Breastfeeding Strategies for the Preterm Infant Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Dr. Nastassia Harris is a licensed registered nurse with over 15 years’ experience in perinatal nursing and became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2009.

Nastassia serves as an assistant professor in the school of nursing at Montclair State University. Over her career Nastassia developed a passion for eliminating disparities in black infant and maternal health. In 2018, she went on to found a nonprofit, the Perinatal Health Equity Foundation where she serves as the executive director. Through the nonprofit, Nastassia established Sistahs Who Breastfeed, a breastfeeding support group for black women which operates in several NJ cities.

She is active in several committees and organizations including the Association of Women's Health Obstetrics and Neonatal Nursing and the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Nastassia's research and clinical interests include implicit bias/racism in healthcare, breastfeeding in the black community, obstetrical violence, high risk OB, and reproductive justice.

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.

Robin P. Glass, MS, OTR, IBCLC practices occupational therapy at Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle, WA and is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation, at the University of Washington. Her clinical specialty is the treatment of infants, with a strong focus on feeding and swallowing issues. She provides treatment for hospitalized infants including the NICU with a wide range of medical and developmental diagnoses. She is NDT trained and is a 20 year Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Robin has extensive national and international experience speaking about infant feeding.

Robin has received numerous awards including the National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT) 2015 Pioneer Award and the 2018 Nancy Danoff Spirit of Service award from the Breastfeeding Coalition of WA and Nutrition First. Robin has co-authored numerous journal articles as well as the book Feeding and Swallowing Disorders in Infancy: Assessment and Management.

Amanda is a children's nurse, having worked on pediatric wards and in the community supporting children with complex health needs, although over ten years of her nursing career have been in neonatal care, where she is further qualified in specialty (QiS). She trained and volunteered in breastfeeding peer support two years into her nursing career, ultimately sitting the exam to become an IBCLC to ensure that the families within neonatal care had access to an infant feeding specialist familiar with their journey. Amanda has since further specialized in Neonatal Homecare, is a Nurse Practitioner in restrictive lingual frenulum, and has worked as an Infant Feeding Lead for a regional surgical NICU and SCBU, as well as a regional Infant Feeding Advisor to ten neonatal units across a regional network. She has recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees for the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB), where she is the Neonatal Lead.

Ramya Kumar is an ASHA certified Speech Language Pathologist specializing in infant and pediatric feeding disorders while practicing in a Level 3 NICU and outpatient settings in Phoenix, AZ. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing & Swallowing Disorders, Certified Neonatal Therapist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Neonatal Touch & Massage Certified Therapist & has completed the Trauma Informed Professional Certificate. Ramya is an internationally sought out speaker & clinical mentor on the topic of neuroprotective care in the NICU, Pediatric Feeding Disorders and Tethered Oral Tissues. Ramya is passionate about helping families create mealtime success through a whole-body lens. More recently, Ramya has been serving as a NICU Developmental Coordinator championing changes in unit culture, system-wide policy development and supporting transition of NICU families to community based programs. She has also co-founded Arizona NICU Follow-Up Specialists, a community resource supporting NICU grads and their families as they transition from hospital to home.

Chesney Willis, MHS, CCC-SLP, IBCLC is a certified speech language pathologist and lactation consultant from the University of Missouri Women’s and Children’s hospital. She earned her master of health sciences degree from the University of Missouri in 2008 and obtained her IBCLC in 2017. Chesney has over 13 years of experience working across outpatient rehabilitation, home-health, inpatient care for pediatrics and neonates in level II and III NICU settings. Clinical expertise includes evaluation and treatment of disordered swallowing and feeding in special neonate populations. Experience includes the development and dissemination of education for best feeding practices for late preterm and preterm infants to families and inter-disciplinary health care providers. She is passionate about supporting mother-baby breastfeeding dyads with special feeding considerations from hospitalization through the transition to home.

Nancy Mohrbacher was born and raised in the Chicago area, where she lives today. She is a board-certified lactation consultant who has been helping nursing mothers since 1982. Her breastfeeding books for parents and professionals include Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple and its Pocket Guide; Breastfeeding Made Simple(with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett); Working and Breastfeeding Made Simple; and Breastfeeding Solutions and its companion app for Android and iPhone.

Nancy currently contracts with hospitals to improve breastfeeding practices, writes for many publications, and speaks at events around the world. Nancy was in the first group of 16 to be honored for her lifetime contributions to breastfeeding with the designation FILCA, Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association.

Maxine graduated with a nursing degree followed later on by her Master of Nursing in 2017 both from the University of Calgary. Maxine was a public health nurse in Calgary for 13 years, where providing face to face contacts with new families soon after discharge is a standard of care. Most families named feeding challenges as their biggest concern. In turn, Maxine developed a passion for lactation support, worked towards and attained the International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant designation, in order to assist families to reach their feeding goals.

In 2016, Maxine made the transition from public health to acute care where she currently works in all areas of a large Children’s hospital to support dyads with a myriad of lactation concerns but is primarily in the NICU. Maxine’s responsibilities includes orienting new staff to teaching a provincial lactation education within a team. Maxine is passionate about sharing knowledge with aspiring LCs and is a mentor to many. Maxine participates on numerous committees to update lactation and feeding policies, procedures and documents. Furthermore, she volunteers on provincial and national breastfeeding committees.

Karen Lasby leads a specialized nursing team in post-discharge follow-up of extremely premature infants and their families in Alberta, Canada. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally on the topics of premature babies, neonatal oral feeding, and NICU-to-home transition, including the 2019 and 2022 GOLD Neonatal Conferences. She has been the co-investigator in several research studies examining outcomes for very low birth weight infants and has published articles on maternal work in the NICU, neonatal transition, and gastroesophageal reflux. An educator for nearly thirty years, Karen has taught, written instructional material, and produced online neonatal nursing courses. Formerly the president of the Canadian Association of Neonatal Nurses, she served on this national board for twelve years, and on the board of the Council for International Neonatal Nurses for three years. Karen’s work has been recognized by the Canadian Institute of Child Health and College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. Karen is the co-author for the parent book, "Preemie Care: A guide to navigate the first year with your premature baby".

Noriko Woods is a member of a specialized nursing team in post-discharge follow-up of extremely premature infants and their families in Alberta, Canada. She started her Level 4 NICU RN career in Kanagawa, Japan, trained and worked for 5 years before moving to Canada. She worked 5 years as a Level 4 NICU RN in Calgary Alberta before she started her current position at Postpartum Community Health Services, as a public health nurse. She became passionate about breastfeeding with her own experience with her first child in 2009 and obtained the IBCLC in 2011. She has been working with early postpartum mothers and babies to reach their breastfeeding goals as a Lactation Consultant in her community. She is passionate about supporting families to achieve positive feeding experience with a bottle and at breasts. She has been participating with various committees such as Calgary NICU LC group to revise the breastfeeding guidebook for NICU parents, Calgary Breastfeeding Matters Group annual conference committee, GOLD Neonatal Professional Advisory Committee.