IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Clinical Skills / Equipment and Technology Focused CERPs - Section VII A

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.

Marion Rice, Ed.D., IBCLC is the Executive Director of the Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon (BCO).  BCO is the statewide entity that serves to build and link families, community partners and geographic and culturally specific coalitions to support, promote and protect breastfeeding in Oregon. The Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon works to address the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding by working to provide technical assistance, support and training to 20 (and more emerging) breastfeeding coalitions throughout the state.  Marion is working to understand and address the impact of racial inequity on breastfeeding support and on helping all families reach their breastfeeding goals to improve the lifelong health of their babies.  She sees breastfeeding as a social justice issue, and tries to reveal and address public policy and practice that inadvertently discourage women from reaching their breastfeeding goals and helping to maintain family economic security. Marion believes breastfeeding is unifying and builds cultural bridges and personal relationships for deeper personal understanding of the commonalities of the human experience.

Kimberly Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist and a leading commentator, speaker and consultant on breastfeeding issues, with an expertise in African American women and racial disparities in breastfeeding. As a consultant and speaker, Kimberly works with organizations looking to better understand the cultural barriers and community influences that impact breastfeeding continuation rates in vulnerable communities. She is also the founder of Shift Strategies, a health communication consulting firm helping organizations increase programmatic outcomes with more effective communication strategies. Kimberly has designed and developed strategic messaging campaigns and exploratory community-based projects examining the role of “place” in breastfeeding success and pioneered the concept of “first food deserts” and “First Food Friendly” communities. She is the director of The First Food Friendly Community Initiative (3FCI), a W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded pilot program to create and accredit breastfeeding-supportive community environments. A former writer at Fortune and senior editor at Essence magazine, Kimberly is an IATP Food & Community Fellow, connecting the “first food” to the broader food movement. Kimberly was also selected as a lead commentator for the United States Breastfeeding Committee’s “Break Time for Nursing Mothers” federal campaign. Previously, she served as the editorial director of the Black Maternal Health Project of Women’s eNews. Kimberly fifth book, The Big Let Down—How Big Business, Medicine and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding will be released in July 2016 by St. Martin’s Press. 

Johanna Sargeant is an IBCLC based in Zurich, Switzerland. She is passionate about utilising her varied background in biological science, occupational therapy, education, communication and language to empower parents with empathetic support and evidence-based information through her private practice, Milk and Motherhood. Originally from Australia, Johanna has been living in Switzerland for over a decade, providing support to many thousands of families throughout the country and internationally. She has spoken as a panelist for the WHO’s Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative congress in Geneva, has presented for the Gold Lactation Conference, iLactation Breastfeeding Conference and the International Breastfeeding and Feminism Conference in the US, as well as been both a presenter and an onsite breastfeeding advisor for workplaces such as Google. She has additionally worked with universities, hospitals, other medical practices and workplaces, teaching seminars, running workshops and creating valuable content that allows for better overall support for breastfeeding and new families. Her personal feeding experiences after having her two boys in Switzerland have led her to the establishment of the sole peer-to-peer milk-sharing network in Switzerland, and fuels her passion for providing knowledgeable, guilt-free infant feeding support globally.

Anna Le Grange is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Pediatric Nurse, Mindfulness teacher and Author. She has worked with new families for over 20 years in a variety of clinical roles. Anna brings her passion for psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness into her lactation support work and facilitates other professionals to incorporate emotional well-being tools into their own lactation practice.

Mother to 3 children, Anna breastfed her 3rd child following breast reduction surgery and experienced first-hand, the emotional challenges that so often relate to infant feeding complexities. She used her personal experiences alongside mindfulness and lactation knowledge, to create a toolbox of techniques for breastfeeding families, which she includes in her courses and book, The Mindful Breastfeeding Book. Anna believes whole-heartedly in prioritising calm and connection within our breastfeeding support practices, both for our clients and ourselves.

Anna is currently studying for a MSc in Positive Psychology at Buckingham New University and has spoken at various events including the ILactation conference and Womanfest.

Allyson is a physical therapist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and co-owner of Nurture Columbus, in Columbus, Ohio. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Ohio University in 1997, and Master Physical Therapy degree from Northwestern University in 1999. After having a child in 2007, she volunteered as a La Leche League leader. She discovered a love for supporting new parents but a gap in lactation care, which led her to become an IBCLC in 2014. Her clinical approach to identifying and overcoming feeding challenges is unique with physical therapy foundations in posture, movement and reflexive function. Through presentations she endeavors to engage IBCLCs to know more about movement as related to human lactation, and PTs to learn about breastfeeding as related to human development. As past-president (2019-2021) of the Ohio Lactation Consultant Association, she also advocates for awareness of, equitable access to and insurance coverage for lactation care.

Barbara D. Robertson, IBCLC, has been involved in education for over 34 years. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1988 and her Master’s in Education in 1995. Barbara left teaching elementary students in 1995 to raise her two children. Barbara is now the Director of The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and of the brand new business LactaLearning. The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor will still continue to serve breast/chestfeeding families and now LactaLearning will be dedicated to all of Barbara’s professional lactation trainings. Barbara has developed two 95 hour professional lactation training, a group training and a completely self study training with Nancy Mohrbacher. Barbara’s idea of creating professional book groups has exploded with her hosting Making More Milk with Lisa Marasco, Supporting Sucking Skills with Cathy Watson Genna, Breastfeeding Answers, 2nd Edition with Nancy Mohrbacher, and new for the fall, Safe Infant Sleep with Dr. James McKenna. Barbara will be hosting a one day online conference in the fall with Lisa Marasco and Cathy Watson Genna using all of her tech savvy skills to make this a one of a kind experience. Barbara is also a speaker for hire on a wide variety of topics including Motivational Interviewing. Barbara volunteered for the United States Lactation Consultation Association as the Director of Professional Development for 4.5 years. She just retired as Associate Editor for Clinical Lactation, a journal she helped create for USLCA. Barbara has free podcasts, a blog, and Youtube videos which can all be found on her websites lactalearning.com and bfcaa.com. She has written many articles as well. She loves working with parents and babies, helping them with breast/chestfeeding problems in whatever way she can.

Amber Valentine Forston 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.

Fiona Jardine is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland’s iSchool where she is conducting pioneering research into the experiences of those who exclusively pump human milk, specifically focusing on the information they need, how they find it, and what they do with it. In addition, she is able to provide insights into many different aspects of exclusive pumping thanks to the breadth of the data she collected; follow along with her findings here: bit.ly/EPresearch. Fiona is also an Advanced Lactation Consultant and a postpartum doula so that she can provide the support that she believes is so desperately needed, especially in the fourth trimester. Find out more about Fiona, and the Universal Breastfeeding Symbol she designed, on her website: fionamjardine.com.

Shonte' Terhune-Smith is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, postpartum doula and health educator. Over the past 10 years, she has worked diligently in Genesee County to increase breastfeeding rates. She has worked for WIC, in the hospital as a lactation intern and at various pediatric and obstetrician clinics, promoting and educating women about breastfeeding. Normalizing breastfeeding is her passion. Shonte' is the owner of, You Overcoming Lactation Obstacles (YOLO). She empowers and provides timely, culturally competent, evidence-based breastfeeding support and services to Genesee County families and surrounding areas. Shonte' understands that breastfeeding works better when the mother has a village of support to overcome the barriers families face. She is also co-founder of Southeast Michigan IBCLC's of Color.

Okky Nafiriana, MD is a member of Praborini Lactation Team, Indonesia.

She believes breastfeeding is the best way to feed and nurture baby. But breastfeeding not always comes easy. Experienced breastfeeding her 2 daughters who were born with tongue and lip tie, made her realize the problems came with the ties and support frenotomy.

She currently works as a lactation counselor in Permata Depok Hospital and Puri Cinere Hospital, Indonesia, where she meets parents and educates the benefit of breastfeeding. She loves to study and currently pursued her dreams to deepen her knowledge in lactation.

Ratih Ayu Wulandari, MD, IBCLC is a member of Praborini Lactation Team, Indonesia.

She believes breastfeeding is the best way to feed and nurture baby, therefore she became a breastfeeding counselor in 2012 and then IBCLC in 2014.

Experienced breastfeeding her three tongue-tied babies, she understand the pain and support early frenotomy.

She is practicing frenotomy for tongue-tie and lip-tie in Puri Cinere Hospital Depok Indonesia and a private practice. Her publications are including articles for international journal and books for mothers. Japan society of ADEL acknowledges her as Specialist of ADEL (Ankyloglossia with Deviation of Epiglottis and Larynx).