Lactation Case Studies Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Melissa Cole is a board-certified lactation consultant, neonatal oral-motor assessment professional and clinical herbalist in private practice. Melissa is passionate about providing comprehensive, holistic lactation support and improving the level of clinical lactation skills for health professional. She enjoys teaching, researching and writing about wellness and lactation-related topics. Her bachelor’s degree is in maternal/child health and lactation and her master’s degree is in therapeutic herbalism. Before pursuing her current path, Melissa’s background was in education and cultural arts, which has served her well in her work as a lactation consultant and healthcare educator. She loves living, working and playing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her 3 children.

Kay Hoover became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 1985. She sat for the very first exam and has taken the exam 4 times. She has worked as a private practice lactation consultant, a hospital lactation consultant at 5 different hospitals, the lactation consultant for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, for The Center for Childhood Obesity Research at The Pennsylvania State University, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. She currently is retired. She has presented workshops at national and international conferences and is a co-author of The Breastfeeding Atlas.

Julie Matheney knew when she was ten years old that she wanted to feed babies for a living. She earned her Masters in speech-language pathology and has worked with feeding and swallowing disorders for over a decade. While most people assume speech therapists teach children who stutter or work on ""r's and s's"", the bulk of her job is feeding and swallowing as part of a hospital based, rehabilitation team. The same things you speak with, you eat with! Over the past decade working in the NICU, she discovered her passion for working with breastfeeding families and became an IBCLC in 2018.

She transitioned out of the hospital in July 2021 and currently works full time in private practice as a lactation consultant in Los Angeles. She enjoys helping the whole family in the feeding process to meet their goals.

Her loving husband is always supportive of her in her vocational passions and was instrumental in launching her private practice. She has two young daughters, both of whom were exclusively breastfed until two years old.

Annette Leary is a registered nurse with over 33 years of experience working in Maternal Child Health (pediatrics, postpartum, home health care and level 2 NICU). She became an IBCLC in 1995. She owns a private practice providing office, in home, and virtual visits at Orlando Lactation and Wellness. In 2022 she formed a collaborative company Baby B.L.I.S.S. : Central Florida Feeding Collaborative where she and her business partners help families prenatally, antepartum and post partum navigate the growth, development and feeding journey of their children. She began her craniosacral therapy training through the Upledger Institute in 2015, taking advanced maternal and pediatric specialty classes. Annette has found great improvement incorporating craniosacral therapy techniques with lactation consulting. Helping Families Latch onto Parenting has always been her mantra.

Dixie Whetsell, MS, IBCLC, has a Master’s Degree in Community Health Education from the University of Oregon. She began working with breastfeeding families in 1992 and became an IBCLC in 1998. She has worked as a lactation consultant in a variety of settings including private practice, county and state public health programs and high risk maternal and pediatric hospitals. She began teaching lactation training courses in 2003 and is currently an adjunct faculty member teaching in the Pathway 2 Lactation Training Program in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health at Portland State University. She is a past presenter for the GOLD Perinatal Conference. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the US Lactation Consultant Association and the International Lactation Consultant Association. She was a founding Board Member for Northwest Mothers Milk Bank, a HMBANA non-profit donor milk bank.

Lisa Gonzales, BSN, RN, IBCLC earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Linfield College. She started her nursing career as a Labor and Delivery nurse at a Level III OB hospital in 2006. After having her first baby, Lisa pursued lactation education and became an IBCLC in 2013. She made full career change in 2015 to become a lactation nurse in a high risk maternity and pediatric hospital, providing inpatient and outpatient consults to growing families. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the US Lactation Consultant Association and the International Lactation Consultant Association. Lisa currently helps families during in-home visits with her private practice.

Anna has been working as a midwife since 2009. From the very beginning of her studies she has been fascinated with breastfeeding. During her studies for her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Midwifery, her main area of interest was promotion and support for breastfeeding among women. Anna's interest in breastfeeding turned into a passion that led her to pursue the Polish Certification of Lactation Consultant and she is working toward certification as an IBCLC. She opened a private practice and a support group for local women in Krakow (cracko). Anna’s Interest and passion for lactation and breastfeeding have deepened during her current PhD studies. She is a PhD candidate in 2018 at University Medical College and is the coordinator of the Krakow Human Milk Bank.
Her scientific area of expertise: change in milk composition (macronutrients), human microbiota during pregnancy, lactation as well as tandem breastfeeding. Her research is carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology. Anna is the author of many lectures and workshops for students of midwifery and medicine in area of breastfeeding, lactation and the variation of composition of human milk. Since 2016 she has been popularizing the science of human lactation in Poland and she is always finding new ways to promote and support breastfeeding women. In her spare time she practices meditation, yin yoga and is learning how to dance rock and roll.