GOLD Learning Latest in Lactation Online Symposium 2021

Shondra Mattos is an IBCLC, Entrepreneur & Speaker who delivers progressive, up-to-date lectures that challenge the current standard of Lactation Care. She is widely regarded as the go-to source for those looking for clear, understandable clinical knowledge.

In 2018, Shondra rebranded her lactation practice Mattos Lactation and provided location-independent lactation support to families across the country. In 2020 she founded Lactnerd LLC with the focus of helping healthcare providers gain knowledge while conquering the intimidation of learning the complex science of Lactation.

Through her companies- Lactnerd & Mattos Lactation - she provides tools, resources, education & mentoring to aspiring and established lactation professionals across the USA.

Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC is Joint Coordinator of the UK Steering Group of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). In 2017 she and Clare Meynell IBCLC jointly received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Breastfeeding from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB), for leading the UK’s first WBTi assessment of infant feeding policies and programmes.

Helen is an international speaker on ethics and conflicts of interest. She represents La Leche League of Great Britain on the UK Baby Feeding Law Group, which works to bring the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes into UK law. She is also Policy and Advocacy Lead for Lactation Consultants of Great Britain, and previously co-chaired LCGB’s Communications Team.

Helen’s background in anthropology and human evolution has influenced her interest in how breastfeeding, and the way we nurture our babies, are influenced by both human biology and culture.

Her current advocacy focus is the need for strong policies to protect infant feeding in emergencies. She currently serves on the Advisory Panel for a London Food Resilience research project with Oxford University.

In her spare time, she can be found sculling on the River Thames.

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.

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.

Karen Laing, IBCLC, AMT is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher with a background in reproductive health care. As a practitioner over the last 25 years, Karen has cared for families as a trauma-informed perinatal educator, a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, and as a midwife. As an organizational leader, she is the founder and CEO of Birthways where she has played a role in creating innovative maternal/child service models incorporating perinatal education, home-based doula care, lactation services and perinatal mental health programs. She and her team are currently working to build the Okkanti platform, a transformative application that tackles disparities by providing care coordination, digital health tools, health education and access to maternal health supports. As a teacher of mindfulness and caregiving, she has taught and mentored providers throughout her career and is the creator of the Compass of Mindful Caregiving, 6 Qualities of Embodied Mindfulness, and 40 – second Compassion Initiatives, toolkits such as the Cup of Kindness for family caregivers and a number of programs designed to improve the ways we take care of one another. She founded WisdomWay Institute in 2017 to better share the tools that support improved safety, respect and compassion in care relationships while preventing burnout.

Karen believes that systemic change involves many facets, but that we can begin with our moment-to-moment interactions.

Katrien Nauwelaerts graduated as a prehistoric archaeologist in 2005. She's the mother of three breastfed children and the administrator of the Dutch breastfeeding-website Borstvoeding Aardig, https://borstvoeding.aardig.be. Katrien worked as a volunteer breastfeeding-counsellor, provincial coordinator and training manager for the Belgian breastfeeding organisation Borstvoeding vzw between 2010-2014. Up tot 2018 she was the founder and president of Aardig Leven vzw, a non profit ecological organisation. In 2013 she became an IBCLC. Since 2013 she's working as a lactation consultant at her own private practice Borstvoeding Aardig. She became a nutritionist and a herborist in 2014. Katrien shares her experiences and knowledge on lactation consulting as a public speaker since 2014.