GOLD Learning Speakers

Edith Kernerman is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and clinician in Toronto, seeing over 2000 breastfeeding families each year. She is co-founder and President of the International Breastfeeding Centre (IBC), co-founder and Clinic Director of the Newman Breastfeeding Clinic, (NBC), senior faculty at IBC’s Centre for Breastfeeding Studies, and an IBLCE mentor. She is the creator and founder of the International Meeting of the Minds, co-creator of Dr. Jack Newman’s Visual Guide to Breastfeeding, the L-Eat Latch and Transfer Tool; author of GamePlan for Protecting and Supporting Breastfeeding in the First 24 hours of Life and Beyond, and creator of the Pain Algorithm for Sore Nipples and Breasts. Her recent focus has been 1] not yet latching baby, 2] identifying and treating tongue and lip tie, 3] Mammary Constriction Syndrome. Kernerman is also co-founder and President of the Ontario Lactation Consultants Association. Edith Kernerman has 3 wonderful breastfed children.

Effath Yasmin is India's leading Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, an award winning International Board Certified Lactation Consultant & a Documentary Film Maker. She is also an International Speaker, an Author & a Bach Flower Practitioner.

Her special interests lie in Infant Oral, Sucking & Airway Dysfunction, Tongue Tie, Birth Trauma, Craniofacial Development and a range of chronic physical and mental dis-eases & quantum energy phenomenon. She applies these sciences into Life Coaching, Inner Child Healing and Parenting. Her approach stems from fundamental truth of human organism is complete and self-regulatory and treatment & counselling approach is by deep listening & true empathy to mind body and spirit rather than by intervention.

She currently sits on several national & international professional boards.

She has spear-headed & dedicated her life to many projects with a central mission of advocacy, education and awareness for integrative multidisciplinary wellness approach worldwide. Her work has been published in the International Journals & a textbook and she writes extensively on print and digital media on the subjects of Breastfeeding, Tongue Tie, Parenting & Health related subjects.

Her international award winning film 'Untying Breastfeeding' exposes the glaring unseen obstacles to Birth & Breastfeeding & early parenting that can help restore motherhood and has been widely celebrated over 1500 Cities worldwide. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.

Eithne Murray developed a passion for breastfeeding as a result of her own experience as a mother – a passion she did not know she had. She initially trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT in the UK and, upon moving back to Ireland, trained as a breastfeeding counsellor with Cuidiú-the Irish Childbirth Trust, later becoming a tutor. She qualified as an IBCLC in 2009, and worked privately for a while. She now works predominantly in education. This presentation was based on the research undertaken for a dissertation on transition to motherhood as part of her studies for a Masters degree.

Dr Elaine Burns is a Registered Midwife and Senior Lecturer at Western Sydney University and Chair of the NSW Branch of the Australian College of Midwives. Elaine has worked in the area of midwifery and women’s health for more than two decades and has an established track record as clinician, educator and researcher. Her current research interests focus around midwifery practice during the early postnatal period and peer and professional breastfeeding communication. Elaine is passionate about improving support for women who are breastfeeding and the early transition to mothering.

In 2013, I started teaching pharmacology and pharmacotherapy in the Bachelor of Science for Midwifery (VIVES – Kortrijk) as well as in the post-academical course organized by the Flemish Midwives Organization (VBOV). This is a specialty course for midwives to obtain the degree of Prescribing Midwife. Since 2018, I also teach this course at the Karel De Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp.

After completing the Clinical Chemistry Cycle in the Netherlands, I started teaching “laboratory data for first-line healthcare” at the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Care at Ghent University. This class includes various topics, with a personal specialty in anaemia, dose adjustments in renal insufficiency and point-of-care/home testing. At the Free University of Brussels, I teach a class on medication review in the final year of the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Care. During this course we give special attention to implementation strategies to complete this process. During the academic year of 2018-2019, I developed and counselled a new interdisciplinary course at the Ghent University. In de Bachelor of Science of Pharmaceutical Sciences, we introduced a new learning path together with the food and dietetics (Hogeschool Gent).

I am currently part of a project by the Belgian Centre of Pharmacotherapeutic Information, commissioned by the Belgian government. In this project we develop standard dosing strategies for general practitioners and pharmacist to improve rational drug use. Besides, I am an active member of a working group on medication review to implement this service in the Belgian healthcare setting.

Since 2018 I have been a member of the working group. Nutrition in the early years of life" of the Flemish Professional Organization of Midwives. Together with midwives, pediatricians and dietitians, we set up campaigns to give infants the best start in life from an early age. In 2019, the first two manuals I wrote about this theme were also published in this context: Bottle feeding & Breastfeeding. These handbooks will be used at various universities of applied sciences from the 2019 - 2020 academic year. Care providers working in the practice can also purchase these practice-oriented handbooks to support their practice.

Elissa is a passionate osteopath, business owner and mentor.

Elissa has worked as an Osteopath in private practice in Melbourne since graduating in 1998.

She started her own multidisciplinary clinic in 2002, combining osteopathy with, massage, naturopathy, kinesiology and counselling. In 2015 Elissa merged her business with a local podiatrist and started The Balwyn Health Hub.

She is well known for her treatment of children and pregnant women although her patient base also includes a strong focus for; the family unit, the elderly, performers, athletes and the chronically ill. Her special interest in osteopathic diagnostic reasoning often helps patients understand why chronic dysfunctions are not healing.
Elissa's passion for working with pregnant women, babies and children allows close professional relationships with lactation consultants, midwives and doulas which has led to her guest lecturing at a number of multidisciplinary conferences.

Renowned expert Elizabeth Davis has been a midwife, reproductive health care specialist, educator and consultant for over 40 years. She is internationally active in promoting physiologic, undisturbed birth and is widely sought after for her expertise in midwifery education, legislation, and organizational development. She is the author six widely translated books on birth, sexuality, and female psychology, including “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Birth Experience,” “The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life,” and the textbook “Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth,” now in an updated 2019 5th edition (see https://elizabethdavis.com for details). She served as Regional Representative and Education Committee Chair for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), as President of Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and as midwife consultant to the State of California’s Alternative Birthing Methods Study. She is the recipient of the California Association of Midwives’ Brazen Woman Award, and Midwifery Today’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is Co-founder of the MEAC accredited National Midwifery Institute, and author/instructor of Heart & Hands Coursework.

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.

Elizabeth began her career in maternal health in 2000 after earning a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in maternal child nutrition. She accepted a job teaching childbirth education at the University of Utah Hospital and taught for two years before being promoted to the coordinator of that department.

When the hospital decided to begin the journey to become Baby Friendly, Elizabeth was asked to be on that committee and eventually was asked to be the Baby Friendly Coordinator. During this process, it was a natural step for her to earn her IBCLC. Recently Elizabeth was promoted to the manager of the lactation inpatient team in addition to her other responsibilities.

An advocate for maternal health in all areas, Elizabeth serves as the board chair and founding board member for the Mountain West Mothers' Milk Bank. She is the president elect for the International Childbirth Education Association, and the secretary for PSI-Utah. She sits on the University of Utah Perinatal Bereavement Committee, Discharge Quality Committee, and have served on multiple other committees over the years.

She has been married for over thirty years and is the mom of three children. She still has time to pursue other passions such as singing, gardening, exercising, and spending time with her friends and family.

In non-covid times, she can be found on Friday nights calling Bingo for her church and volunteering in other capacities.

Beth is the owner and manager of Mahala Lactation and Perinatal Services and Breastfeeding Center in Northwest NJ. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a NJ licensed Registered Nurse (RN) with a bachelor of science degree in psychology and reproductive biology from Tulane University and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She began her clinical nursing career in pediatric and adolescent medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and now has over 16 years of experience in the areas of reproductive biology, community and mental health, school nursing and maternal/child health.
Beth was a US Peace Corp Volunteer in French-speaking Cameroon, West Africa, where her passion for working with mothers and babies was born. Beth is an accredited La Leche League Leader (since 2006) and has trained as a birth and postpartum doula. She enjoys working with medically diverse mother/infant dyads, training and mentoring lactation consultants and interns. She enjoys writing for breastfeeding publications and speaking professionally, especially internationally, where she has the opportunity to learn about the diversity of breastfeeding experiences and share her knowledge. She also enjoys planning and hosting Mother Blessing ceremonies, an alternative to the traditional "baby shower," where expectant mothers are emotionally supported to explore their instinctive abilities to birth and breastfeed their babies.
Beth is currently attending Georgetown University’s Online Family Nurse Practitioner Program and will graduate in the Spring of 2017. She looks forward to having the privilege of incorporating her lactation expertise with comprehensive primary health care of the whole family.

Dr. Elizabeth Sharpe is a neonatal nurse practitioner and vascular access specialist with over 25 years of experience in Level II and Level III NICUs. She is an Associate Professor Clinical Nursing at The Ohio State University and Specialty Track Director of the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Specialty in the Master of Science Graduate Nursing Program. Her unique contributions focus on education, vascular access, simulation, and harm prevention. She is the coauthor of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) Guideline for Practice: Neonatal Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters, 3rd Edition, and has authored numerous publications. Dr. Sharpe has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN.org) and currently serves as the NANN liaison to the Council of International Neonatal Nurses. She was honored to be named the 1st Janet Pettit Scholar by the Association for Vascular Access (avainfo.org) and a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the National Academies of Practice.

Ellen Chetwynd PhD MPH RN BSN IBCLC is a breastfeeding researcher, lactation consultant, and advocate. Her goal is to provide excellent care that is innovative and effective. Her clinical care is equally informed by, and leads to, her research and collaborations with fellow scientists. She is an advocate of breastfeeding families of all shapes, as well as the providers who care for them. Through her work as Chair of the North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition she has contributed to the statewide work to provide Medicaid reimbursement in North Carolina, successfully funded a project to support clinics seeking to become breastfeeding friendly and increase access to equitable support of breastfeeding, implemented a statewide breastfeeding summit, and created an interactive statewide resource listing for breastfeeding resources at the county level. In her lactation consulting work, she is sought out by parents and clinicians for her work with difficult cases of pain and dysfunctional infant suck. She is a prolific writer, and her research and publications cover topics including breastfeeding and metabolic health, reimbursement for lactation consulting, LGBTQI+ families, and breastfeeding research methodology. She recently created and co-taught a full day workshop on breastfeeding research methods, and gets fired up about the numbers behind what we do to support families. At Next Level Lactation LLC, she and her partners provide advanced lactation educational opportunities.

Ellen is the lactation services manager at Intermountain Healthcare Primary Children’s Hospital. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health Nutrition, is a Registered Dietitian and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Ellen has the unique advantage of using her nutrition knowledge as a lactation consultant. She has a passion for providing human milk for patients with nutritional challenges such as chylothorax and colitis. Her work on fat free human milk is published and has received national review. One of her career goals is to increase knowledge of nurses and healthcare providers regarding human milk immunology and breastfeeding thus improving lactation duration. Ellen has worked with the special needs breastfeeding dyad for the past 20 years at Primary Children’s Hospital to promote breastfeeding and human milk feeding. She designed, set up and manages the Mothers Milk Center at Primary Children’s hospital which opened in 2015. Ellen has presented at local, state and national meetings. She also has experience working at a corporate level with lactation consultants developing breastfeeding policies and protocols as well as lactation education programs for nurses and health care professionals.

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.

Emily Taylor is nationally recognized for leading hospital transformations to advance health, happiness and equity in communities impacted by structural oppression.

As Founder and Director of WISE (Women-Inspired Systems’ Enrichment), Emily currently leads Perinatal Care Quality Improvement Collaboratives throughout the United States. The collaboratives feature equity and social justice, action-oriented knowledge and skill-building, community engagement, and advanced leadership development.

Emily serves as Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee – a coalition of more than 100 organizations that collaboratively drive efforts for policy and practices that create a landscape of breastfeeding support across the United States.

Prior to founding WISE, Emily was Deputy Director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. There, she directed the National Collaborative for Advancing the Ten Steps and other collaborative programs. She also conducted myriad research studies resulting in publication on influence of infant formula marketing, implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, access to donor human milk in the United States, child sexual abuse survivors’ experiences with breastfeeding, and organizational readiness to change.

Emily is currently pursuing her doctorate in Public Health Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the same school from which she earned her Master of Public Health from in 2007. She completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program in 2012, and Tamarack Institute’s “Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact” in 2013.

Her experience as a certified childbirth doula and Lamaze educator and her identity as a woman, feminist, sister, advocate, and equity accomplice continue to inform her work.

Emily Blackmoon (French/British/Algonquin) (She/Her) is a Registered Social Worker and holistic psychotherapist. She has worked for over 10 years as a therapist and case manager specifically within the urban Indigenous community of Toronto, supporting parents, families, children and youth. In 2014 she completed a 4 year training in Gestalt therapy and is now a supervisor. In her therapy practices, Emily combines Anti-Racist. Anti-Oppressive, and Feminist principals of social work with Gestalt therapy and Indigenous worldviews. Emily works with new parents to support them in developing wholistic, empowered and gentle approaches to the pregnancy/parenting journey.

After a career as a primary school teacher and Deputy Headteacher in central London, Emma trained with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, qualifying as a breastfeeding counsellor with them in 2007 and continuing with them as their trustee and chair. Emma first qualified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2011. She has supported families at groups in North London for 14 years as a volunteer and has a small private practice. Her book, “You’ve Got It In You: a positive guide to breastfeeding” was followed by “The Breast Book: a puberty guide with a difference – it’s the when, why and how of breasts” (published by Pinter and Martin). Her articles have been featured in print and online including on the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative website. Her article, 'The dangerous obsession with the infant feeding interval' is her most popular. She has two children and lives in London.

Dr. Eric Kempter is a licensed dental practitioner in the state of North Carolina. He is the Director of Clinical Operations at Kempter Holistic Dentistry. Dr. Kempter, along with his brother Dr. John Kempter, provide a whole-body holistic approach toward dental health. Dr. Eric Kempter is one of few providers of lip and tongue tie releases in North Carolina. Dr. Kempter has helped aid numerous mothers in achieving more comfortable, productive breast feeding for both mothers and their infants.

Dr. Eriko Shinohara is a certified nurse-midwife in Japan. She worked at University hospitals, birth centers, clinics and psychiatric clinics as a midwife. During her career she attended many natural physiological births, especially working at birth a center. After her graduate Ph.D program at St.Luke’s International University, she started her career in research and teaching, she is now Assistant professor at Tokyo Healthcare University.

I am a Clinical Psychologist and transformation coach for women. I’ve also taught childbirth education. I have 12+ years experience supporting families through the worst traumas imaginable, to find growth, strength and beautiful resilience they never knew possible. After experiencing my own birth trauma (twice!) I quickly learned how little support and training there is for our birth workers who hear and witness these stories every day. From this, I developed two birth trauma training courses – one for parents, and one for birth workers. I gained over 650 enrolments in 3 months, so I know how much this work is needed. I also run a birth trauma training podcast, and I’m currently finishing writing my book. A beautiful, heartfelt call to action for families to not only find strength and growth after birth trauma, but to become the guardians of change in birth culture for the next generation.

Erin is a Parent Educator in Ottawa, Canada and the mother of four young adults, including twins. After working in the area of community mental health as a Registered Social Service Worker, she jumped into Prenatal and Parenting education with the Ottawa Childbirth Education Association where she has been designing and providing classes for expectant parents, grandparents, and families expecting multiples for the last 20 years. She divides her time between teaching a class called Bringing Baby home to expectant parents, Normal Infant Sleep classes and working as a Postpartum Doula. In 2018 she returned to school to complete her M.ed for Healthcare Professionals.

Gina has been assisting breastfeeding mothers for over 20 years, and now through telehealth all over the world. She knows that while most pregnant mothers expect to breastfeed, very few receive proper preparation for the difficulties and the rollercoaster of emotions when there are problems.

When Gina had her first baby, like many new mothers she was overwhelmed by conflicting information: at the hospital, the pediatrician’s, and from well-meaning friends and family.

Her appreciation of the volunteer support she received led her to want to “pay it forward” and help others. She first trained as a volunteer LLL Leader in Houston, Texas, then as a birth doula in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and finally sat for the exam to become an IBCLC in Seville, Spain. She continues to lead monthly breastfeeding support meetings online and in-person.

Gina believes that all mothers deserve quality emotional and educational support. It should not be just a matter of good luck. She's dedicated to giving effective guidance and caring support with real results. Her greatest satisfaction is the joy of seeing that look on both mothers’ and babies’ faces that says: Just what I always wanted!

Evelyne Ruf is a family physician from France, and an International Board Lactation Consultant (since 1993). More than 25 years ago, she shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), working for the Ministry of Health, in Sharjah MCH Center. She opened there the first Lactation Clinic in the UAE, with the support of volunteers from Breastfeeding Friends (BFF), which she had co-founded. Five years ago, the Lactation Clinic has been shifted to the Family Health Promotion Center, where it continues to offer, to a very cosmopolitan population, skilled lactation support as well as assessment and release of tethered oral tissues.

A member of the National Breastfeeding Committee, Evelyne has been involved in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative as a lecturer, trainer, adviser and assessor. Her workplace became the first Baby-Friendly Health Center in the UAE and received the IBCLC Care Award (community category) in 2015.

She has also been actively involved in the Sharjah Baby-Friendly Emirate Campaign, a multi-sectorial initiative launched in 2012, and presented its achievements during Gold Lactation 4 years ago.

With her husband of 34 years, she is the proud and grateful mother of 5 grown-up breastfed children and the grandmother of 4 breastfed little ones.

Dr Evita Fernandez, an obstetrician with three decades of experience, a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is presently the Chairperson of the Fernandez Foundation under whose banner, the 72 year old Fernandez Hospital is managed. She strongly believes in empowering women to make choices, about issues surrounding birth. She is a strong supporter of respectful maternity care and in 2011 launched the Professional Midwifery Education and Training Programme which initiated the campaign PROMISE (PROfessional MIdwifery SErvices) – committed to creating a national cadre of professional midwives, vital to the care and delivery of low-risk pregnant women. Fernandez Hospital is now recognized as a national training institute for midwifery educators. With her keen interest in academics, Fernandez Hospital with 10,000 births a year has evolved into a teaching hospital. A prolific speaker, Dr Evita has received several awards for her efforts in enhancing quality care to women of all age groups.