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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 or click a quick link to meet them. |
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Robbie Gonzalez-Dow (MPH, RDN, CLE) is the founding executive director of the California Breastfeeding Coalition. Believing policy drives system and environmental changes to support broad lactation support, she's spent the past 25 years spearheading collaborative efforts in California to strengthen lactation rights and to support the protection of those rights. She's worked with the California WIC Association and WIC Program. She's started local coalitions and has helped to bring lactation education and support to parts of California with the lowest breastfeeding rates. All the while, she's set the example for providing a platform to those who have been historically ignored and dismissed. Through California's Lactation Action Network, she's created training opportunities to advocates throughout the state, so they can develop their own relationships with elected officials and work to protect, promote and support lactation in their own communities.
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Keyra Peraza is a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist and Prenatal Health Educator in SW Washington state. She is a champion advocate and leader for supporting, promoting and protecting breastfeeding in an online support group "Black Breastfeeding Mamas Circle Group'' which aims to provide evidence based information and education for black birthing and lactating parents. As a board member of SW WA Healthy Families Coalition, Keyra is involved in the coalition's first ever BIPOC/LGBTQ+ equity scholarship development for future IBCLCs and conference and event planning at a local county level. Keyra Peraza graduated from Florida International University in Miami, Florida with a bachelors in Psychology. Prior to her work in lactation, she taught biological, physical and chemical sciences in secondary institutions. She is the co-owner, alongside her husband Joe, of Peraza Visuals specializing in photography and videography. After having her daughter, Arya Capri, in the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keyra has devoted herself to pursuing a career in lactation and maternal healthcare. After completing over 500 supervised clinical hours, Keyra is set to sit for the IBCLC exam this Fall.
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Maret Wachira is a passionate International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) that has worked with the Tampa Bay Breastfeeding Task Force for over 6 years. Her deep passions draw from her years of working with the Florida Department of Health and her breastfeeding journey with her 2 children. She is currently the only IBCLC serving families in Citrus County, where she leads breastfeeding and chestfeeding promotion efforts and provides lactation support services within the hospitals and to all families in Citrus County. Maret also operates a county-wide infant feeding support line to help families through a variety of infant feeding challenges. Her unique position within the local health department allows for program development that enhanced services for pregnant people dealing with substance use disorder. She is a full-time student at the University of South Florida working towards her Master's in Public Health (MPH) degree. She teaches and presents at seminars, community gatherings, and as an invited subject matter expert on everything from breastfeeding to breast care to substance exposed newborns.
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Ora Nez, IBC, CLE, Doula is Mą’iideeshgiizhnii (Coyote Pass Clan) born for Ta’neeszahnii (Tangle Clan). Born and residing in Fort Defiance, Arizona with her husband and five children, she is a long-term breastfeeding mother who has breastfed each of her children for over three years. Her hobbies included gardening, canning, soap-making, quilting, baking, coaching, and learning to be an indigenous knowledge keeper. Ora is employed with the Navajo Nation WIC Nutrition Program as a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor. She has been with the program for over 15 years, providing breastfeeding education to prenatal and postpartum women. She is an active member of the Navajo Nation Breastfeeding Coalition, the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, and the Arizona Breastfeeding Coalition. She participates in meetings with the Northern Arizona Lactation Alliance, and the Four Corners Chapter of the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force. She strives to provide outreach support of local resources for the families she serves by taking classes, webinars, and attending meetings that encompass the whole family’s needs such as participating in the First Thing First program, Parenting Classes, etc.
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Ashley Sayers is Turtle Clan, Ojibwe, a mother of six, a full-time student, and an IBCLC serving Southern California in person & internationally via Telehealth. She is the current chair of Kitsap County Breastfeeding Coalition and the creator of a cohort scholarship/mentorship to produce ten new breastfeeding specialists from marginalized communities for the Kitsap community. She has a passion for promoting, protecting, & supporting the generational benefits of breastfeeding. Ashley feels that any amount of human milk offers so much beyond nutrition, and that we have a responsibility to increase access for all families who want it. Her goal is to make lactation care accessible and to empathetically support families through their feeding journey- however that feels best for them!
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Lucy Lugo Tyrala has devoted her career to maternal child health. Her experience spans from the hospital arena, working in labor and delivery and post-partum to Home Visiting field work supporting first time parents as a Public Health Nurse with Nurse Family Partnership, an evidenced based program offered in multiple states as well as other countries. She provided breastfeeding assistance and skilled technical management of barriers to successful breast/chest feeding including c-section, preterm birth, mastitis, diabetes, substance use disorders etc. Lucy also has the lived experience of having breastfed her own two children, which was quite humbling. Even with all the “knowledge and experience” a nurse, lactation consultant or other healthcare provider can possess; our babies have so much to teach us.
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Kelly Murphy Andruk is a perinatal professional, starting out as a doula, childbirth educator and CLC then working her way to becoming a IBCLC. During her studies in public health Kelly felt a connection with the SUD population due to the inequity of care regarding feeding and mental health support. She has created a specialized care model for the current SUD program at her hospital to include prenatal lactation education, consults and early feeding specialist referrals for the postpartum period. Feeding and Bonding is a public health program striving to connect established federal programs such as WIC and Early Intervention with inpatient hospital services to better serve this population as well as increase breastfeeding rates to improve developmental delays from birth. Kelly is working on her masters in mental health counseling with a focus in trauma and addiction to achieve optimal measures of the Feeding and Bonding model.
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