Meet The BLACTATION SERIES SPEAKERS

The BLACTATION Series brings together a powerful lineup of Black lactation and birth experts. Each speaker offers unique clinical insight, lived experience, and community-based wisdom to strengthen the support available to Black birthing and lactating families. Explore the full lineup and session descriptions below.

Day 1 - Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Rooted and Rising: Pioneering Black Lactation for a Brighter Future

  • The B.L.A.C.K. Course Team

  • Rooted & Rising brings together Felisha Floyd, TaNefer Camara, and Lydia O. Boyd, for a dynamic conversation on the past, present, and future of Black lactation work.

Breastfeeding Support for the Incarcerated Mother

  • Chantel Norris, BS, CLC, DONA, CBE

  • This presentation will explain how incarceration disproportionately affects Black women and how we as lactation professionals can better support community members who are experiencing pregnancy and giving birth while incarcerated, while utilizing breast milk as a catalyst for change. Participants will learn the drivers to incarceration that create profound disparities and disproportionately affect Black women.

When Lactation Becomes a Legal Matter: Ethical & Legal Considerations for the Black Family

  • TaNefer Camara, MS-HCA, IBCLC, CBE-EXPERT

  • Black families disproportionately encounter legal systems during the perinatal and postpartum period, often in ways that directly impact breastfeeding, bonding, and overall family well-being. This presentation examines the complex intersections between lactation, legal intervention, and systemic inequities, offering lactation professionals and perinatal providers the knowledge needed to support families navigating these challenges with dignity, accuracy, and trauma-informed care.

Business and Lactation

  • Dairian Roberts, OTR/L, IBCLC, PMH-C

  • This session provides a practical roadmap for lactation professionals who are seeking to build, grow, or stabilize a private practice. Participants will gain insight into the essential legal and financial foundations of running a lactation business, including entity structure, compliance considerations, budgeting, and long-term planning for sustainability.

Day 2 - Thursday, March 6, 2026

Infant Feeding In Natural Diasters

  • Felisha Brooks Floyd, BS, IBCLC, CBE-EXPERT

  • This session looks at how crises affect infant and young child feeding, from primary risks like separation and disrupted breastfeeding to secondary issues like malnutrition and unsafe practices. We’ll talk about solutions that actually work, grounded in research and real-world examples, and focus on helping communities, especially those that face systemic barriers, stay prepared and supported.

Human Milk Donation within the Black Community

  • Kiana Ayers, RN, IBCLC

  • This session traces the historical evolution of human milk sharing from traditional communal caregiving and wet-nursing practices to the development of modern human milk banks and examines how these shifts uniquely shaped the experiences of Black American families. Participants will explore the cultural, structural, and systemic factors that continue to influence donor milk access within Black communities, including trust, safety concerns, policy gaps, hospital practices, and disparities in lactation support.

Beyond the Breast - Nutrition for the Breastfed Infant & Toddler

  • Dykibra Gaskin, MS, RDN, LD, IBCLC

  • This presentation offers a comprehensive overview of nutrition for breastfed infants and toddlers, highlighting how human milk supports growth, development, and evolving nutritional needs throughout early childhood. Building on foundational knowledge, the lecture will provide age-specific feeding recommendations for children from birth through 24 months and beyond, addressing readiness cues, responsive feeding practices, and balanced food introduction as families transition to solid foods.

Partnering for Growth: Lactation Case Studies in Multidisciplinary Infant Support

  • Lydia O. Boyd, IBCLC, CBE-EXPERT, CLE, Doula

  • This presentation explores the crucial role of lactation professionals in identifying and addressing weight-related concerns within the mother-infant dyad. By examining real-world case studies, we’ll highlight the impact of multidisciplinary collaboration in improving infant growth outcomes.

Day 3 - Friday, March 6, 2026

Free and Feeding Our Own: Reclaiming Feeding Automony & Traditions in the Black Community

  • Lydia O. Boyd, IBCLC, CBE-EXPERT, CLE, Doula

  • This session also explores how feeding traditions have shifted across generations; highlighting how systemic pressures, formula marketing, evolving hospital practices, and changing community networks contributed to gaps, losses, and transformations in cultural feeding knowledge. Participants will learn how to support families in reconnecting across these generational gaps with compassion, honoring elders’ lived experiences while reclaiming traditions that were interrupted or obscured.

Foods, Herbs, & Traditions

  • Divine Bailey-Nicholas, CPM, Master Herbalist in the Southern Tradition, CLC,  MC-CHW

  • This session will explore the cultural, nutritional, and historical foundations of

    breastfeeding within the African diaspora and Black American communities. Participants

    will learn about traditional foods and herbs that support lactation, as well as ancestral

    practices that historically nurtured the breastfeeding dyad.

Back to Basics: Trusting the Lactating Body

  • Nicole Allen, BA, IBCLC

  • This lecture will provide an overview of the maternal body and how its interacting systems facilitate lactation, while also highlighting the importance of focusing on optimizing maternal functional health to optimize latch and milk supply, and to troubleshoot feeding problems.

Postpartum & Peri-menopausal: Breastfeeding Over 40

  • TaNefer Camara, MS-HCA, IBCLC, CBE-EXPERT

  • As the number of individuals giving birth after age 40 continues to rise, lactation professionals are increasingly supporting parents who are navigating the dual realities of postpartum recovery and the physiological shifts of perimenopause. This presentation explores the unique intersection of age, hormonal transition, and breastfeeding, offering an evidence-informed and culturally grounded look at what lactation truly feels like for parents over 40.

The BLACTATION Series is hosted by The B.L.A.C.K. Course Team:
Lydia O. Boyd, IBCLC • TaNefer Camara, IBCLC • Felisha Brooks Floyd, IBCLC

Questions?
Visit our Event FAQ or email info@theblackcourse.com.