Molly Pessl
Molly is a registered nurse, childbirth educator and IBCLC. She has spent most of her 60+ year nursing career with a focus on family-centered maternity care. After 5 years as a health educator, clinician and lactation consultant for a hospital midwifery service, Molly moved to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. During her years there, Molly developed comprehensive parent and professional education programs, a regional breastfeeding center, a postpartum follow-up clinic and Baby-Parent Groups. These programs led to the first US designation of “Baby Friendly” by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Molly served on the US Breastfeeding Committee and the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and is a past president of that board. Molly is currently the owner/director of Evergreen Perinatal Education, a consulting and education program for health professionals.
Sharon Perrella
Sharon Perrella is a research fellow at the Geddes Hartmann Human Lactation Research Group at The University of Western Australia and works as a IBCLC at One For Women. Sharon has an extensive clinical background in neonatal nursing, and experience as a peer breastfeeding counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association.
She has a special interest in preterm breastfeeding, and milk production. Since being awarded a PhD in 2015 Sharon has used ultrasound and intraoral vacuum measurement to examine sucking dynamics and suck-swallowbreathe coordination, while her current work focuses on the identification and management of women at risk of reduced breastfeeding duration.
Helen Ball
Helen Ball is professor of anthropology and director of the Infancy & Sleep Centre (DISC) at Durham University. She founded Basis, the Baby Sleep Information Source in 2012 as an outreach project of DISC, and was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further & Higher Education in 2018. Her research examines the sleep ecology of infants and their parents including attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological interactions of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural and biological sleep needs. She conducts research in hospitals, the community, and her lab, and she contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care. She is a board member of the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths (ISPID), chair of the Scientific Committee for the Lullaby Trust, and qualifications board member for Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, and associate editor for the journal, Sleep Health.
Julie Stufkens
Julie has worked in dietetics for over 30 years, and was awarded a Medal of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009 for her services in New Zealand to dietetics and Paediatric nutrition.
She is the New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority’s (NZBA) Executive Officer and has overseen the development of the World Health Organization/UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiatives in New Zealand since it began in 1999.
Julie represents New Zealand at the International BFHI Coordinators for Industrialized Countries meeting and is the International Coordinator for their BFHI Country Network.
Rachel McDonald
Rachel qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor in the ACT in 1995. After 5 years of practice as a litigation lawyer with the Commonwealth Government, Rachel had her first baby and joined the Australian Breastfeeding Association. Rachel qualified as a Breastfeeding Counsellor in 2003. The legal issues of breastfeeding have interested Rachel since she became a breastfeeding mother, particularly the issues of breastfeeding in public, breastfeeding at work, family law and the regulation of the marketing of artificial breastmilk substitutes. Rachel’s PhD concerns the regulation and legislation of issues concerning breastfeeding. Rachel aims to publish a book addressing these issues.
Nikk Conneman
Nikk Conneman is on staff as a pediatrician-neonatologist at Eramusmc-Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He has both clinical and outpatient responsibilities.
His main objective is to further change the caregiving model from a systems’ driven, to an individualized family and patient centred developmental care model.
Nikk is also a senior NIDCAP Trainer and Director of the Sophia NIDCAP Training Centre. He has NIDCAP trained NICU professionals and guided NICU’s all over the world towards a more family and patient centred developmental care approach.
Diana Cassar-Uhl
Diana Cassar-Uhl is passionate about being an agent for change, Diana is a frequent presenter at breastfeeding education events.
Many of her areas of expertise stem from her own experiences, which she sought to understand and raise awareness of for other mothers. Whether the topic is cultural, such as breastfeeding in the military, or technical, like breastfeeding with insufficient glandular tissue, Diana’s enthusiasm and passion for educating shine through in her presentations.
Having begun studies toward a Master of Public Health in 2011, Diana looks forward to a career in maternal/child health. Diana, mother to three breastfed children, served as a clarinetist on active U.S. Army duty from 1995-2012.