Shondra Mattos is an IBCLC (Internationally Board-certified Lactation Consultant) and owner of a Location-independent lactation practice where she provides breastfeeding and infant feeding support to families countrywide.

Shondra finds the science of lactation fascinating, and as such, she has a passion for sharing her understanding of complex lactation subjects with her colleagues and aspiring lactation students. When she's not with clients, speaking, or teaching, she spends time with her husband and daughter in Fayetteville, NC.

Bryna is a lactation consultant, mentor, educator, and birth doula in the Pacific Northwestern United States. They are active in their community as an advocate for mutual aid, reproductive justice, and reduction in barriers to care. They also own and manage an inclusive private practice. As a member of both Queer and Neurodivergent communities, offering inclusive care on every level is very important to Bryna. Their vision is to offer information and tools to providers to build a community of comprehensive, concordant, and individualized care for all families in the perinatal period.

Alice Farrow is an IBCLC, writer, speaker, and infant feeding and health equity advocate. Parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, Alice has worked extensively, since 2006, with parents, parent organisations, cleft teams health providers and lactation specialists in order to increase awareness of the specific challenges faced by cleft affected infants and their families and to imprve access to adequate lactation support for this community.

Currently based in Rome, Italy, Alice advocates for, and teaches regularly on, the topic of breastfeeding/chestfeeding with an oral cleft via presentations, courses, articles, booklets and handouts and supports parents and professionals wordwide via their Cleft Lip and Palate Breastfeeding website and associated online support group, and in person and distance consultations.

Liz Stokes JD, MA, RN, is the Director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights. She completed her BSN at the University of Virginia and worked several years as a critical care nurse. Liz received her Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond and worked as a Consultant for the D.C. Board of Nursing interpreting and conferring professional ethics provisions in nursing. She recently completed her Masters in Bioethics from Loyola University Chicago. Her leadership is also demonstrated through various charitable roles in the health and legal communities. She is a member of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys and serves on the board of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Affinity Group for Nursing. Liz also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry and is an active volunteer with the District of Columbia Bar Association. Liz is currently an American Academy of Nursing Jonas Health Policy Scholar.

Stephanie Carroll is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who lives in southeast Ohio with her two daughters. She founded the Appalachian Breastfeeding Network in May of 2016. Now has grown to over 500 members across 15 states. Stephanie owns a private practice and works for a Breast Pump DME part-time. She also works as a speaker and marketing manager for Lactation Education Consultants. She continues to work towards transformation of breastfeeding culture, women's health equity, and increasing access to care in Appalachia, giving a voice to Appalachia, which continues to be underserved and overlooked.

With over 25 years’ experience as a relationship counsellor, parents’ group facilitator, mental health educator, partner and mum, Elly Taylor has become an internationally known parenthood preparation and perinatal relationship expert and the award-winning author of Becoming Us. Elly’s passion is preparing parents for a happy and healthy family—at any stage in their parenthood journey, and especially in a challenging world. Her Becoming Us approach includes fathers and partners in all aspects of pregnancy, birth and beyond, harnesses the attachment bond between couples to stabilise them through the life changes and challenges of parenthood and links both parents into community services to support the mental, emotional and relational wellbeing of the whole family.

Elly has served as an advisor for numerous university research projects and her ground-breaking Becoming Us developmental framework has now become a comprehensive multi-disciplinary education and professional training and courses for parents. In a full circle moment, Elly recently trained midwives, allied health and therapy professionals in her local community and now Becoming Us Nest Building Sessions are preparing expectant parents in the hospitals where her children were born. Elly lives in Sydney, Australia with her firefighter husband, their three kidults and an abundance of pets.

Melissa Bartick, MD, MSc, FABM works as a hospitalist at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge MA, is an internist and is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has numerous breastfeeding publications in peer-reviewed journals. She served as the chair of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition from 2002 to 2014, where she was also a founder of Ban the Bags. She served on the Board of Directors of the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2009-2015. She has served on the Board of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine since 2019, where she has coauthored clinical protocols, including the 2020 Bedsharing and Breastfeeding protocol. She was founder of the Breastfeeding Forum of the American Public Health Association, where she served two terms as chair. She is founder and co-chair of her state’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Collaborative. She has blog contributions to the Huffington Post, the WBUR CommonHealth Blog, among others. Dr. Bartick received her BA from the University of Virginia and holds an MSc in Health and Medical Sciences from University of California, Berkeley and an MD from University of California, San Francisco. She works as a hospitalist at Mount Auburn Hospital and is the mother of two grown sons. As of June 2020, she is pursuing an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health.

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 prioritizing 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 Gold Lactation, ILactation Conference and Nurturing The Future.

Justin is a Consultant Paediatrician who has worked in both the UK and Ireland. He has had an interest in Tongue Ties for over 15 years and has created multi-disciplinary pathways of care. He is Medical Director of the National Tongue Tie Centre in County Tipperary, Ireland which he established with Kate Roche, a Chartered Physiotherapist, in 2017. There he and the team provide comprehensive care for infants, children and adults with tethered oral tissues.

Avril is the founder of the Midwife Method - a midwife-led, supportive and educational online program dedicated to empowering all birthing people who want to experience a conscientious and connected pregnancy, birth and transition into parenthood. Who want to learn to thrive in body, mind and spirit and not only feel prepared and informed every step of the way...but loved, supported and guided throughout. This incredible resource is available for busy midwives to count on, to provide for all the educational needs of their clients to have a healthy, joyful and empowering pregnancy, birth and smooth transition into parenthood.

For the past four years, she has loved being an instructor and office manager with Birth Emergency Skills Training® (B.E.S.T.), as well as co-developer of the Online and Hybrid programs. B.E.S.T. is dedicated to improving maternal and fetal outcomes by helping midwives effectively, efficiently, competently and confidently manage emergencies when they arise.

She has been intimately woven into the fabric of serving birthing families since 1998 working at home and in birth centers. Together with her partner, she has home-birthed, home-schooled and raised 3 incredible human beings (18, 24 and 26)!

With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and desire to support a broader population in attaining their health goals, she returned to school, completing a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 2016, then pursued a Family Nurse Practitioner degree at Georgetown University which she was unable to complete due to unforeseen circumstances.

Andrea Dixon, CNM, reveled in birth from an early age, a maternal great aunt (a London homebirth midwife) her inspiration. From NAPSAC in Ann Arbor, MI, apprenticeship in Boulder, CO and graduating CNM from UCSF in 1987, Andrea covered all the bases in midwifery. The sole proprietor of Family Way Educational Services, Weed, CA 1988-Present she has home-birthed families in the largest geographical county in northern California, managed a midwife service for Redding Birth Center, served a hospital-based population in the USVI, WomanCare, in MO and homebirth, birth centers (3) and hospital practices throughout Indiana. Andrea is a long-time instructor of out-of-hospital specific NRP. She developed live B.E.S.T. (Birth Emergency Skills Training) workshops for out of hospital providers, and subsequently, in partnership with Avril Bowens, CPM, HYBRID and ONLINE BEST courses based on Bonnie Urguhart Gruenberg's award winning publication. Homebirth, homeschooling her daughter (now 33 and presently at the CDC), and a midwifery friendly partner of 38 years, have enhanced her life.

Melissa Cole, MS, IBCLC, RLC is a board certified lactation consultant, neonatal oral-motor assessment professional, and clinical herbalist in private practice. Melissa has been passionate about providing comprehensive, holistic lactation support and improving the level of clinical lactation skills for health professionals. She enjoys teaching, researching and writing about wellness and lactation-related topics. Melissa holds a bachelor of science degree in maternal child health and lactation consulting and her master’s work is in therapeutic, clinical herbalism. Melissa actively conducts research and collaborates with several lactation and health care professional associations. 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.