Perinatal Nutrition Lecture Pack

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.

Swati Scott is a well accomplished community dietitian and lactation consultant working in Victoria, BC, Canada. Her experience spans across public health, acute care, primary care, education and most recently in community health. She has focused extensively on maternal- infant health and nutrition in the early years. She fervently helps families make mealtime the bridge between nutrition and a time for connection. She believes that prenatal nutrition, breastfeeding, healthy family meals set the stage for robust health. She continues to play an active role in local, provincial and global committees that serve maternity, infancy and the early years. She keeps herself updated with new research and continues to solidify her knowledge and skills through participation in baby friendly networks and conferences on childhood nutrition and perinatal health.

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.

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

Raised with her Penobscot culture and Native American spiritual practices, Dr. Jus Crea realized the healing powers of nature at a young age. Rich with ancestral knowledge of healing, medicine, and midwifery, Dr. Jus Crea received a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the University of Bridgeport and a BS in Ethnobotany and Holistic Health from UMass, Amherst. She has also been trained as an auricular acupuncture detox specialist at Lincoln Hospital, WTS therapy for restorative healing as well as Indigenous Midwifery with Mewinzha Ondaadiziike Wiigaming. She is also a Certified Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor. Dr. Jus Crea has lectured extensively on herbal medicine, ethnobotany, midwifery, naturopathic medicine, environmental medicine, and cultural history and traditions of Wabanaki people. She was previously an adjunct professor of Nutrition at Springfield College and Pathology at STCC as well as a primary care physician in Brattleboro VT. Dr. Jus Crea has been practicing Naturopathic Family Medicine at The Integrative Health Group in Springfield MA since 2005.

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.