Keynote Speakers

Karleen Gribble is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. Her interests include infant and young child feeding in emergencies, regulation of the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, child rights, adoption reform, and treatment of infants within child protection, immigration detention, and criminal justice systems. Karleen passionately advocates for recognition of the importance of mothers to their infants and works to create environments that support breastfeeding and the mother-infant relationship, particularly in situations of adversity. Karleen is Project lead on the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s Community Protection for Infants and Young Children in Bushfires Project. This Australian-first initiative has conducted research on the experiences of caregivers of infants and young children during the Black Summer Bushfires and is working with organisations in Eurobodalla on the NSW South Coast to plan and prepare to support very young children in future bushfires. She is also an Australian Breastfeeding Association Breastfeeding Educator and Counsellor.

Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA, is a lactation consultant in private practice (since 1999) and a lawyer (since 1983). Before opening her private practice as an IBCLC lactation consultant, Liz worked as a criminal prosecutor, child advocate, Congressional lobbyist, and federal litigator. Her legal expertise is in ethics, lobbying, administrative, criminal, and lactation-related law. Today, Liz offers private practice and hospital-based IBCLC care, teaches/lectures around the world, and has been used as a lactation expert witness in court cases. She knows the challenges faced each day by lactation consultants and healthcare providers!

She served on the Board of Directors of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA: President July 2012-14; Secretary July 2005-11), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC)(Secretary 2014-16), and Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA)(2015-19). She remained in leadership at USBC through 2021 (CRASH Committee, working for systemic organizational inclusion and equity, and Nominations Committee). Liz earlier worked as an Adjunct Professor in Drexel University’s IBLCE-Pathway-2 and LEAARC-approved Human Lactation Consultation Program, teaching “Public Policy of Breastfeeding.” She remains active in her Pennsylvania-based professional association, and breastfeeding coalition. Liz was designated Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association (FILCA) in 2008, the inaugural year for the program.

Liz authored Legal and Ethical Issues for the IBCLC, published 2013 by Jones & Bartlett, and wrote or co-authored an ethics/legal chapter in each of four other lactation-related texts (Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Care, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, 6th ed., Breastfeeding, Social Justice, and Equity and The Lactation Consultant in Private Practice). She has presented in local, national, and international venues to universal acclaim, and regularly contributes articles, posts, and blogs about matters within her sphere.

Julie P Smith B Ec (Hons)/B A (Asian Studies), PhD, College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University.
Honorary Associate Professor Julie Smith is an ARC Future Fellow at the ANU and her research focusses on the economics and regulation of markets in mothers’ milk. She has uniquely applied feminist economic perspectives to valuing women’s breastfeeding work. She recently led development of the Mothers’ Milk Tool and the Green Feeding Tool in partnerships with Alive and Thrive East Asia Pacific.
She has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles, including recently in The Lancet, and is an Associate Editor for IBJ.
Dr Smith has advised the US Surgeon-General Office and WHO on the economics of breastfeeding, and conducted reviews for WHO on marketing and the Australian Department of Health on breastfeeding interventions. She has also worked with international civil society organisations such as IBFAN and WABA on investing in breastfeeding and maternity protection. She is a former Board Director with ABA.
Dr Smith previously worked in Australian and New Zealand treasury/finance ministries on tax and economic policy.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC is in private practice in New York City since 1992. She is particularly interested in dyads with medical challenges to breastfeeding. In addition to mentoring lactation interns, she uses her clinical photos and videos in presentations to healthcare professionals on assisting breastfeeding babies with anatomical, genetic or neurological problems around the world. Catherine participates in a research collaborative with Columbia University and Tel Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering, investigating biomechanics of the lactating nipple and aspects of sucking and swallowing in breastfeeding infants. She is the author of Selecting and Using Breastfeeding Tools: Improving Care and Outcomes (Praeclarus Press 2016) and Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants (Jones and Bartlett Publishers 2008, 2013, 2017, 2023), professional journal articles, and chapters in the Core Curriculum and Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Catherine served as Associate Editor of the United States Lactation Consultant Association’s official journal Clinical Lactation for its first seven years.