IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Pathology Focused CERPs - Section III

Aiden Farrow is an IBCLC, writer, speaker, and infant feeding and health equity advocate. Parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, they have advocated extensively over the last 16 years in order to increase awareness of the specific challenges faced by cleft affected infants and their families and to increase adequate lactation support for this community. Based in Victoria BC, Aiden has a private practice entirely focused on babies with oral clefts, providing support internationally via telehealth. Aiden serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Human Lactation and co-authored the journal’s policy on sex and gender inclusion. Aiden works with Indigenous families as a family support worker and lactation and infant feeding consultant at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre and has a special interest in food security and food sovereignty for infants and toddlers. 

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.

Lina Mazzoni is a Lactation Consultant, IBCLC with a Bachelors Degree in Speech and Language Therapy. Since 2013 she has been working primarily with children and specialized in the treatment of sucking, swallowing and feeding disorders. In 2019 she became a Lactation Consultant to be able to work equivalent with the children and the mother. As a working mom she worked part time as a Lactation Consultant in a hospital in Hamburg, started her own privat practice in 2019 and since october 2021 she works exclusively in her private practice as a lactation consultant and SLT. She also works as an Instructor in lactation education and further education regarding feeding developement and disorders . Lina has two children and lives with them and her husband in Hamburg, Germany.

Patricia Díaz L., Woman passionate about accompanying Women and Families through their Conscious and Connected gestational, birthing and parenting journeys. She is a trained Pediatrician, IBCLC and Doula. Graduated as a Surgeon physician and Pediatric Specialist from the Central University of Venezuela, at the main Children’s Hospital of the country; JM de los Ríos. From her formative years, she fell in love with the dynamic process of Breastfeeding and the unique physical, nutritional, immunological, qualities of it, along with the transformative emotional and spiritual bond that formed between the new parents and their baby: "Being a witness to that first magical and intimate human contact, is one of the most wonderful sensations in the world; I have ever experienced”. Dr. Patricia Díaz graduated as Promoter and Consultant of the Lactation Center ""Mi Gota de Leche” ( “ My Drop of Milk” ) at the Hospital J.M. de los Ríos, with the endorsement of UNICEF. She was part of the First Cohort of Diplomats in Breastfeeding and Complementary Feeding Practices, of the Faculty of Medicine, at the Central University of Venezuela. Member of the American Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA). Trained as a Doula, at the Auroramadre Center in Venezuela. National and International speaker. With more than a decade of experience, Patricia, strongly advocates for Human Lactation Education, at her private practice in Venezuela, where she currently is the Chief of Pediatrics at La Trinidad Medical Teaching Center. At this center, she has co-designed the Respectful Birthing Protocol (to honor the Sacred Hour, Skin to Skin and Rooming in; most recently updated alongside Neonatology Department, to adjust it for COVID19 context). Also through her social media platform @PediatríaAutana (Tree of Life), she educates, advocates for Breastfeeding families and designs educational tools for Parents and Caregivers, Families and Teachers, in the most innovative formats, adjusted to their needs, concerning topics associated with Prenatal Prolactation Prep, Human Lactation, Parenting, Growth and Neurodevelopment, Pediatrics.

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).

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.

Bobby Ghaheri, MD is a board certified ear, nose and throat specialist with The Oregon Clinic in Portland, OR. His interest in treating children with tongue and lip-tie stems from his ardent support of breastfeeding and was furthered by his personal experiences, as his youngest child benefited from treatment for it. He enjoys working with children and has an interest in traditional and non-traditional approaches to pediatric pain control. To communicate with him, feel free to email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @DrGhaheri.

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.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in New York City. Certified in 1992, Catherine is particularly interested in helping moms and babies breastfeed when they have medical challenges and is an active clinical mentor. She speaks to healthcare professionals around the world on assisting breastfeeding babies with anatomical, genetic or neurological problems. Her presentations and her writing are enriched by her clinical photographs and videos. Catherine collaborates with Columbia University and Tel Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering on research projects investigating the biomechanics of the lactating nipple and various aspects of sucking and swallowing in breastfeeding infants. She is the author of Selecting and Using Breastfeeding Tools: Improving Care and Outcomes (Praeclarus Press 2009) and Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants (Jones and Bartlett Learning 2008, 2013, 2017) as well as professional journal articles and chapters in the Core Curriculum for Lactation Consultant Practice and Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Catherine served as Associate Editor of the United States Lactation Consultant Association’s official journal Clinical Lactation for its first seven years.

Mariana Colmenares Castano was born in Mexico City, and from an early age she was fascinated by animals and nature.She studied medicine at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), and foundher passion as a pediatrician doing her residency at the National Pediatric Institute. When her first child was born she witnessed the lack of knowledge and commitment to breastfeeding within the medical profession, and so she decided to specialize in breastfeeding medicine. She certified as a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2011.Mariana is a member of the International Lactation Consultant Association, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, and a proud founding member of the National Lactation Consultant Association of Mexico (ACCLAM), where she served on the Board of Directors as Education Coordinator (2014-2019). She is part of board director for the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine for a 3 year period (2019-2022) and recently named as secretary for the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. Mariana is a member of the team for Breastfeeding Country Index BFCI, a project from Yale University and Universidad Iberoamericana. She is consultant for the National Health Institute in Mexico and has collaborated with UNICEF in breastfeeding projects and part of the steering committee for the WHO. She has spoken at national and international conferences, co-published numerous articles and co-authored a chapter for the National Academy of Medicine. At the moment she is a Clinical Fellow in Community Paediatrics in London.