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

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.

Barbara D. Robertson, IBCLC, has been involved in education for over 34 years. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1988 and her Master’s in Education in 1995. Barbara left teaching elementary students in 1995 to raise her two children. Barbara is now the Director of The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and of the brand new business LactaLearning.

The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor will still continue to serve breast/chestfeeding families and now LactaLearning will be dedicated to all of Barbara’s professional lactation trainings. Barbara has developed two 95 hour professional lactation training, a group training and a completely self study training with Nancy Mohrbacher. Barbara’s idea of creating professional book groups has exploded with her hosting Making More Milk with Lisa Marasco, Supporting Sucking Skills with Cathy Watson Genna, Breastfeeding Answers, 2nd Edition with Nancy Mohrbacher, and new for the fall, Safe Infant Sleep with Dr. James McKenna. Barbara will be hosting a one day online conference in the fall with Lisa Marasco and Cathy Watson Genna using all of her tech savvy skills to make this a one of a kind experience. Barbara is also a speaker for hire on a wide variety of topics including Motivational Interviewing. Barbara volunteered for the United States Lactation Consultation Association as the Director of Professional Development for 4.5 years.

She just retired as Associate Editor for Clinical Lactation, a journal she helped create for USLCA. Barbara has free podcasts, a blog, and Youtube videos which can all be found on her websites lactalearning.com and bfcaa.com. She has written many articles as well. She loves working with parents and babies, helping them with breast/chestfeeding problems in whatever way she can.

Joy MacTavish, MA, IBCLC, RLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and certified Holistic Sleep Coach focusing on the intersections of infant feeding, sleep, and family well-being. Through her business, Sound Beginnings, she provides compassionate and evidence-based support to families in the greater Seattle area, and virtually everywhere else. She entered the perinatal field in 2007 as birth and postpartum doula, and childbirth and parenting educator. Joy holds a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies, graduate certificate in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and two Bachelors degrees from the University of Washington. She enjoys combining her academic background, analytical skills, and passion for social justice into her personal and professional endeavors. Joy serves as an Advisory Committee Member and guest speaker for the GOLD Lactation Academy. When not working or learning, she can be found homeschooling, building LEGO with her children, or dreaming up her next big adventure.

Lyndsey is an experienced paediatric nurse, children’s public health nurse, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Holistic Sleep Coach, researcher and responsive parenting advocate. She has worked in hospitals, clinics, the community and within clients’ homes for 20 years, serving within the UK NHS, in private practice and voluntarily.
The co-founder and clinical director of the Holistic Sleep Coaching program, Lyndsey regularly teaches internationally, as well as providing mentorship for newer sleep coaches. She is passionate about responsive feeding, gentle parenting and promoting parental confidence and well-being.
With Professor Amy Brown, she is the co-founder of Thought Rebellion – an education and publishing company seeking to inspire, challenge and equip professionals and writers in the parenting, lactation and perinatal space with an evidence based revolution.
Lyndsey is currently a PhD researcher at Swansea University, exploring the needs and challenges of medically complex breastfed infants and children. In 2019 she set up the Breastfeeding the Brave project to raise awareness of the unique breastfeeding needs of chronically, critically, and terminally ill children in the paediatric setting. The mother of a childhood cancer survivor, she often talks about the impact of chronic serious illness on families, and seeks to support other families living through a serious childhood illness.
Lyndsey is a respected international speaker and teacher, and regularly speaks out against the dominant sleep training culture, as well as advocating for the rights of families to receive high-quality, compassionate and expert support. She is the author of Holistic Sleep Coaching (2018), Let’s talk about your new family’s sleep (2020), Still Awake (2021), Breastfeeding the Brave (2022) and co-author of The Writing Book (2022).

Eithne Murray developed a passion for breastfeeding as a result of her own experience as a mother – a passion she did not know she had. She initially trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT in the UK and, upon moving back to Ireland, trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with Cuidiú-the Irish Childbirth Trust, later becoming a tutor. She qualified as an IBCLC in 2009, and worked privately for a while. She now works predominantly in education. This presentation was based on the research undertaken for a dissertation on transition to motherhood as part of her studies for a Masters degree.

Sonia Semenic is an Associate Professor at the Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and a Nurse Scientist at the McGill University Health Center. After many years of experience as an IBCLC and Clinical Nurse Specialist in maternal-child health, Sonia completed a PhD in Nursing and postdoctoral training in community health. Her research aims to better understand the process of knowledge translation (KT) in perinatal health, with a particular focus on the implementation of evidence-based practices to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. She currently co-leads the Knowledge Translation Platform for the Quebec Nursing Intervention Research Network, and teaches graduate courses on knowledge translation in nursing practice.

Dr.Fayrouz Essawy Pediatrician, Neonatologist, IBCLC • Neonatology Consultant ‎ • Bachelor of Medicine and surgery - Cairo University 2004‎ • Master degree of pediaterics - Ain shams University 2012‎ • Egyptian neonatology fellowship 2015‎ • IBCLC 2015 ‎ • LCCC course instructor & developer 2016‎ • Breastfeeding medicine specialist.‎ • Baby friendly coordinator.‎ • Harvard Graduate of Training of trainee program 2020.‎ • Member of the Egyptian Society of Pediatrics • Member of the Egyptian lactation consultant association (ELCA)‎ • Member of the academy of breastfeeding medicine (ABM)‎ • Member of the international lactation consultant Association (ILCA)‎

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.

Dianne is an IBCLC, podcaster, author, lactation education manager and has been working with families since 2008. She has worked with thousands of families in all areas of their breast/chest feeding journey. Dianne teaches using her real-life experiences and case studies, which sets her apart in the lactation field providing a personalized and realistic experience for her audiences. Dianne’s evolution began as a clinical, patient-centered lactation consultant to a public speaker and educator, where she really shines. Her energy is contagious, and is felt by families, lactation consultants and birth workers alike.

Robin Kaplan has been an IBCLC since 2009, the same year that she opened up the San Diego Breastfeeding Center. She founded the San Diego Breastfeeding Center Foundation in 2016, a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to reduce breastfeeding disparities among families of color and low-income families, as well as provide scholarships for women of color to become IBCLCs.

Robin was the founding host of the Boob Group podcast and published her first book, Latch: a Handbook for Breastfeeding with Confidence at Every Stage in 2018. Robin’s center has been a clinical training site for the UCSD Lactation Consultant program since 2015.

In 2019/2020, Robin helped write the curriculum for the University of California San Diego Lactation Educator Counselor program and was the Program Manager for the UCSD Curriculum Development Team for the Pathway 1&2 Lactation Consultant program. Robin has a BA from Washington University in St Louis and Masters in Education from University of California Los Angeles. Robin is currently attending the Functional Nutrition Alliance to become a Functional Nutrition Counselor.