​2022 Conference Awardees 

Each year the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) offers a limited number of awards to support the participation of cultural, tribal, and emerging breastfeeding leaders at the National Breastfeeding Conference and Convening (NBCC). These awards are one component of USBC ongoing efforts to recognize and promote the efforts of individuals who dedicate their service to communities with breastfeeding rates below the U.S. national average rates. Congratulations to all of the awardees! Scroll down to meet them!

Emerging Leader Awardees

Emerging Leader awardees are individuals who are new or aspiring leaders in the breastfeeding field and must provide lactation protection, promotion, or support services in their community or be active members of a state, territorial, tribal, local, or cultural breastfeeding coalition in the United States.

Chenae Marie Graves, Maryland

Chenae Marie is one of Baltimore's most committed breastfeeding/maternal mental health advocates. Chenae is the author of "Breastfeeding Mamas," an adult coloring book that was created to educate, inspire, and normalize breastfeeding amongst black mothers and mothers-to-be. Chenae specializes in educating on the importance of maternal mental health, breastfeeding, and eradicating the cultural stigmas surrounding breastfeeding. Chenae's honest, no-nonsense approach, along with a blend of humor and sharp wit, makes her a sought out speaker and workshop presenter for professionals and parents. Chenae was exposed to unsettling ridicule for breastfeeding after a picture of her breastfeeding her daughter went viral. Chenae quickly realized her power and just how much her personal experience could empower women/mothers to embrace the art and beauty of breastfeeding. Chenae has had the honor of working/partnering with doulas, midwives, lactation specialists, WIC association, Mississippi Public Health Institute/Breastfeeding Coalition, as well as many mothers and mothers-to-be. ​

Jennie Toland, ​Kansas

Jennie Toland, a registered nurse and Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC), is a former board member of and current Co-Executive of the Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition. Her nursing experience in OB, NICU, and public health fueled a passion for helping chest/breastfeeding families. Working with diverse populations who have been historically underserved and/or underrepresented as they navigated health care gave her a front row seat to barriers to families optimizing their health. Her personal experiences breastfeeding her children for various durations using multiple modalities made it clear to her how support and education are critical in achieving fulfilling breastfeeding journeys. She hopes to expand perspectives and focus on families first as she collaborates to support breastfeeding.

Shatoria Townsend, Michigan

​Shatoria Townsend is a Public Health Practitioner. Shatoria originally began this work as an individual who admired the magic of pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. After her own experiences as a black birthing person, Shatoria learned first hand how broken the system was for black and brown persons. Her multiple experiences catapulted her into working within the education and advocacy sector for maternal and infant health. She became a Certified Lactation Counselor, Childbirth Educator, Birth and Postpartum Doula in efforts to not only reclaim traditional practices of birth and breastfeeding, but to inform families of all the resources they have access to and desirable birth outcomes are indeed possible. 

Cultural Changemaker Awardees

Cultural Changemaker awardees are individuals who are actively involved in collaborative efforts to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding in culturally distinct communities through service to a cultural coalition or community-based organization and are members of the cultural group that they serve.

Joyea Marshall-Crowley, Kansas

Joyea Marshall-Crowley is the Program Coordinator for the KBC “Protect Yourself, Protect Your Baby” COVID vaccination program. She is a certified breastfeeding specialist (CBS) and breastfeeding coalition coordinator for the Wichita Black Breastfeeding Coalition. Her goal is to make breastfeeding normal and empower women at all stages of their journey. Her passion for breastfeeding began with her journey. As a first-generation black breastfeeding mom, she realized how difficult it was to get proper support and education in her community. Since then, her passion has shined through by being an advocate and educator for women of color to reach their own breastfeeding goals and provide the support they need.

Tonya Lang, California

Tonya Lang is a Co-Founder of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Lactation Collaborative of California. She serves as Chair of the Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Task Force (ASAP!) and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Alameda County Breastfeeding Coalition in Northern California. She received her MPH in Health Promotion/Disease Prevention from The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Tonya has public health experience at both the federal and local levels, and experience working with AANHPI communities at the national and local levels. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, a Certified Health Education Specialist, and has supported chest/breastfeeding and human milk feeding families for the past 17 years as a La Leche League Leader in Oakland, CA.

Carmen Valverde, Kansas

My name is Carmen Valverde and I live in Dodge City, Kansas. I was brought over to the USA from Mexico at the age of 7 years old. My parents came here looking for a better life for our family. I was undocumented from the age of 7-18. This was one of the fuels that have gotten me to where I am today. I am very grateful for the efforts and sacrifices my parents made so that I could be here and have the opportunities that I have now. 
As a child,  I always dreamed of working in healthcare as a nurse. While in nursing school, I realized that even though I was extremely intrigued by the human body and how we could heal,  this was not the area that I was being called to work in. When I started having my own children, this was when I got on the path to my true passion. After having an unnecessary induction that ended in a c-section and struggling to find a provider that would support me in a VBAC, I saw the gap that needed to be filled in Southwestern Kansas.  Once I accomplished my VBAC, I learned what a doula was and I set off to train as soon as I could. Along the way, I joined the Ford County Breastfeeding Coalition and Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition and started helping and learning in-depth about breastfeeding. With the Kansas Breastfeeding Coalitions' support and guidance, Lactancia Latina en el Suroeste de Kansas was started in 2020. The KBC also helped me achieve my CLC certification. 
Apart from birth and breastfeeding work, I am also a part-time family advocate for a child advocacy center that serves children in Southwestern Kansas. At the child advocacy center we do forensic interviews for children that have witnessed a crime or have been victims of a crime. We deal with physical and sexual abuse but our main focus is sexual abuse. Even though it seems like this is something totally different to the work that I do with breastfeeding and birth, it is not. They actually go hand in hand. Children that have been victims grow up to be the adults that are having their own children and it affects the way go about pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.