We are proud to announce the 2020 recipients of our Lactation Educator Specialist Program 1 and Program 2 Scholarships! These individuals will either become Lactation Education Specialists and/or receive additional intensive instruction in preparation to sit for their IBCLC licensing exam to become lactation consultants.
Meet the recipients
Ruta Lauleva Aiono
UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity & UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Community Seed Grant Program
Ruta Lauleva Aiono is a Teine Samoa (she / they) representing her family from Fasito’o-Uta & Malie in Samoa as well as San Francisco. Her life is dedicated to serving and uplifting her people in the work of remembering our customs and connection to the land / sea / sky as a means to heal and grow. She currently works with M.A.N.A. Pasefika, a community based doula organization that provides care to Pacific Islander families birthing in San Francisco and is looking forward to incorporating lactation support into her skill set and can already see these ripples growing into a tide of change that brings health, joy and strength to all Pacific peoples.
Cristina L. Carlos
General Scholarship Fund
Cristina is a third generation Angelino, with strong east side roots. Cristina’s parents, who were raised in East LA and Boyle Heights, kept her mindful and connected to her Mexican heritage. Cristina’s professional experiences kept her grounded to the culturally rich but underserved communities of LA, always engaged with women’s and infant health. Most recently, Cristina has been fortunate to become involved with the development of a dynamic 5 woman partnership committed to perinatal health named New Familia Health Support Services, located in lovely Lincoln Heights (not too far from where her father grew up). As a health educator and mother of two breastfed children, Cristina’s passion for breastfeeding has taken a new direction and now calls her to higher pursuits. She thanks Breastfeed LA for this opportunity to rise up.
Maile Chand
UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity & UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Community Seed Grant Program
Maile Chand is a mother, birth worker, and community researcher. Maile is inspired, as a woman of color and as a parent, by how resilient black and brown mothers are in birthing and raising our future generations. Although institutional racism targets our communities on the daily, we always continue to thrive and multiply. Being born and raised in the Bay Area has instilled in Maile the essence of community and how to be the action for change. She encourages, empowers, and supports families in creating a strong foundation for their children that goes beyond their birth experience.
Katherine Conchada
UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity & UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Community Seed Grant Program
Katherine Conchada is a mother, community organizer, activist, doula, and currently works full-time at an institution of public education. Her passion is in serving and empowering women and families of color in her community. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2010 with a Bachelor’s in Peace & Conflict Studies, Katherine traveled throughout Southeast Asia, volunteering with various non-governmental organizations, and also spent time living in the Philippines, where her parents migrated from and most of her extended family still resides. Katherine returned to her hometown of Long Beach, CA in 2014 to raise her daughter in the community where she grew up. As a single mother, she understands the importance and necessity of collective care and hopes to embody this not only through her organizing work, but also in a future career as an IBCLC.
Sarah Ferguson
General Scholarship Fund
Sarah Ferguson is a Reproductive Harm Reductionist, full spectrum doula, placenta encapsulator, and community educator serving the Los Angeles area. Her practice seeks to combat reproductive health disparities, maternal mortality, and reduce trauma in the birth and postpartum periods for her clients. Sarah has been trained in a wide variety of birth and postpartum techniques, and works with families of all sizes and backgrounds. Sarah is committed to improving birth outcomes for her whole community. Sarah is comfortable supporting all outcomes of pregnancy, including conventional parenthood, surrogacy, adoption, abortion, loss, and folks who are unsure about their journey. She is also a trained facilitator; as an active member of the birth community, she places an emphasis on cultural competency and education. Curating spaces and programming dedicated to health promotion in marginalized communities is a large part of Sarah’s role, and continues to be one of her favorite parts of her career!
Chieh Lyla Hsu
UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity & UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Community Seed Grant Program
Chieh is a BBS-registered associate professional clinical counselor and facilitates pregnancy and postpartum support groups (in both English and Mandarin) at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in California. She is passionate about working with pregnant women in their parenthood journey. Born and raised in Taiwan, Chieh also recognizes immigrant families’ unique challenges in new parenthood and infant feeding, for example, language barrier, lacking access to resource, cultural versus healthcare norms, myths/misinformation, and limited local social/familial support. Chieh is grateful for this scholarship opportunity so she can help mothers become more resourceful and expand their supportive networks.
Judi Li
General Scholarship Fund
Judy Li is currently a registered dietitian in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, and completed her dietetic internship with Oakwood University. Judy has always been passionate about working with young infants and mothers, which drew her in to become a certified lactation educator through UC San Diego. She is determined and excited to continue her education on the path to becoming an IBCLC. Her goal is to educate and promote nutrition and breastfeeding for parents to make informed choices.
Leandra McLaurin
General Scholarship Fund
A Los Angeles native, born and raised, Leandra McLaurin has always marched to the beat of her own drum and blazed her own trails. A graduate from Loyola Marymount University with her Bachelor of Science in Health and Human Sciences (formerly known as Natural Science), she also received her Master of Science in Health Education from Kaplan University. Leandra is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC). Driven by her love for life and service to others, Leandra is currently working for the Black Infant Health Program in the City of Long Beach as a Health Educator. There she is a group moderator and advocates for women and infant health providing social support, empowerment, and stress-reducing techniques in order for African American women to have a better life expectancy and birth outcome. In addition to being a lactation educator, completing part 1 of Breastfed LA’s LES training, Leandra is a domestic violence advocate and child passenger safety technician. In her spare time, Leandra loves a good laugh, loves to travel, and surrounds herself with family and friends.
Angelica Pasasi
General Scholarship Fund
Angelica Pasasi, BA, CLE, has worked in the field since 2010. She has been an advocate for prenatal and postpartum women by supporting, educating and linking them to resources that would assist them in achieving their breastfeeding goals. She incorporates strength based practices and motivational speaking. Her aspiration is to give back to the community in which she was raised. Her experience includes home visiting, bedside at a high risk hospital, and she currently works as a Breastfeeding Coordinator. She is grateful to have been selected for this life changing opportunity.
Tiffany Roberts
General Scholarship Fund
Tiffany Roberts is a 38-year-old mother of three. She has a few different titles: Mom, Lash Artist, Perinatal Support Specialist & Breastfeeding Peer Counselor. Tiffany’s passions lie in supporting women before, during, and after the birth, providing them with all the tools they need to be successful in their journeys. She is also very passionate about health, wellness, nutrition and fitness.
Alisha Sim is a 23 year old second generation Cambodian American from Long Beach, California. Alisha’s pronouns are she/hers. She grew up in a family of 11 of which 7 are refugees. She is the second to youngest in her family line and grew up mainly around the womxn in her family that led to her passion working with both mothers and families. Growing up in a big family where she and her siblings were born within a 20 year time span, there were different cultural aspects that made her dynamic growing up challenging. At the age of 13, she took on many responsibilities such as caretaking for her parents and grandparents, babysat for her nieces and nephews and maintaining to go to school as her siblings grew up and moved away. This was her life as long as she can remember. During this time, she had also started as a member with Khmer Girls in Action (KGA), now staff, where she learned about the hxstory of Cambodian refugees and their resettlement in Long Beach. She learned about the long term impact it had on her family and saw that there was a lack of resources in the community. She also noticed that Cambodian womxn often carry intergenerational trauma from war and resettlement while at the same time keeping their families together. Growing up she saw that her sisters and cousins would seek each other’s support as they were first time mothers and had to rely on each other often. Now as staff, she works with young Southeast Asian womxn where she develops curriculums to teach them about their reproductive justice rights. Alisha wants to be a resource for the Cambodian community and bridge the gap so that womxn and young people are getting the resources they need as well. Alisha hopes that after her participation with BreastFeed LA, she can take her next step to learn and get into doula work.
Stella Clingmon Simon
General Scholarship Fund
Stella Clingmon Simon is the Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health Coordinator at the Pasadena Public Health Department (PPHD). A former Peace Corps volunteer, Stella has expertise in the areas of global health, youth development, sexual and reproductive health and maternal and child health. Before joining PPHD, Stella worked as an analyst for Coachman Moore & Associates Inc., an organizational development consulting firm with clients in the health and human services, education and non-profit sectors. She is the mother of a 15-month old boy and has imbued her birth and postpartum experience into her work advocating for funding to support women’s access to perinatal support personnel, such as Doulas, and ensuring better breastfeeding outcomes for Black women. She is a fellow of the Women’s Foundation of California’s Women’s Policy Institute (WPI). Stella holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Camille Williams
General Scholarship Fund
Camille Williams is currently a Patient Service Representative at Cedars-Sinai. Her interest in serving mother and baby started at the University of California, Irvine in her public health classes. She began taking classes and researching different pathways to become an IBCLC when she discovered BreastfeedLA. Camille is thrilled to begin working with BreastfeedLA and South LA County Infant and Maternal Mortality team. After becoming certified, Camille would like to become an advocate and resource for young women of color.