Her recent focus has been 1] not yet latching baby, 2] identifying and treating tongue and lip tie, 3] Mammary Constriction Syndrome. Kernerman is also co-founder and President of the Ontario Lactation Consultants Association. Edith Kernerman has 3 wonderful breastfed children.

Effath Yasmin is India's leading Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, an award winning International Board Certified Lactation Consultant & a Documentary Film Maker. She is also an International Speaker, an Author & a Bach Flower Practitioner.

Her special interests lie in Infant Oral, Sucking & Airway Dysfunction, Tongue Tie, Birth Trauma, Craniofacial Development and a range of chronic physical and mental dis-eases & quantum energy phenomenon. She applies these sciences into Life Coaching, Inner Child Healing and Parenting. Her approach stems from fundamental truth of human organism is complete and self-regulatory and treatment & counselling approach is by deep listening & true empathy to mind body and spirit rather than by intervention.

She currently sits on several national & international professional boards.

She has spear-headed & dedicated her life to many projects with a central mission of advocacy, education and awareness for integrative multidisciplinary wellness approach worldwide. Her work has been published in the International Journals & a textbook and she writes extensively on print and digital media on the subjects of Breastfeeding, Tongue Tie, Parenting & Health related subjects.

Her international award winning film 'Untying Breastfeeding' exposes the glaring unseen obstacles to Birth & Breastfeeding & early parenting that can help restore motherhood and has been widely celebrated over 1500 Cities worldwide. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.

Eithne Murray developed a passion for breastfeeding as a result of her own experience as a mother – a passion she did not know she had. She initially trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT in the UK and, upon moving back to Ireland, trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with Cuidiú-the Irish Childbirth Trust, later becoming a tutor. She qualified as an IBCLC in 2009, and worked privately for a while. She now works predominantly in education. This presentation was based on the research undertaken for a dissertation on transition to motherhood as part of her studies for a Masters degree.

Dr Elaine Burns is a Registered Midwife and Senior Lecturer at Western Sydney University and Chair of the NSW Branch of the Australian College of Midwives. Elaine has worked in the area of midwifery and women’s health for more than two decades and has an established track record as clinician, educator and researcher. Her current research interests focus around midwifery practice during the early postnatal period and peer and professional breastfeeding communication. Elaine is passionate about improving support for women who are breastfeeding and the early transition to mothering.

In 2013, I started teaching pharmacology and pharmacotherapy in the Bachelor of Science for Midwifery (VIVES – Kortrijk) as well as in the post-academical course organized by the Flemish Midwives Organization (VBOV). This is a specialty course for midwives to obtain the degree of Prescribing Midwife. Since 2018, I also teach this course at the Karel De Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp.

After completing the Clinical Chemistry Cycle in the Netherlands, I started teaching “laboratory data for first-line healthcare” at the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Care at Ghent University. This class includes various topics, with a personal specialty in anaemia, dose adjustments in renal insufficiency and point-of-care/home testing. At the Free University of Brussels, I teach a class on medication review in the final year of the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Care. During this course we give special attention to implementation strategies to complete this process. During the academic year of 2018-2019, I developed and counselled a new interdisciplinary course at the Ghent University. In de Bachelor of Science of Pharmaceutical Sciences, we introduced a new learning path together with the food and dietetics (Hogeschool Gent).

I am currently part of a project by the Belgian Centre of Pharmacotherapeutic Information, commissioned by the Belgian government. In this project we develop standard dosing strategies for general practitioners and pharmacist to improve rational drug use. Besides, I am an active member of a working group on medication review to implement this service in the Belgian healthcare setting.

Since 2018 I have been a member of the working group. Nutrition in the early years of life" of the Flemish Professional Organization of Midwives. Together with midwives, pediatricians and dietitians, we set up campaigns to give infants the best start in life from an early age. In 2019, the first two manuals I wrote about this theme were also published in this context: Bottle feeding & Breastfeeding. These handbooks will be used at various universities of applied sciences from the 2019 - 2020 academic year. Care providers working in the practice can also purchase these practice-oriented handbooks to support their practice.

Elissa is a passionate osteopath, business owner and mentor.

Elissa has worked as an Osteopath in private practice in Melbourne since graduating in 1998.

She started her own multidisciplinary clinic in 2002, combining osteopathy with, massage, naturopathy, kinesiology and counselling. In 2015 Elissa merged her business with a local podiatrist and started The Balwyn Health Hub.

She is well known for her treatment of children and pregnant women although her patient base also includes a strong focus for; the family unit, the elderly, performers, athletes and the chronically ill. Her special interest in osteopathic diagnostic reasoning often helps patients understand why chronic dysfunctions are not healing.
Elissa's passion for working with pregnant women, babies and children allows close professional relationships with lactation consultants, midwives and doulas which has led to her guest lecturing at a number of multidisciplinary conferences.

Renowned expert Elizabeth Davis has been a midwife, reproductive health care specialist, educator and consultant for over 40 years. She is internationally active in promoting physiologic, undisturbed birth and is widely sought after for her expertise in midwifery education, legislation, and organizational development. She is the author six widely translated books on birth, sexuality, and female psychology, including “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Birth Experience,” “The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life,” and the textbook “Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth,” now in an updated 2019 5th edition (see https://elizabethdavis.com for details). She served as Regional Representative and Education Committee Chair for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), as President of Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and as midwife consultant to the State of California’s Alternative Birthing Methods Study. She is the recipient of the California Association of Midwives’ Brazen Woman Award, and Midwifery Today’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is Co-founder of the MEAC accredited National Midwifery Institute, and author/instructor of Heart & Hands Coursework.

Elizabeth M. Johnson, MA is a trauma educator and peer support advocate in private practice. She helps people understand how sexual abuse affects sexual and reproductive health. She looks at how sexual abuse affects breastfeeding for example but also how traditional sex education ignores issues like how past abuse affects consent, teen pregnancy and risky behavior. Using a trauma lens, Elizabeth talks about everything sexual health related from Asking (about abuse) to Z(zzzz's) and everything in between. Elizabeth is the only educator in the world specializing in training and consulting on this topic.

In addition to training, speaking and consulting, Elizabeth has facilitated a free, weekly peer support group for sexual abuse survivors for over three years. She holds a Masters of Arts degree in Womens Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. Elizabeth identifies as a rape survivor and has worked with survivors since 2005. She lives in Durham, NC with her family.

Elizabeth began her career in maternal health in 2000 after earning a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in maternal child nutrition. She accepted a job teaching childbirth education at the University of Utah Hospital and taught for two years before being promoted to the coordinator of that department.

When the hospital decided to begin the journey to become Baby Friendly, Elizabeth was asked to be on that committee and eventually was asked to be the Baby Friendly Coordinator. During this process, it was a natural step for her to earn her IBCLC. Recently Elizabeth was promoted to the manager of the lactation inpatient team in addition to her other responsibilities.

An advocate for maternal health in all areas, Elizabeth serves as the board chair and founding board member for the Mountain West Mothers' Milk Bank. She is the president elect for the International Childbirth Education Association, and the secretary for PSI-Utah. She sits on the University of Utah Perinatal Bereavement Committee, Discharge Quality Committee, and have served on multiple other committees over the years.

She has been married for over thirty years and is the mom of three children. She still has time to pursue other passions such as singing, gardening, exercising, and spending time with her friends and family.

In non-covid times, she can be found on Friday nights calling Bingo for her church and volunteering in other capacities.

Beth is the owner and manager of Mahala Lactation and Perinatal Services and Breastfeeding Center in Northwest NJ. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a NJ licensed Registered Nurse (RN) with a bachelor of science degree in psychology and reproductive biology from Tulane University and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She began her clinical nursing career in pediatric and adolescent medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and now has over 16 years of experience in the areas of reproductive biology, community and mental health, school nursing and maternal/child health.
Beth was a US Peace Corp Volunteer in French-speaking Cameroon, West Africa, where her passion for working with mothers and babies was born. Beth is an accredited La Leche League Leader (since 2006) and has trained as a birth and postpartum doula. She enjoys working with medically diverse mother/infant dyads, training and mentoring lactation consultants and interns. She enjoys writing for breastfeeding publications and speaking professionally, especially internationally, where she has the opportunity to learn about the diversity of breastfeeding experiences and share her knowledge. She also enjoys planning and hosting Mother Blessing ceremonies, an alternative to the traditional "baby shower," where expectant mothers are emotionally supported to explore their instinctive abilities to birth and breastfeed their babies.
Beth is currently attending Georgetown University’s Online Family Nurse Practitioner Program and will graduate in the Spring of 2017. She looks forward to having the privilege of incorporating her lactation expertise with comprehensive primary health care of the whole family.

Dr. Elizabeth Sharpe is a neonatal nurse practitioner and vascular access specialist with over 25 years of experience in Level II and Level III NICUs. She is an Associate Professor Clinical Nursing at The Ohio State University and Specialty Track Director of the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Specialty in the Master of Science Graduate Nursing Program. Her unique contributions focus on education, vascular access, simulation, and harm prevention. She is the coauthor of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) Guideline for Practice: Neonatal Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters, 3rd Edition, and has authored numerous publications. Dr. Sharpe has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN.org) and currently serves as the NANN liaison to the Council of International Neonatal Nurses. She was honored to be named the 1st Janet Pettit Scholar by the Association for Vascular Access (avainfo.org) and a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the National Academies of Practice.

Ellen Chetwynd PhD MPH RN BSN IBCLC is a breastfeeding researcher, lactation consultant, and advocate. Her goal is to provide excellent care that is innovative and effective. Her clinical care is equally informed by, and leads to, her research and collaborations with fellow scientists. She is an advocate of breastfeeding families of all shapes, as well as the providers who care for them. Through her work as Chair of the North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition she has contributed to the statewide work to provide Medicaid reimbursement in North Carolina, successfully funded a project to support clinics seeking to become breastfeeding friendly and increase access to equitable support of breastfeeding, implemented a statewide breastfeeding summit, and created an interactive statewide resource listing for breastfeeding resources at the county level. In her lactation consulting work, she is sought out by parents and clinicians for her work with difficult cases of pain and dysfunctional infant suck. She is a prolific writer, and her research and publications cover topics including breastfeeding and metabolic health, reimbursement for lactation consulting, LGBTQI+ families, and breastfeeding research methodology. She recently created and co-taught a full day workshop on breastfeeding research methods, and gets fired up about the numbers behind what we do to support families. At Next Level Lactation LLC, she and her partners provide advanced lactation educational opportunities.

Ellen is the lactation services manager at Intermountain Healthcare Primary Children’s Hospital. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health Nutrition, is a Registered Dietitian and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Ellen has the unique advantage of using her nutrition knowledge as a lactation consultant. She has a passion for providing human milk for patients with nutritional challenges such as chylothorax and colitis. Her work on fat free human milk is published and has received national review. One of her career goals is to increase knowledge of nurses and healthcare providers regarding human milk immunology and breastfeeding thus improving lactation duration. Ellen has worked with the special needs breastfeeding dyad for the past 20 years at Primary Children’s Hospital to promote breastfeeding and human milk feeding. She designed, set up and manages the Mothers Milk Center at Primary Children’s hospital which opened in 2015. Ellen has presented at local, state and national meetings. She also has experience working at a corporate level with lactation consultants developing breastfeeding policies and protocols as well as lactation education programs for nurses and health care professionals.

With over 25 years’ experience as a relationship counsellor, parents’ group facilitator, mental health educator, partner and mum, Elly Taylor has become an internationally known parenthood preparation and perinatal relationship expert and the award-winning author of Becoming Us. Elly’s passion is preparing parents for a happy and healthy family—at any stage in their parenthood journey, and especially in a challenging world. Her Becoming Us approach includes fathers and partners in all aspects of pregnancy, birth and beyond, harnesses the attachment bond between couples to stabilise them through the life changes and challenges of parenthood and links both parents into community services to support the mental, emotional and relational wellbeing of the whole family.

Elly has served as an advisor for numerous university research projects and her ground-breaking Becoming Us developmental framework has now become a comprehensive multi-disciplinary education and professional training and courses for parents. In a full circle moment, Elly recently trained midwives, allied health and therapy professionals in her local community and now Becoming Us Nest Building Sessions are preparing expectant parents in the hospitals where her children were born. Elly lives in Sydney, Australia with her firefighter husband, their three kidults and an abundance of pets.

Emily Taylor is nationally recognized for leading hospital transformations to advance health, happiness and equity in communities impacted by structural oppression.

As Founder and Director of WISE (Women-Inspired Systems’ Enrichment), Emily currently leads Perinatal Care Quality Improvement Collaboratives throughout the United States. The collaboratives feature equity and social justice, action-oriented knowledge and skill-building, community engagement, and advanced leadership development.

Emily serves as Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee – a coalition of more than 100 organizations that collaboratively drive efforts for policy and practices that create a landscape of breastfeeding support across the United States.

Prior to founding WISE, Emily was Deputy Director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. There, she directed the National Collaborative for Advancing the Ten Steps and other collaborative programs. She also conducted myriad research studies resulting in publication on influence of infant formula marketing, implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, access to donor human milk in the United States, child sexual abuse survivors’ experiences with breastfeeding, and organizational readiness to change.

Emily is currently pursuing her doctorate in Public Health Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the same school from which she earned her Master of Public Health from in 2007. She completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program in 2012, and Tamarack Institute’s “Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact” in 2013.

Her experience as a certified childbirth doula and Lamaze educator and her identity as a woman, feminist, sister, advocate, and equity accomplice continue to inform her work.

Emily Blackmoon (French/British/Algonquin) (She/Her) is a Registered Social Worker and holistic psychotherapist. She has worked for over 10 years as a therapist and case manager specifically within the urban Indigenous community of Toronto, supporting parents, families, children and youth. In 2014 she completed a 4 year training in Gestalt therapy and is now a supervisor. In her therapy practices, Emily combines Anti-Racist. Anti-Oppressive, and Feminist principals of social work with Gestalt therapy and Indigenous worldviews. Emily works with new parents to support them in developing wholistic, empowered and gentle approaches to the pregnancy/parenting journey.

After a career as a primary school teacher and Deputy Headteacher in central London, Emma trained with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, qualifying as a breastfeeding counsellor with them in 2007 and continuing with them as their trustee and chair. Emma first qualified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2011. She has supported families at groups in North London for 14 years as a volunteer and has a small private practice. Her book, “You’ve Got It In You: a positive guide to breastfeeding” was followed by “The Breast Book: a puberty guide with a difference – it’s the when, why and how of breasts” (published by Pinter and Martin). Her articles have been featured in print and online including on the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative website. Her article, 'The dangerous obsession with the infant feeding interval' is her most popular. She has two children and lives in London.

Dr. Eric Kempter is a licensed dental practitioner in the state of North Carolina. He is the Director of Clinical Operations at Kempter Holistic Dentistry. Dr. Kempter, along with his brother Dr. John Kempter, provide a whole-body holistic approach toward dental health. Dr. Eric Kempter is one of few providers of lip and tongue tie releases in North Carolina. Dr. Kempter has helped aid numerous mothers in achieving more comfortable, productive breast feeding for both mothers and their infants.

Dr. Eriko Shinohara is a certified nurse-midwife in Japan. She worked at University hospitals, birth centers, clinics and psychiatric clinics as a midwife. During her career she attended many natural physiological births, especially working at birth a center. After her graduate Ph.D program at St.Luke’s International University, she started her career in research and teaching, she is now Assistant professor at Tokyo Healthcare University.

I am a Clinical Psychologist and transformation coach for women. I’ve also taught childbirth education. I have 12+ years experience supporting families through the worst traumas imaginable, to find growth, strength and beautiful resilience they never knew possible. After experiencing my own birth trauma (twice!) I quickly learned how little support and training there is for our birth workers who hear and witness these stories every day. From this, I developed two birth trauma training courses – one for parents, and one for birth workers. I gained over 650 enrolments in 3 months, so I know how much this work is needed. I also run a birth trauma training podcast, and I’m currently finishing writing my book. A beautiful, heartfelt call to action for families to not only find strength and growth after birth trauma, but to become the guardians of change in birth culture for the next generation.

Erin is a Parent Educator in Ottawa, Canada and the mother of four young adults, including twins. After working in the area of community mental health as a Registered Social Service Worker, she jumped into Prenatal and Parenting education with the Ottawa Childbirth Education Association where she has been designing and providing classes for expectant parents, grandparents, and families expecting multiples for the last 20 years. She divides her time between teaching a class called Bringing Baby home to expectant parents, Normal Infant Sleep classes and working as a Postpartum Doula. In 2018 she returned to school to complete her M.ed for Healthcare Professionals.

Gina has been assisting breastfeeding mothers for over 20 years, and now through telehealth all over the world. She knows that while most pregnant mothers expect to breastfeed, very few receive proper preparation for the difficulties and the rollercoaster of emotions when there are problems.

When Gina had her first baby, like many new mothers she was overwhelmed by conflicting information: at the hospital, the pediatrician’s, and from well-meaning friends and family.

Her appreciation of the volunteer support she received led her to want to “pay it forward” and help others. She first trained as a volunteer LLL Leader in Houston, Texas, then as a birth doula in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and finally sat for the exam to become an IBCLC in Seville, Spain. She continues to lead monthly breastfeeding support meetings online and in-person.

Gina believes that all mothers deserve quality emotional and educational support. It should not be just a matter of good luck. She's dedicated to giving effective guidance and caring support with real results. Her greatest satisfaction is the joy of seeing that look on both mothers’ and babies’ faces that says: Just what I always wanted!

Evelyne Ruf is a family physician from France, and an International Board Lactation Consultant (since 1993). More than 25 years ago, she shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), working for the Ministry of Health, in Sharjah MCH Center. She opened there the first Lactation Clinic in the UAE, with the support of volunteers from Breastfeeding Friends (BFF), which she had co-founded. Five years ago, the Lactation Clinic has been shifted to the Family Health Promotion Center, where it continues to offer, to a very cosmopolitan population, skilled lactation support as well as assessment and release of tethered oral tissues.

A member of the National Breastfeeding Committee, Evelyne has been involved in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative as a lecturer, trainer, adviser and assessor. Her workplace became the first Baby-Friendly Health Center in the UAE and received the IBCLC Care Award (community category) in 2015.

She has also been actively involved in the Sharjah Baby-Friendly Emirate Campaign, a multi-sectorial initiative launched in 2012, and presented its achievements during Gold Lactation 4 years ago.

With her husband of 34 years, she is the proud and grateful mother of 5 grown-up breastfed children and the grandmother of 4 breastfed little ones.