GOLD Speakers

Panel Discussion 2

• Country: GOLD

Biography:

Indira Lopez-Bassols has supported birthing and breastfeeding families for the past 17 years. She has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for 13 years and currently works as a clinician, educator and researcher. As a clinician IBCLC, she has led the Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic (Central London Community Healthcare NHS trust) for complex breastfeeding dyads for the past 6 consecutive years. As the Director of the Centre for Breastfeeding Education and Research, she created 13 years ago the Breastfeeding London Course, a 1 year-long international in-depth training course for HCPs who want to become IBCLCs. She is currently doing Doctoral studies within the Mother, Infant and Child Health research group (MIRU) in the School of Health Sciences at Dundee University. Her PhD examines breastfeeding education for HCPs, the interplay between learning needs and motivation. 

Nikki Lee started as an LPN in 1971, got her RN and BSN, and a graduate degree. She is an author, a teacher, a holistic lactation consultant, a craniosacral therapy practitioner, and a baby body worker (teaching Infant Massage and TummyTime! She is mother to 2 wonderful (breastfed for a long time) daughters, wife to 3 interesting men, only one of whom was the right one for the past 37 years, Rafe!

Her publications include the books, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Breastfeeding Therapy and A Breastfeeding Owner’s Manual; the monographs, “Benefits of Breastfeeding and Their Economic Impact” and “Sexuality and Breastfeeding” and the educational pamphlet “How to help yourself through labor”. She has been the reviews editor for the journal Clinical Lactation, and has worked as the lactation consultant for the division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health since 2006.

Mercedes Thomas is an advanced practice nurse, lactation consultant, writer, and health consultant. She is also the author of the best-selling book What in the Baby?!?: The Modern Mama's Guide to Confidently Caring for Your Baby and Surviving the Postpartum Period, written to help expectant mothers and new parents transition into the new normal of parenthood.

She has been in the nursing field for over a decade. Mercedes completed her undergraduate nursing studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and went on to earn her Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner degree from the University of South Alabama.

In 2020, Mercedes was named the Washington Parent Pick in the category of breastfeeding support. She has also been recognized by the founders of Black Breastfeeding Week as a "brave innovator" in her pursuits to support lactation care and education in her community. Her health articles have also been featured in outlets like Medical News Today, Verywell Health, and GoodRx.

As an extension of her immense passion for supporting parents, Mercedes also created the My Global Family app to connect parents to health and education service providers, reliable resources, and other families worldwide.

In Mercedes' downtime, you can find her globetrotting with her family, and advocating for families to have access to equitable, quality healthcare and breastfeeding services.