Lactation & Breastfeeding Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD, IBCLC, FAPA, is a health psychologist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the Owner and Editor-in-Chief of Praeclarus Press, a small press specializing in women's health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett is Editor-in-Chief of two peer-reviewed journals: Clinical Lactation and Psychological Trauma. She is Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Health and Trauma Psychology and Past President of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology. Dr. Kendall-Tackett specializes in women's-health research including breastfeeding, depression, trauma, and health psychology, and has won many awards for her work including the 2017 President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association’s Division of Trauma Psychology. Dr. Kendall-Tackett has authored more than 460 articles or chapters and is author or editor of 38 books.

Amy Brown, PhD, Professor, 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.

Nekisha Killings, MPH, IBCLC, LLLL, is an experienced marketer, writer, equity strategist, and international board certified lactation consultant. After spending years in consumer-packaged goods marketing and community partnership building, followed by a decade of public relations and ghostwriting, she found her life’s work in lactation support and maternal and child health equity through her personal experiences with birth and breastfeeding. Nekisha contributed the chapter on Cultural Humility in the latest Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Care. She acts as equity strategist for lactation-related organizations that seek to better reach underserved communities. Recently, she co-founded Nikki & Nikki: Lactation Career Consultants, an organization dedicated to equipping aspirants of color to sit the IBCLC exam. In addition to being spouse to an active duty United States Air Force member, Nekisha also homeschools three little future world changers and enjoys writing and research on the impact of historical trauma on families’ breastfeeding experiences today.

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.

Bianca Balassiano has been working with families in private practice since 2008 as an IBCLC and perinatal psychologist/maternal-child health specialist. As a natural consequence of her professional background, has supported breastfeeding families into achieving individual goals while maintaining mental health and stimulating a holistic look towards the subject. Since 2014 is also working as an educator for healthcare professionals in one of the most recognized breastfeeding courses in Brazil, currently offering virtual classes and all over the country. Lives with husband and two children in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2020, she launched her first book aimed at families with the title "Gradual Weaning: How to Bring Your Breastfeeding Story to a Happy End".

Dixie Whetsell, MS, IBCLC, has a Master’s Degree in Community Health Education from the University of Oregon. She began working with breastfeeding families in 1992 and became an IBCLC in 1998. She has worked as a lactation consultant in a variety of settings including private practice, county and state public health programs and high risk maternal and pediatric hospitals. She began teaching lactation training courses in 2003 and is currently an adjunct faculty member teaching in the Pathway 2 Lactation Training Program in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health at Portland State University. She is a past presenter for the GOLD Perinatal Conference. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the US Lactation Consultant Association and the International Lactation Consultant Association. She was a founding Board Member for Northwest Mothers Milk Bank, a HMBANA non-profit donor milk bank.

Lisa Gonzales, BSN, RN, IBCLC earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Linfield College. She started her nursing career as a Labor and Delivery nurse at a Level III OB hospital in 2006. After having her first baby, Lisa pursued lactation education and became an IBCLC in 2013. She made full career change in 2015 to become a lactation nurse in a high risk maternity and pediatric hospital, providing inpatient and outpatient consults to growing families. She is an active member of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, the US Lactation Consultant Association and the International Lactation Consultant Association. Lisa currently helps families during in-home visits with her private practice.

Jessica Lee is a Staff Attorney at the Center for WorkLife Law, and co-founder of the Center’s Nursing Mothers Law Project. She works to advance gender equality in the workplace and in education, and is a nationally recognized expert on discrimination related to pregnancy and breastfeeding. Lee has provided know-your-rights resources and training on workplace supports for breastfeeding to thousands of healthcare providers, public health practitioners, and employers. She also seeks to prevent discrimination by working with institutions to draft and implement family-responsive policies.

Lee’s writing has been featured in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review and The Chronicle of Higher Education to the journals Breastfeeding Medicine and Midwifery and Women’s Health. She is a co-author of the study, Exposed: Discrimination Against Breastfeeding Workers.

Kathy Parkes is a sought-after speaker and webinar presenter as well as a published author. She has lived all over the world, settling in San Antonio, Texas after her Air Force husband retired. Kathy is a Registered Nurse with a Masters in Nursing Education and received her International Board Certified Lactation Consultant designation in 1992. Her private practice, Breastfeeding Perspectives, adds to her over 30 years of lactation experiences, which include WIC staff and clients, in-patient hospital work on L&D, postpartum, and NICU, taking a hospital to Baby-Friendly designation, setting up a lactation visitation program for both a home health agency and for the largest birth doula organization in San Antonio, and providing home and office lactation visits for private clients. She specializes in tethered oral tissues (tongue-and-lip ties), milk supply problems, multiples, and preterm/late preterm infants.
On the fun side, Kathy met her husband of 47 years as she was jumping out of the airplane he was flying. (You could say she fell for him!) She loves animals, traveling, and gardening. Most of all, she loves teaching others about breastfeeding.

Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC is Joint Coordinator of the UK Steering Group of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). In 2017 she and Clare Meynell IBCLC jointly received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Breastfeeding from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB), for leading the UK’s first WBTi assessment of infant feeding policies and programmes.

Helen is an international speaker on ethics and conflicts of interest. She represents La Leche League of Great Britain on the UK Baby Feeding Law Group, which works to bring the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes into UK law. She is also Policy and Advocacy Lead for Lactation Consultants of Great Britain, and previously co-chaired LCGB’s Communications Team.

Helen’s background in anthropology and human evolution has influenced her interest in how breastfeeding, and the way we nurture our babies, are influenced by both human biology and culture.

Her current advocacy focus is the need for strong policies to protect infant feeding in emergencies. She currently serves on the Advisory Panel for a London Food Resilience research project with Oxford University.

In her spare time, she can be found sculling on the River Thames.

Tomoko Seo is a pediatrician and IBCLC in Japan, working in a private clinic with colleagues including IBCLCs who practice's general pediatrics and breastfeeding medicine. She became certified as an IBCLC in 1999 and recertified in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. She is a member of the Japanese Association of Lactation Consultants (JALC) since 1999, when it was founded. JALC has been holding conferences several times a year, including the “Annual Breastfeeding Seminar for Physicians” since 2005 to provide breastfeeding education to physicians and improve breastfeeding support among physicians. Tomko has been a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) since 1999. She is also an active member of the International, Protocol, Education, Conference, Membership Committees of ABM.

Tamara Drenttel Brand holds an MA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the American University of Beirut. She spent 10 years in the Middle East, where she worked as a public health practitioner, infant and maternal health consultant and an IBCLC. She has supported breastfeeding dyads from all over the world both in private practice and as a volunteer. In 2011, she founded and still actively facilitates “Mama 2 Mama Beirut Breastfeeding Support,” the largest breastfeeding peer support network in the Middle East (currently at 25k+ members). Additionally, she founded Galactablog, a professional group for lactation specialists and those aspiring-to-be (currently at 4.7k+ members) and has authored several articles for La Leche League’s monthly leader publications in both the Middle East and Ireland.

She is currently an international speaker on the topics dealing with breastfeeding in the Middle East, innovative lactation teaching strategies, working in resource-scarce settings, providing culturally sensitive lactation support, developing and implementing peer counselor training programs, mast cell disease and other related topics. Due to her own chronic health conditions, she has a special interest in educating others about mast cell disease and supporting those with chronic illnesses. She currently resides in a seaside village in Ireland with her family.

I am a wife and mother of two breastfed children. I was a general practitioner and am currently more focused on helping mothers to breastfeed. I work at Puri Cinere Hospital and Kemang Medical Care Women and Children as a lactation counselor. I currently on leave due to accompany my husband school in United State for his PhD programs. Since 2009, I've been helping mothers who have difficulties breastfeeding. It is a delight when we meet during tough times, then met again once their breastfed child are big and smart, and most importantly successfully breastfed. My desire is to help mothers to breastfed wherever I live in this world.