GOLD Learning Speakers

Ihotu Jennifer Ali, MPH, LMT, CLC (she/her) is a doula, public health educator, researcher, and integrative massage therapist specializing in myofascial release therapies including the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®, Craniosacral Therapy, Prenatal, and Infant Massage as a Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner®. She is founder and owner of Black Moon Bodywork, LLC which offers massage therapy blended with health coaching in integrative and indigenous practices to support hormone balance, digestion, sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive justice.

Ihotu’s decade of experience in femme and family health includes years as a DONA certified birth doula and lactation counselor, prenatal yoga teacher and dancer, rape crisis counselor, Institute for Integrative Nutrition coach, and director of pre-conception health programs funded by the March of Dimes. She has collaborated with midwives and physicians in Haiti, Nigeria, Congo, and Morocco, and worked in health policy and research with the U.S. Congress, Clinton Foundation, United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and Columbia University’s School of Public Health. Raised between Minnesota, New York City, and West Africa with respect for both indigenous and evidence-based medicine, Ihotu strives to offer innovative care that is affordable, consent- and trauma-informed, gender fluid and ancestrally rooted. Her writing, public speaking, and coaching brings together emerging science in hormones and gut-brain health, functional medicine, Reproductive Justice and Afrofuturism movements. She offers an intercultural commentary on the busy modern lifestyles, social pressures, and unresolved trauma often at the root of today’s chronic health conditions.

Dr. Ilana Azulay Chertok is a Professor and Associate Director of Nursing Research and Scholarship at the Ohio University, College of Health Sciences and Professions, School of Nursing. She earned her bachelor’s in international relations and nursing, master’s in nursing, doctorate (PhD) in epidemiology, and post-doctorate in nursing research. The primary focus of her research is national and global maternal-infant health, specifically lactation and breastfeeding research. She has published and presented her work in national and international journals, conferences, and other professional forums. Dr. Chertok has served as a mentor to undergraduate students, graduate students, and health professionals of various disciplines including nursing, medicine, and public health. Currently, she is the lead PI on a study examining the differences in breastfeeding and breast milk between women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus.

Indira has been involved in birth and breastfeeding support for the past 15 years. As a clinician IBCLC, she leads the Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic which is part of the Merton Health Visiting team (Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust). This Clinic is for complex breastfeeding dyads and by GP/HV/RM referral only. Indira has been awarded the National Institute for Health Research Fellowship (2021-2022) as part of the ARC NWL Improvement Leadership programme. Her project examines how to offer more skilled breastfeeding and lactation care in the NHS nationally. As an Educator and the lead Lecturer of the Breastfeeding London Course, she has been training future IBCLCs for the past 10 years. Indira's roles as Clinician and Educator have led her to the path of research. As the Director of the Centre for Breastfeeding Education and Research, she has published several articles in leading international peer-reviewed breastfeeding and human lactation journals. She has also served La Leche League Great Britain for the past 13 consecutive years.

Indra Lusero is founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association. As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent rooted in the Rocky Mountain West, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins and our role in leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world. Indra helped pass legislation in Colorado to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated women during pregnancy and birth, to improve midwifery and birth center regulations, and to create more humane policies for families impacted by substance use. Indra also spearheaded the creation of "Birth Rights: A resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labor and birth.

Isabella is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Nursing and Midwifery at Charles Darwin University in Australia. She has over 12 years’ experience as a midwife and has also been an educator and researcher in her home country Ghana. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in nursing from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Isabella is a foundation fellow of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives and a member of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association. Isabella is currently undertaking her PhD focusing on improving midwifery care for women who develop preeclampsia in Ghana. She loves to engage in advocacy and is currently a member of Action on Preeclampsia Ghana (APEC-GH), the sole advocacy group concerned with preeclampsia in Ghana. She is a member of the APEC newsletter committee and occasionally facilitates their online webinars for pregnant women, their families, and midwives.