IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology Focused CERPs - Section V

Zoe undertakes a diverse range of roles in the field of lactation and infant and young child feeding, including holding national and international leadership roles. Zoe works in the community public health service, in Brighton UK, delivering specialist services for family with complex and persistent feeding challenges as well as supporting the implementation of Baby Friendly Standards. Previously she run the in house breastfeeding peer support program for 15 years. Zoe teaches, colleagues, student public health nurses at Brighton University and presents infant feeding topics to a broad range of audiences. Zoe is Chair of Lactation Consultants of Great Britain and in July 2022 was appointed as to the International Lactation Associations Board. Zoe is also currently Charing an expert working group, on behalf of the emerging Breastfeeding Alliance writing and mapping breastfeeding competencies of the infant feeding support workforce to increase the understanding of the unique characteristics and shared skills and knowledge of those working to support breastfeeding families. Zoe enjoys working directly with families and babies to enable mothers and parents to meet their babies and young child’s needs and achieve their desired goals throughout their breastfeeding and infant feeding journey, and weaning experience.

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.

Professor Amy Brown is based in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK. With a background in psychology, she has spent the last thirteen years exploring psychological, cultural and societal influences upon infant feeding decisions in the first year. Her research seeks to understand how we can shift our perception of how babies are fed away from an individual mothering issue to a wider public health problem – with societal level solutions. Dr Brown has published over 60 papers exploring the barriers women face in feeding their baby during the first year. She is a mother to three human children and three book babies: Breastfeeding Uncovered: Who really decides how we feed our babies, Why starting solids matters, and The Positive Breastfeeding Book: Everything you need to feed your baby with confidence. She is a regular blogger, aiming to change the way we think about breastfeeding, mothering and caring for our babies.

Sarah Coutts is a registered nurse and lactation consultant with over 10 years experience in the neonatal intensive care unit. She currently is working as a Developmental Care Specialist in a NICU in Vancouver, Canada. Previous to this position Sarah was the Kangaroo Care Coordinator of an implementation science study to improve uptake of Kangaroo Care in NICUs in British Columbia. She is part of team of clinicians and researchers interested in understanding the barriers and enablers to Kangaroo Care from both the healthcare provider and parent perspectives and creating innovative strategies to increase knowledge and practice of Kangaroo Care in the NICU. She is passionate about raising awareness of the positive outcomes of zero separation between preterm and sick infants and their parents in the NICU.

Muswamba Mwamba is a father of five breastfed children. An International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, a public health practitioner, and a scholar; his research interests focus on immigrant health within the minority group in the context of the US health disparity. Muswamba helps mothers and babies obtain the best health outcomes by teaching and inspiring their partner/ father to fight to remove barriers that prevent successful breastfeeding. As a professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas, Muswamba disseminates clinical and non-clinical information to inform graduate students of significant developments and trends in the field of infant feeding.

Muswamba is a lifelong learner. He trained in Belgium, where he earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering, a master's degree in human nutrition biochemistry, and a second master's degree in food science and technology. Witnessing striking disparity in his maternal and child health practice, he deepened his understanding of public health's complexity in the US and elsewhere. He earned a master's degree in Public Health at the University of North Texas and a doctoral degree in Public Health Executive Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth M. Johnson, MA is a trauma educator and peer support advocate in private practice. She helps people understand how sexual abuse affects sexual and reproductive health. She looks at how sexual abuse affects breastfeeding for example but also how traditional sex education ignores issues like how past abuse affects consent, teen pregnancy and risky behavior. Using a trauma lens, Elizabeth talks about everything sexual health related from Asking (about abuse) to Z(zzzz's) and everything in between. Elizabeth is the only educator in the world specializing in training and consulting on this topic.

In addition to training, speaking and consulting, Elizabeth has facilitated a free, weekly peer support group for sexual abuse survivors for over three years. She holds a Masters of Arts degree in Womens Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. Elizabeth identifies as a rape survivor and has worked with survivors since 2005. She lives in Durham, NC with her family.

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.

Dr. Barnes is an internationally recognized expert on women’s reproductive mental health. A past president of Postpartum Support International, she currently sits on their President’s Advisory Board and is also a member of the Los Angeles County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force and the statewide Maternal Mental Health Collaborative. Her work has been published in a number of academic journals. She wrote the assessment and treatment guidelines for perinatal illness for the Perinatal Advisory Council of Los Angeles County. In addition to private practice, she is often retained by legal counsel on cases of infanticide, neonaticide and pregnancy denial. The 2009 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Eli Lilly Foundation, Dr. Barnes is the co-author of The journey to parenthood: Myths, reality and what really matters (Radcliffe, 2007) and editor and contributing author to a reference text on Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan (Springer, 2014).

Amy Barron Smolinski holds an MA from Union Institute and University, where her thesis explored re-emerging Sacred Feminine manifestations in the lives of contemporary women. She is the Executive Director of Mom2Mom Global, a network of breastfeeding peer support, education, and advocacy for military families. She works with breastfeeding dyads in a variety of settings, from inpatient postpartum and NICU to home visits, telephone, and online consulting as an Advanced Lactation Consultant and Certified Lactation Counselor. Supporting breastfeeding families has shown her how each parent’s breastfeeding journey with each of her children is a reclamation of her connection to her inner wisdom and power. Amy is an actress, director, and professional voice artist in Germany, where she resides with her husband and four sons, all of whom breastfed to self-weaning.

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).