IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Clinical Skills Focused CERPs - Section VII

CNM Ximena Rojas Garcia is a Midwife and licensed Obstetric Nurse from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, she comes from a line of traditional midwives. Ximena has 15 years of experience in her field and as a Midwifery Professor, she has certifications in Obstetrical Emergencies, Neonatal Resuscitation, Water birthing and Acupuncture. Ximena founded "Partería y Medicinas Ancestrales," the only Mexican Midwifery NGO that includes Midwives from all paths and programs, which was instrumental in providing maternal health access during the humanitarian crisis after the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers from Haiti, Congo and Central America to the US-Mexico border.

Ximena has been collaborating with Stanford University's Obstetricians, Gynecologists and Pediatricians to train Midwives and Health providers at the US San Diego-Tijuana border to improve birth outcomes. She organizes direct relief to support trauma recovery responding to crises and disasters as a member of Acupuncturists Without Borders. Ximena also created a Doula training program, responsible for training more than 300 Doulas in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala, aimed at eradicating obstetric violence, lowering the frequency of unnecessary c-sections, and decreasing maternal and newborn mortality.

Ximena is one of the founders and co-directors of Refugee Health Alliance and currently practices clinically at Justicia en Salud RHA Sexual & reproductive health free clinic. She established the first free birth center in Baja California, Mexico that serves vulnerable populations including displaced migrants, asylum seekers, deportees, sexual assault survivors, black, brown and indigenous families who historically had faced forced sterilizations, higher maternal death and newborn death. Her philosophy of birth is: Birth is a unique experience like a ceremony that heals trauma and the next generations when we hold space for it to happen.

Nekisha Killings is an equity strategist, internationally board-certified lactation consultant, and maternal and child health advocate who speaks, teaches, and facilitates on topics related to equity and dismantling bias across various sectors.

When she is not home educating 4 future world changers, she acts as a Director of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Lactation Education Resources and consults organizations on creating and implementing strategies to better support marginalized communities.

Nekisha holds a Masters in Public Health and penned the chapter titled Cultural Humility in the latest Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Support text. Nekisha is on a mission to normalize brown breasts and nipples in health education, thereby better equipping healthcare providers to accurately assess and treat people of color.

Nekisha's work is rooted in a compassion and candor that could only have been cultivated in years of supporting new parents during their first days of parenthood. Nekisha is an active duty military spouse who has been awarded the Spouse of the Year designation for her volunteer efforts supporting families.

Zainab Yate is a Biomedical Ethicist, with a specialist interest in infant feeding. Zainab is Vice Chair and named qualitative lead on a paediatric flagged Research Ethics Committee Panel for the Health Research Authority (HRA) in the UK, reviewing research protocols for over a decade. Zainab's previous working background is in Public Health and Commissioning the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. She had also been a volunteer breastfeeding peer supporter with the NHS for a number of years, is the owner-author of the resource site for mothers and healthcare practitioners on Breastfeeding / Nursing Aversion and Agitation and author of "When Breastfeeding Sucks".

Paulina is the mother of three multicultural Latino children and Project Director for Lifespan Local. Paulina earned her BS in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University, a MS in Organizational leadership from the University of Denver and is completing her PhD in Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado - Denver. Paulina has over 18 years of experience working with families with young children. As a Maternal Child Health specialist for Jefferson County Public Health, she developed a NICU follow-up home visitation program and the pediatric emergency preparedness plan, co-founded and coordinated the Conectando Network (former Adelante Jeffco), established community navigation and lactation support groups focused on the Latino Spanish speaking community, and lead other initiatives to support leadership and partnerships among communities and organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she managed the new program Whole Community Inclusion to ensure the pandemic response and recovery implementation included health equity practices that recognize the needs and the strengths of priority populations in the county. Her areas of current work include promoting perinatal and infant mental health along the continuum of care; building community capacity to navigate health and education systems; facilitating organizational change to embrace linguistic and culturally responsive practices; and establishing community-placed participatory programs to strengthen communities. She likes to be with people, learn from and with others, and connect passions for meaningful work.

Mona Liza Hamlin, MSN, RN, IBCLC is the nurse manager of Perinatal Resources and Community Programs for the Women & Children’s Service Line at Christiana Care Hospital in Newark, Delaware. Her role consists of improving both inpatient and outpatient programs that focus on reaching the triple AIM, and improving health equity in the state of Delaware. Hamlin serves as Past-Chair to the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC). The USBC is a coalition of more than 50 organizations that support its mission to drive collaborative efforts for policy and practices that create a landscape of breastfeeding support across the United States.
She is a founding member of the National Association of Professional & Peer Lactation Supporters of Color (NAPPLSC), an organization aimed at addressing breastfeeding disparities and improving breastfeeding
amongst families of color. Hamlin also serves as a member of the Delaware Healthy Mother & Infant Consortium and is a board member
for the Breastfeeding Coalition of Delaware. Her fundamental
belief is that equitable access and high quality care are provided to all women and families, especially those most vulnerable to lack of access and systemic barriers to care. Fueled by her professional and personal experiences and passions, Hamlin strives to ensure that all mothers have access to a full scope of perinatal care, support and resources.

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.

Heidi Lam is a private practice IBCLC and La Leche League Leader in Hong Kong. She tandem nurse her two daughters and have more then 8 years of breastfeeding experience. She was accredited as La Leche League Leader in 2009. In 2010, to she was awarded the Trudi Szallasi Memorial Scholarship from Health-e-learning.com to complete a one year course on lactation medicine. In 2011, she was qualified as International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Her job focus mainly on home visits to clients and running breastfeeding classes. Heidi is also active in promoting breastfeeding and was often interviewed by parenting magazines and other media in Hong Kong. Heidi was a Hong Kong delegate to spoke at the Susuibu.com International Lactation Conference 2010 in Malaysia. She also speaks regularly at local breastfeeding support groups.

Dr. Amal El Taweel is a graduate of Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, class of 1986. She obtained the Masters of Pediatrics in 1992 from Faculty of Medicine, Cairo university, and the Doctorate of Pediatrics from Al Azhar university in 2002. She became an IBCLC in 2003. Since 2004 she has been providing a pre-exam course for the Egyptian Lactation Consultants' Association of which she is a board member, treasurer and education coordinator. This program has been helping hundreds of Egyptian and Arab health care providers to certify as IBCLCs. She is also a member of the Advisory committee of IBFAN Arab world since 2012. She is a member of ILCA since 2008 and a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) since 2009. She became a fellow and Board member of ABM in 2021.

Dr. Fayrouz Essawy is a pediatrician, neonatology consultant, an international board-certified lactation consultant, Neonatology Egyptian fellowship trainer, a baby friendly health initiative coordinator and Associate alumni, Harvard medical school. Fayrouz works as a neonatologist in El Mounira NICU. In 2016, she joined the LCCC course as a trainer, lecturer and course developer to train and qualify the medical team for IBCLC certification under the auspices of ELCA along with her work as a lactation consultant and a baby Friendly Coordinator and Trainer for a 20-hour course since 2019 in Rofayda maternity Hospital. She became a Neonatology Egyptian Fellowship trainer in 2020. She received the Egypt TOT (Training of Trainers), Harvard Medical School in 2020, and Research Training for Egyptian Researchers, Harvard Medical School in 2021. She is a member of the Egyptian Society of Pediatrics, the Egyptian lactation consultant association (ELCA), the academy of breastfeeding medicine (ABM) and the international lactation consultant Association (ILCA)

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.

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.