GOLD Learning Speakers

Tamara Drenttel Brand holds an MA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the American University of Beirut. She spent 10 years in the Middle East, where she worked as a public health practitioner, infant and maternal health consultant and an IBCLC. She has supported breastfeeding dyads from all over the world both in private practice and as a volunteer. In 2011, she founded and still actively facilitates “Mama 2 Mama Beirut Breastfeeding Support,” the largest breastfeeding peer support network in the Middle East (currently at 25k+ members). Additionally, she founded Galactablog, a professional group for lactation specialists and those aspiring-to-be (currently at 4.7k+ members) and has authored several articles for La Leche League’s monthly leader publications in both the Middle East and Ireland.

She is currently an international speaker on the topics dealing with breastfeeding in the Middle East, innovative lactation teaching strategies, working in resource-scarce settings, providing culturally sensitive lactation support, developing and implementing peer counselor training programs, mast cell disease and other related topics. Due to her own chronic health conditions, she has a special interest in educating others about mast cell disease and supporting those with chronic illnesses. She currently resides in a seaside village in Ireland with her family.

New moms come to Tamara Hawkins for a birthing and breastfeeding plan, but what they get is the permission to abandon beliefs about what the experience should be. What they get is the insight to define their own journeys to and through motherhood—one unpredictably beautiful step at a time. What they get is the confidence to toss the all parenting books aside and to trust their own yes. As the Director of Stork and Cradle, Inc., a passion-fueled prenatal education group specializing in childbirth classes and lactation consultation based in New York City, Tamara brings over twenty years expertise as a Maternity Nurse and Family Nurse Practitioner to deliver classes and programs that blend holistic knowledge and clinical care for mothers and their babies. As instructors and consultants, Tamara and her team offer insight and advice that is data driven, educationally sound, but most importantly, empowerment focused. With Stork and Cradle, women soon realize that their success as moms is not determined by epidurals or pumped ounces, but rather by the power that comes with honing their intuition and simply flowing and flourishing with their babies. An impassioned advocate for birth and breastfeeding equity, she is a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. Her private practice as an IBCLC accepts several private insurances. Learn more about her work at www.storkandcradle.com.

Tameka Jackson-Dyer is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and Community Health Worker whose passion is community outreach. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Health Studies from Siena Heights University, several lactation certifications and has been in the field for almost 20 years- honing her counseling and clinical skills in WIC agencies, OB/Gyn offices and Baby Friendly hospitals throughout the metro Detroit area. Her work as Manager of Community Collaboration with Coffective and consulting work with the EMU Center for Health Disparities, Innovations & Studies on their CDC/REACH and NACCHO grants- allows her to provide a voice for the populations who are historically underrepresented in conversations about breastfeeding support. To ensure she reaches as many families in her community as she can, the wife and mother of three owns a private practice, Crazymilklady Lactation Support Services, LLC, serves as Chair of the Metro Detroit/ Wayne County Breastfeeding Coalition, is a co-founder of the Southeast Michigan IBCLC’s of Color and volunteers as a Sisterfriend mentor with the Detroit Birthing Project.

Tammy Ruiz Ziegler RN CPLC has been a nurse for 32 years with most of that time in Maternal Child Health including Peds ICU, NICU & Perinatal Bereavement & Palliative Care. She and her interdisciplinary team provide care for mothers/families/babies where a life limiting diagnosis has been made. She has taught and written internationally on the topic and hosted site visits from Japan and Ireland and contributed to textbooks on the subject. Her “Perinatal Hospice Video” is available in 8 languages and is used all over the world. She is on the advisory boards of the Trisomy 18 foundation, A Moms Peace, & The LLOST Foundation. She works as a Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States.

Tammy Ryan has been attending births since 2002. She is a birth doula trainer for DONA International, childbirth educator, midwifery assistant and one of six trainers world wide for Spinning Babies. Tammy has sat on the DONA International board of directors plus several other boards. She started working Internationally in 2008 when she went to DR Congo to train life saving skills in childbirth according to the World Health Organization. She has served in Haiti, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Korea, Japan, India, Israel & Brazil. Tammy has presented childbirth information on several venues including international conferences, TV, radio, universities and to the Ministry of Health. She has been published in the quarterly International Doula and on several blogs. Tammy teaches When Survivors Give Birth as a way to help survivors and birth workers. Tammy has experienced first hand the barriers women face worldwide in getting adequate care in childbirth and postpartum.

TaNefer is an IBCLC, Maternal Health Strategist and Healer with over 15 years of experience in supporting families through birth, breastfeeding and postpartum. She has a background in psychology and Health education with an emphasis in community health and early career experience in counseling, social services and family advocacy. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as she helps her clients identify their challenges and lovingly guides them through a plan to overcome them. She has the ability to work with diverse populations and tailors support to fit the needs of each unique person or group. She educates parents, families and professionals on lactation, breastfeeding and maternal healing. She is also a researcher, serving as a Community Advisory Board member to the UCSF Preterm birth initiative and is also the Community Researcher and Relations consultant to the SACRED Birth Study. She has designed, implemented and evaluated programs in maternal equity and lactation and is the creator of the "Teach me how to breastfeed" song and viral music video. TaNefer Lumukanda Camara is also a Co-founder B.L.A.C.K Course.

Dr. Tanya Khemet Taiwo is an assistant professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University. She also provides midwifery care on a part-time basis at CommuniCare Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center with clinics in urban and rural communities around the Sacramento area. Dr. Taiwo is an epidemiologist whose research examines the role of maternal prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment, and how these stressors interact with environmental exposures. She serves as co-director of the Community Engagement Core at the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center. She is also a research fellow at The Birth Place Lab at the University of British Columbia. At the Birth Place Lab she’s collaborating on the Giving Voice to Mothers Study, a community based participatory research project that examines how race, ethnicity and birthplace affect maternity care in the United States. Tanya comes from a family tradition of midwives, stretching back at least three generations, she received her midwifery training at Seattle Midwifery School, and apprenticed with midwives in Seattle, Senegal and Jamaica. She is committed to the revitalization of the tradition of midwifery within the African American community, and the eradication of the ethnic disparities in perinatal health outcomes.

Tanya Singleton is a registered nurse with over 35 years of experience in Maternal-Child nursing. More than half of that career was as a Labor and Delivery nurse, certified in High-Risk Perinatal nursing. Tanya is also an IBCLC lactation consultant and Lamaze childbirth educator. She retired as United States Army Nurse Corp officer in 2003 and began working in private practice as a lactation consultant and childbirth educator. She has run several community non-profits in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area that dealt with issues related to women’s and children’s health promotion and illness prevention. Tanya is committed to quality education and lifelong learning, and has taught maternal-child and pediatric nursing to students in the Rappahannock Region of Virginia, sharing her various clinical anecdotes in classroom and in labs. She is an advocate for Perinatal Grief Support and early detection of post-partum depression. She is owner and proprietor of The Baby Whisperer, providing in-home support in childbirth education, breastfeeding and parenting. She is the mother of a blended family of five adult children and Nana to three.

Tatiana was born in Moscow, Russia and graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1991 with a Master’s degree in Art.
Since 2007 Tatiana has her own lactation consultant in private practice. She first became an IBCLC in 2011. From 2012-2019 Tatiana served as the IBLCE Country coordinator for Russia and from 2012-2021 as the Project coordinator for a  “New degree” for educational courses in LC.

Ted Greiner received a PhD in nutrition for developing countries from Cornell University. For 19 years he worked as nutrition advisor for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, based at Uppsala University where he was Associate Professor of International Child Health, helping to ensure their long-term support for IBFAN and WABA. Dr. Greiner was Professor of Nutrition at Hanyang University in South Korea for seven years. He has consulted for UNICEF, World Bank, FAO and others. He is now retired and edits the journal World Nutrition. He has lived in 8 countries and worked in 10 more. His areas of research expertise include infant feeding and programs to combat vitamin A, iron and iodine deficiency. In the 1970s, he did the first scientific work on the impact of baby food advertising on breastfeeding patterns. His PhD dissertation was on the planning and evaluation of a 1978-81 project to protect, support and promote breastfeeding in Yemen (terminology quickly adopted by UN agencies). Over the next decades, the duration of breastfeeding there doubled. During the planning the Innocenti meeting, he represented Sida, one of the 4 agencies involved. He was active in changing how WHO viewed HIV and infant feeding. He has over 100 breastfeeding-related publications.

Teresa Puthoff, BS Pharm, PharmD, BCNSP received her professional degrees from the University of Cincinnati and The Ohio State University. She has over 30 years experience working in high risk delivery and referral centers. She currently works as an Advanced Practice Pharmacist in the NICU at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio. Her current professional passions are neonatal nutrition, developmental pharmacology, BPD, and analgesia and sedation management. She teaches PGY-1 and PGY-2 pharmacy residents as well as Neonatal Fellows in medicine, physical therapy and respiratory therapy. She has published on the use of regional analgesia in the NICU and is currently implementing the use of NCA and wound catheters for post op pain management as a part of ongoing efforts to reduce opioid and benzodiazepine use in the NICU.

Dr. Teri Hernandez is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship in the College of Nursing and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Nursing at the University of Colorado. Over 19 years at CU, she has developed a program of research exemplified by the execution of carefully controlled clinical studies focused on nutrition, metabolic health, and early life exposures. The goal of these studies is to illuminate ways to improve the lives of women, infants and their families using a multidisciplinary team science approach. Teri is a cardiac nurse by training. She has a dedicated commitment to understanding insulin resistance as both an adaptation and as pathology. Her research focuses on diabetes/obesity, pregnancy, and fetal growth, with an emphasis on how nutrition and metabolism influence these conditions. She and her research team (Infant GOLD, Investigations in the Gestational Origins of Lifelong Development) have a research program focused on in-utero programming influences and through this platform, she is committed to training high-caliber clinical investigators. Dr. Hernandez is an educator in the graduate school at CU, serves as Director for the Colorado Clinical and Translational Research Institute Early Life Exposures Research program, and is a Pediatric Nurse Scientist at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Dr. Marin is currently an Assistant Professor at Augusta University, and is an active researcher in the Level IV NICU at Children’s Hospital of Georgia. She received her BSN from the University of Tennessee, her MSN from Stony Brook and her PhD from Emory University. Dr. Marin’s program of research is focused on defining non-invasive methods to predict early-onset acute kidney injury in preterm infants, including analysis of metabolomics, proteomics, the gut-kidney microbiome axis, and renal hypoxia measured by near-infrared spectroscopy as they relate to subclinical and actual acute kidney disease.

Theresa Nesbitt, RN MD ("Dr. Theresa") is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist with special training in Maternal Fetal Medicine. Her interests these days lie in promoting lifelong wellness for women with a focus on nutrition, reproductive health and breastfeeding. She is the Director of Family Health Coaching, editor of Babies and Breastfeeding Magazine and author of Evolutionary Eating: How We Got Fat and 7 Simple Fixes. She anticipates publication of her newest book Building a Baby Brain Bite by Bite - How to Eat Before, During and After Pregnancy next year. Her interest in brain growth and development, nutrition and developmental kinesiology have helped her to look at placentation, lactation and nutrition for reproductive fitness through a new lens.

Tiffany Gwartney, DNP, APRN, NNP-BC, is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida (USF), College of Nursing. In addition to her neonatal clinical practice at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Dr. Gwartney has been an Assistant Professor at USF since May 2015, where she has written and deployed experiential learning modules for the evidence-based practice course for undergraduates, integrated delegation simulations for undergraduate leadership students, and taught sim labs for the women, children & families course. Her most recent work was the implementation of a simulation regarding nursing interaction with a maternity couplet who was under airborne precautions, while in full personal protective equipment. This simulation was integrated into her COVID Care Education Module in which undergraduate students in their final practicum participated in a pilot program at designated clinical partner sites, providing bedside care for patients with COVID-19 disease. Her research interests include education, neonatal diabetes, role transition for novice Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NNP), simulation, management of high-risk newborns in the delivery room, and couplet care for mothers with COVID-19. Dr. Gwartney has had several opportunities to speak internationally regarding the benefits of deliberate routine practice of high acuity, low-volume technical skills, and nationally regarding neonatal diabetes and conflict management. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau (Iota Chapter) and is actively involved in several neonatal professional organizations: Florida Association of Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, Council of International Neonatal Nurses [education committee member], National Association of Neonatal Nurses [member], and The American Academy of Pediatrics [member, conference planning committee]. Dr. Gwartney enjoys traveling for pleasure but has also found herself working triage in a children’s clinic located in the remote village of Zapote, Guatemala, as well as educating NICU nurses in Paisley, Scotland and Shanghai, China.

Tikvah Wadley, AAS, CD(DONA), BDT (DONA), a Certified Doula and Birth Doula Trainer through DONA, has worked in the community for nearly 20 years and believes in empowering women in today’s society. Her didactic and experiential training approach welcomes creativity and learning for every participant. An activist for women’s health, she has served as a Lactation Counselor since 2003 and a Certified Child Birth Educator since 2002.

In 2012, she trained young women to become community-based doulas for youth in Chicago’s foster care system, through HC One’s partnership with UCAN. She continues working with this program, and with other community-based, peer-to-peer support programs around the country, today.

Tikvah is a warm and caring, experienced and often humorous public speaker, and is adept at resolving conflicts. Before joining the HC One staff, she was instrumental in recruiting more than 500 women for the University of Chicago Doula Project, taught a variety of classes for the YMCA. and co-trained breastfeeding peer counselors and community health workers in collaboration with existing HC One staff. With each training, she looks forward to meeting every participant and engaging the learning experience between mom and baby.

I have been involved in Neonatal care for 25 years and I am a nurse by background with 15 years in senior management the last 7 years I held the position of Clinical Service Manager of Neonatal Services at Cambridge University Hospitals until my retirement last year from the NHS. I was also the Chair of the NNA up until last September when I stepped down after serving two terms in that position. I am delighted to be joining Best Beginnings as the National Facilitator for the Small Wonders Campaign and I am looking forward to working with colleagues who share my commitment to reducing the inequalities that exist within the Child Health arena.

Tina Revai came to breastfeeding professionally in her practice working with families as a nurse of 25 years. However, once becoming a mother, her understanding of breastfeeding as an important factor in the feeling of success (or not) in parental role transition became experientially apparent. In order to support others towards self-defined breastfeeding success, Tina became a La Leche League Leader in 2006 and an IBCLC in 2007. She is currently co-president of the British Columbia Lactation Consultants Association and continues to work directly with families in her community of Port Alberni, on beautiful Vancouver Island, Canada.

Dr. Tinisha Lambeth is the Neonatal Quality Improvement Coordinator and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She coordinates quality improvement at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center NICU as well. She is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner and received her MSN (2004) & DNP (2014) from Duke University School of Nursing. Over the past 8 years, Tinisha has presented quality improvement work locally, nationally, & internationally. She has co-authored three publications, on the topics of cytomegalovirus, golden hour and the association of different feeding types with necrotizing enterocolitis and growth in premature infants.

Tomoko Seo is a pediatrician and IBCLC in Japan, working in a private clinic with colleagues including IBCLCs who practice's general pediatrics and breastfeeding medicine. She became certified as an IBCLC in 1999 and recertified in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. She is a member of the Japanese Association of Lactation Consultants (JALC) since 1999, when it was founded. JALC has been holding conferences several times a year, including the “Annual Breastfeeding Seminar for Physicians” since 2005 to provide breastfeeding education to physicians and improve breastfeeding support among physicians. Tomko has been a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) since 1999. She is also an active member of the International, Protocol, Education, Conference, Membership Committees of ABM.

A graduate of the London Film School, Toni Harman has produced and directed a number of internationally distributed documentary films including MICROBIRTH, about the origins of the human microbiome, FREEDOM FOR BIRTH, about the struggle for women's rights in childbirth and DOULA!, about the work of birth and postnatal doulas. Toni’s extensive research for MICROBIRTH led to her co-authoring the books THE MICROBIRTH EFFECT and YOUR BABY’s MICROBIOME. Toni is also a professional speaker at international conferences about the science of the microbiome and epigenetics. As Educational Leader of the MICROBIOME COURSES online school, with over 37,000 enrolled students, Toni combines knowledge gained from researching the subject for ten years with her extensive experience of running educational one-day and multiple-day workshops for adult learners. 

Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA (HIFA's sister forum on child health and rights).

Tracy Cassels, PhD is the founder of Evolutionary Parenting, a website focused on disseminating the research on parenting. In addition to her writing, she provides courses and individual help to families around the world on myriad parenting issues. She has previously worked in non-profit and policy positions in the areas of child development and education and is currently an advisor to the Children’s Health and Human Rights Partnership in Canada. She has a B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, also from the University of British Columbia. She has appeared in numerous mainstream media sources such as the CBC, Psychology Today, The Globe and Mail, Belly Belly, and more. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada with her husband and two children.

Tracy is a registered midwife, published author and Founder of the award winning GentleBirth App and CBE program. Born in Ireland, Tracy has lived and worked on three continents and currently lives in Silicon Valley, California with her husband and two boys. The experiences and mental health of the woman during pregnancy and throughout the post-pregnancy period are of utmost importance for the well-being of both the mother and her child. Tracy’s vision is to improve mental health in pregnancy through her innovative ‘brain training for birth’ program taught around the world and available through mobile technology in the GentleBirth App.

Associate Professor Treasure McGuire is a clinical pharmacist, educator, and researcher. She holds two senior appointments in her hospital role (as Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Practice and Development, Mater Health Brisbane) with 1) Bond University Medical School (as Associate Professor of Pharmacology and 2) The University of Queensland School of Pharmacy (as Associate Professor, Clinical). She is passionate about improving the consumer voice and health outcomes for mothers and babies through the development and access to more effective and safer approaches towards medicines use.

Treasure’s research is translational and evidence-based, focusing on patient centred-care and quality use of medicines in women’s and newborn health, medicines information, medication safety and complementary medicines. She has published widely and authored the chapter on Safe use of drugs while breastfeeding In Brodribb W, ed. Breastfeeding management in Australia, 5th ed, Melbourne: Australian Breastfeeding Association, 2019. She is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences, with over 60 keynote addresses. In recognition of her services to medicines information, she received the Lilly International Fellowship in Hospital Pharmacy. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Sr Eileen Pollard Medal (Mater Research-UQ) for excellence in incorporating research into clinical care provision.

Tynan Rhea is a queer, nonbinary settler with German and Slovak ancestry. Tynan has a private practice online across Canada as a sex & relationship therapist, sex educator, and aromatherapist. Tynan developed and teaches the Sex & Birth course for Doula Training Canada and is the founder of PostpartumSex.com. Tynan approaches their practice from sex-positive, queer & trans-affirming, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and feminist frameworks. Tynan started their private practice in Tkaronto and grew-up in Wasaga Beach. You can find Tynan on Facebook, Instagram @TynanRhea or TynanRhea.com

Mother of 6 breastfed children, Tytina is a Certified Lactation Counselor, La Leche League International Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and Program Administrator. Tytina is a Loving Support WIC Peer Counselor and Rush University Medical Center Mother’s Milk Club peer counselor. She is an International Center for Traditional Childbearing provisional Doula. She has 15 years of community-level maternal child health. Her affiliations include Chicago Region Breastfeeding Taskforce, March of Dimes, National Association of Professional and Peer Lactation Supporters of Color, Breastfeed Chicago, the United States Breastfeeding Committee, and GOLD Learning Professional Advisory Committee.