Breastfeeding & Health Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Dia has written and/or edited over a dozen books for adults and children. Her passions in life include promoting the concepts and practices of attachment parenting, breastfeeding and safe infant sleep. She is founder and president of two publishing houses—Platypus Media and Science, Naturally! Their books have won numerous awards and have been translated into Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese, Russian, Turkish, French and Korean. Dia has led workshops at healthcare, education and parenting conferences across the country. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Washington, DC.

Joy MacTavish, MA, IBCLC, RLC, ICCE is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Lactation Consultant. She is the owner of Sound Beginnings, which provides in-home consultations and education on lactation, babywearing, and more. Her background as a birth and postpartum doula, and childbirth, newborn, and parenting educator, inform her compassionate and evidence-based support of new families in the greater Seattle area. 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 serves as adjunct faculty at the Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations at Bastyr University where she created the Breastfeeding for Doulas course. Joy is passionate about her family, social justice, and continuing education.

Anna Le Grange is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Pediatric Nurse, Mindfulness teacher and Author. She has worked with new families for over 20 years in a variety of clinical roles. Anna brings her passion for psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness into her lactation support work and facilitates other professionals to incorporate emotional well-being tools into their own lactation practice.

Mother to 3 children, Anna breastfed her 3rd child following breast reduction surgery and experienced first-hand, the emotional challenges that so often relate to infant feeding complexities. She used her personal experiences alongside mindfulness and lactation knowledge, to create a toolbox of techniques for breastfeeding families, which she includes in her courses and book, The Mindful Breastfeeding Book. Anna believes whole-heartedly in prioritising calm and connection within our breastfeeding support practices, both for our clients and ourselves.

Anna is currently studying for a MSc in Positive Psychology at Buckingham New University and has spoken at various events including the ILactation conference and Womanfest.

Dr Virginia Thorley is a pioneer of the breastfeeding movement in Australia. She was the first breastfeeding counsellor in Queensland and in 1985 was in the first cohort in the world to certify IBCLC. In 2008 she was one of the first Fellows of the International Lactation Consultant Association (FILCA). She has two Research Higher Degrees in History (MA and PhD) and her current research interests include influences on mothers' infant-feeding decisions, wet-nursing, milk-sharing and milk banking. Dr Thorley is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of HPRC at the University of Queensland. She is the author of several books and book chapters and most recently was co-editor, with Melissa Vickers, of The 10th Step & Beyond: Mother Support for Breastfeeding. She has presented at conferences on five continents.

Dr. Kendall-Tackett is a health psychologist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the Owner and Editor-in-Chief of Praeclarus Press, a small press specializing in women's health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett is Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Psychological Trauma and was Founding Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Lactation, a position she held for 11 years. She is Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Health and Trauma Psychology, Past President of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology, and a member of APA’s Publications and Communications Board.

Laurel Wilson, IBCLC, CLE, CCCE, CLD is a TEDx and international speaker, author, pregnancy and lactation expert, and consultant. She served as the Executive Director of Lactation Programs for CAPPA, the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association for 16 years and now is on the Senior Advisor Board. She served on the Board of Directors for the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2016-2019. She also is on the Advisory Board for InJoy Health. She owns MotherJourney, focusing on training perinatal professionals on integrative and holistic information regarding pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. She has her degree in Maternal Child Health: Lactation Consulting and is an internationally board certified lactation consultant. As the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever, original Editor of the CAPPA Lactation Educator Manual, and contributing author to Round the Circle: Doulas Talk About Themselves, she loves to blend today’s recent scientific findings with the mind/body/spirit wisdom. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for nearly three decades and has two wonderful grown sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences. She believes that the journey into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated.