EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Becky Mannel, MPH, IBCLC, FILCA, President
Becky has worked in lactation for over 20 years. She developed and managed the hospital-wide lactation service at OU Medical Center for 15 years and is currently Director of the Oklahoma Breastfeeding Resource Center in the Department of OB/GYN at OU Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) and Executive Director for the Oklahoma Mothers’ Milk Bank. She leads the Becoming Baby-Friendly in Oklahoma project sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH). Becky also developed and oversees the Oklahoma Breastfeeding Hotline and provides professional training/education to all Oklahoma hospitals to improve their breastfeeding care and outcomes, both OSDH-funded projects.
As a faculty member at OUHSC, she has developed a variety of curricula from a half-day basic orientation course to a 2-day course taught to health department home visiting staff. Becky has lectured to physicians, residents and medical students and provides regular medical student lectures. She developed a month-long elective rotation in lactation for Pediatric residents which was formally approved by the ACGME Pediatric Residency Review Committee. Becky collaborated with OSDH/WIC to develop the WIC Clinical Lactation Preceptorship which continues annually. She developed the first formal clinical training in Oklahoma for aspiring lactation consultants, a 6-month program approved by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. Becky has presented at state, national and international professional conferences numerous times and her education courses have been attended by a wide variety of health care professionals including nurses, physicians, dietitians, physical and occupational therapists, childbirth educators and lactation consultants.
Amy Vickers, MSN, RN, IBCLC, Immediate Past President
Amy Vickers has worked as the executive director of Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas since it was founded in 2004. Under her direction, the milk bank has grown to serve more than 130 NICUs and dispense more than 4.5 million ounces of donor human milk from more than 7,500 donors. Amy has participated in and published research related to the use of donor human milk. She is an RN with a Master’s degree in nursing and healthcare leadership and has a certificate in non-profit leadership from Southern Methodist University and the Center for Nonprofit Management. Prior to her position at the milk bank, Amy was a NICU nurse, childbirth educator, and lactation consultant. Amy has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1998 and has written exam questions for the IBLCE exam.
Summer Kelly, MS, RN, IBCLC, Treasurer
As a nurse, lactation consultant, childbirth educator, and researcher, Summer is passionate about the amazing bioactive properties in human milk. She holds a BSN from Rush University and a MS in Biology from Northeastern Illinois University. In 2011, Summer helped develop the first donor human milk hospital program in a Chicago-area Level III neonatal intensive care unit. In 2017, Summer and the research team developed the milk bank’s in-house microbiology laboratory, Lennon’s Lab.
Roseanne Reed-Motti, BA, MFA, CLC, Secretary
Roseanne is a founder and current Director of Community Relations at The New York Milk Bank. She has over five years experience managing everything from the daily operations at the milk bank to establishing their social media presence and pioneering a volunteer baby blanket campaign for babies in need. As a former La Leche League leader and as a mother who nursed her four children, Roseanne has over 20 years experience supporting women in managing their breastfeeding goals. She is a former milk donor who is dedicated to making safe pasteurized donor milk available to every baby who needs it. Roseanne is CLC and a board member of The New York Statewide Breastfeeding Coalition where she works on a committee to provide IBCLC scholarships to women who belong to and serve marginalized communities. Roseanne earned an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Thomas Aquinas College.
DIRECTORS AT LARGE
Kiersten Israel-Ballard, MPH, DrPH
Kiersten Israel-Ballard, DrPH, is Team Lead for PATH’s Maternal Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition program and Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. She has over 15 years of experience in assessing and supporting methods for optimal infant and young child feeding. Her work has largely focused on conceptualizing appropriate infant feeding methods for vulnerable infants in developing countries, including HIV affected infants. In her current role, Dr. Israel-Ballard leads the human milk initiative at PATH. This has included developing an integrated newborn nutrition model, establishing global teams for working with local governments to ensure sustainable implementation, conducting advocacy for human milk banking as a cost-effective strategy for improving health of vulnerable infants, establishing a global technical advisory group, leading rigorous evaluations to determine impact, and developing innovative human milk banking technologies for resource-limited settings. She has also led programs to support implementation of nutrition programs for local governments and partners and focuses on innovative approaches to improve infant health through identifying and assessing the feasibility of novel technologies. She has considerable international experience, working at all health levels in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Vietnam and India.
Jannette Festival, RN, BN, IBCLC
As the founding executive director, I have always believed there is a community-based solution to support sick and fragile babies. As a labour and delivery nurse at the Foothills hospital, I’ve seen the transformational impact of donor human milk in the NICU and I remain convinced that all babies should have ready access to the life-saving benefits of donor human milk. I am as passionate about milk banking today as I have been since we opened our doors in 2012. Seeing the impact of this milk, the spirit of giving that stems from our selfless donors and the gratitude from our recipient families is a testament to the community of NorthernStar.
Angela Love Zaranka, BA, IBCLC, RLC
Angela brings thirty years of experience in lactation support, clinical care, education, and leadership. She is a tireless advocate for improved maternal-child health practices at the local, national and global level. Working in a community, private practice and hospital setting, she sees the barriers people face in access to pasteurized donor human milk. Angela acknowledges her privilege as a white woman living in the US. Her mother was born weighing less than two pounds and received PDHM. She is grateful for all the women whose generosity of milk donation, saved her mother’s life.
Sarah Taylor, MD, MSCR
Dr. Sarah Taylor is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine. She directs Yale Neonatal Clinical Research and leads the Yale Neonatal NOuRish team which specializes in health outcomes research related to maternal and infant nutrition. In addition to her research, Sarah is an advocate for mother and infant nutrition including equitable access to donor human milk. In 2013, Sarah lead the South Carolina Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Collaborative’s initiative to provide donor human milk as an available supplement to mother’s milk for all hospitalized, very low birth weight infants in the state. To achieve this goal, Sarah established the Mother’s Milk Bank of South Carolina in 2015. Sarah now serves on the Medical Advisory Board for Mother’s Milk Bank Northeast
Janina Daniels, MHSA, CPSTI
Diana Derige, DrPh
Mona Liza Hamlin, MSN, RN, IBCLC
Rebecca Heinrich, BA, CLC
Ngoc Kouzmitch, BS
