IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Clinical Skills Focused CERPs - Section VII

Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a Hungarian American anthropologist and public health scholar whose work investigates the structural and sociocultural drivers that shape health, illness and health inequities. Dr. Tomori is an internationally recognized expert on breastfeeding, infant sleep and maternal child health.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has supported numerous organizations focused on maternal child health and health equity and advocated for equitable pandemic policies. She has authored three books on breastfeeding and reproduction, and published numerous articles on a range of public health and anthropological topics.

Christy Jo has over 25 years of teaching experience. She is passionate about teaching in ways that simplify learning. She has been awarded the United States Presidential Volunteer Award for her community service, the Phyllis Klaus Founder's Award for her contribution to the Mother/Baby bond and the Above and Beyond Award for innovative projects that exemplify the mission of Public Health. She has also been named Lactation Educator Faculty of the Year from Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association and earned their Visionary Award in 2015. Christy Jo is the author of Mommy Feeds Baby and co-author of Making Milk. She created the Grow Our Own Lactation Consultant/IBCLC Prep Course which has been used to train hundreds of students to become Lactation Consultants. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She continues to serve her community as a birth doula, Private Practice IBCLC, Health Educator for Public Health, and faculty for the CAPPA CLE© and Childbirth Educator Programs.

Dr. Diane DiTomasso achieved a Diploma in Nursing from Newport Hospital School of Nursing; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing Education, and a PhD from the University of Rhode Island. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing.

Her research focus is human lactation and infant weight. She has multiple publications in journals such as Journal of Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing (JOGNN), Journal of Human Lactation, Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, and Nursing for Women’s Health and has presented her work nationally and internationally.

Dr. DiTomasso has received various honors and awards with the most recent being the 2020 Suzanne Feetham Nurse Scientist Family Research Award by the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) and the 2020 Best of JOGNN Award as first author of the article, “Systematic Review of Expected Weight Changes After Birth for Full-Term, Breastfed Newborn. She has served as Principal Investigator for a variety of neonatal research studies. Dr. DiTomasso is a member of AWHONN, the International Lactation Consultant Association, the Eastern Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International. She currently serves as a Member on the AWHONN Research Advisory Panel.

Michelle Pensa Branco MPH IBCLC is a lactation consultant and public health advocate. In addition to her clinical practice, which has included in-hospital, outpatient and private practice settings, she advocates for improved maternal-child health practices at the local, national and global level. She has a particular interest in the impact of trauma to breastfeeding families, models of peer support to improve breastfeeding outcomes and the application of health communication principles to the promotion and protection of breastfeeding. Michelle serves as the Director of Peer Support Programs and provides clinical lactation expertise for Nurture Project International, the only international NGO focused exclusively on infant feeding in emergencies. With Jodine Chase, she co-founded a Canadian non-profit organization, SafelyFed Canada. She is also an active member of the Ontario Public Health Association’s Breastfeeding Promotion Working Group. Michelle has previously served as the Vice-Chair of La Leche League Canada, the Communications Director for the Canadian Lactation Consultants Association as well as the Toronto Coordinator of INFACT Canada. When she is not travelling for work, Michelle stays close to home, living with her family just outside Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Chauntel Norris is a native of Birmingham, AL. She attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she earned her B.A. in African American Studies & her B.S. in Psychology.
Chauntel is a DONA trained Birth & Post-Partum Doula, a Lamaze trained Childbirth Educator and a Certified Lactation Counselor. She is the Co-founder of Baobab Birth Collective and currently serves as the Mother's Milk Initiative Coordinator for the Alabama Prison Birth Project.
Chauntel is the mother of two brilliant children Amaiya and Ozell.

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.

Dr. Hazelbaker has been a therapist in private practice for over 30 years. She specializes in cross-disciplinary treatment and to that end has taken training in several modalities to best assist her clients. She is a certified Craniosacral Therapist, a Lymph Drainage Therapy practitioner, a Tummy Time™ Trainer, a Haller Method practitioner, A Pre and Perinatal Psychology Educator, a Lactation Therapist Diplomate, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association.

She earned her Master’s Degree from Pacific Oaks College (Human Development specializing in Human Lactation) and her doctorate from The Union Institute and University (Psychology, specializing in Energetic and Transformational healing.)

People recognize her as an expert on infant sucking issues caused by various structural problems like torticollis, plagiocephaly, brachycephaly and tissue shock-trauma. She invented the Hazelbaker™ FingerFeeder and the Infant Breastfeeding CranioSacral Protocol™ to assist in the resolution of this type of infant sucking dysfunction.

Jenn Bio - International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Birth Doula, Founder and Owner of Feed the Babes, LLC offers in-home and clinic-based, skilled breastfeeding support and birth doula services www.feedthebabes.com. Jennifer also serves as a Michigan Breastfeeding Network (MIBFN) Project Manager and as Co-Founder of the Southeast Michigan IBCLC's of Color. The married mother of two happy, healthy, breastfed children has made it her life mission to disrupt the broken system that plagues the families that are impacted by systemic racism. She's committed to showing up in the community, daily, and, by mentoring aspiring Black IBCLC’s, supporting equipping and empowering future trailblazers to change the world. She is a dual Canadian and American citizen, leader, public speaker, consultant, clinician, advocate, and educator. Collectively as a family, she, her husband and two children enjoy growing their own food, photography, videography and serving their community. They reside in Metro-Detroit, Michigan.

Jeanette Mesite Frem, MHS, IBCLC, RLC, CCE is an experienced childbirth educator, IBCLC-lactation consultant and retired birth doula. She started her career working with families while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa in the early 90s. She loved that work so much she went on to receive a public health masters degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, focusing her studies on nutrition for maternal and child health. Her two children were breastfed for more than 2 years each and Jeanette has experience pumping at work for both children and has supported more than a thousand families with feeding and pumping over the last 20 years.

Jeanette provides prenatal childbirth and breastfeeding classes at her office in Northborough, Massachusetts, as well as providing virtual and office feeding consultations. She also enjoys leading workshops for perinatal health professionals and mentoring those who work with families. If you have questions, feel free to email [email protected].

Dr. Agarwal went to medical school at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS, in New Delhi, which is the premiere institution for medical training in India. After which, he came to the United States for his Pediatric Residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Subsequently went on to join the Pediatric Nephrology fellowship at University of Florida at Gainesville. Under the program, he also conducted bench research at Ohio State University. Dr. Agarwal worked on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for eight years in general pediatrics before moving to Arizona to establish Agave Pediatrics in 2005. Over the years Dr. Agarwal has developed his own style of practicing pediatrics, which is strongly supportive of natural ways of taking care of children and emphasis on breastfeeding. During his practice, he realized that one of the biggest impairments in breastfeeding was the presence of labial and lingual ties. Having performed some procedures during medical school, he re-educated himself about the procedure and started performing them in 2007. In the last 15 years, Dr. Agarwal has performed more than 18000 frenotomies. Now, along with a busy clinical practice, he has made it his goal to spread the awareness about the issues related to labial and lingual ties to pediatricians, lactation consultants, doulas, midwives -everybody who helps mothers with the process of breastfeeding and in taking care of children with feeding and speech difficulties.