Meet Our Team
Our Founders: Meet the Women Who Created LactaLearning
Barbara D. Robertson, MA, IBCLC, has been involved in education for over 34 years and lactation for over 24 years. Barbara is now the Director of The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and of the brand new business LactaLearning. The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor will still continue to serve breast/chestfeeding families and now LactaLearning will be dedicated to all of Barbara’s professional lactation trainings. Barbara is also a speaker for hire on a wide variety of topics including Motivational Interviewing. She just retired as Associate Editor for Clinical Lactation, a journal she helped create for USLCA. Barbara has free podcasts, a blog, and Youtube videos which can all be found on her websites lactalearning.com and bfcaa.com. She has written many articles as well.
Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA spent 40 years working with nursing families and their helpers in a wide variety of settings: peer support, private practice, corporate lactation, breast-pump manufacturing, hospitals, and lactation education. An IBCLC since 1991, Nancy’s breastfeeding books for parents and providers are read worldwide. Based on her review of more than 4,000 studies, Nancy’s 2020 comprehensive textbook, Breastfeeding Answers, is used by most lactation training courses. Nancy was in the first group of 16 to be honored for their lifetime contributions to the field of breastfeeding with the designation FILCA, Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association.
Our Teachers
Jessica Beemsterboer, MEd, IBCLC received her Masters of Education in Adult Learning in 2014. She practices lactation support at the Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor. Before entering the lactation field, she worked at Google for 12 years in employee training and development. As the mother of two young children, she experienced her share of significant breastfeeding difficulties. The support she received (from Barbara!) is a major part of what led her to change careers and become a lactation consultant. Now she's thrilled to combine helping breastfeeding families with her background in adult education.
Shonte' Terhune-Smith, BS, IBCLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Over the past seven years, she has worked for Genesee County to increase breastfeeding rates. She facilitates local support groups, works with community partners, provides postpartum doula services, and recently completed training to be a childbirth educator. Normalizing breastfeeding is her passion. Her goal is to provide culturally competent care for all families. Shonte’ has breastfed her four children and understands that there can be struggles in breastfeeding, the importance of support, and how rewarding it is to overcome the struggles.
Christine Stancle, CLC is a wife and mother of 4 in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a Certified Lactation Counselor, Certified Life Coach and Mental & Behavioral Health Coach. She is a new Lactation trainer for the State of Michigan. She formally directed the Moms Helping Moms Breastfeeding Program. (A peer to peer breastfeeding mentorship program for African American women) and Owner of “Full Circle Life Coaching, LLC” were she offers private and corporate coaching and lactation counseling.
Our Interns
Kristyn Wong VanDahm is an intern at the Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and became interested in becoming an IBCLC after her own breastfeeding journey with her daughter. She is a developmental psychologist by training and truly enjoys working closely with caregivers and their young children to support feeding. Kristyn believes that early relationships are foundational for healthy child development and she is passionate about helping families as they navigate these early days.
McAlina Niron Bell is a native of Detroit Michigan. McAlina was introduced to International Health and Maternal Infant Health research, and graduated with Masters of Public Health (MPH). McAlina was still most passionate in Nutritional studies and infant-Child Development with a key focus on Maternal Health, and she was introduced to pursuing Certification in Lactation Consulting. Currently, back in Michigan she has had the opportunity to actively understudy through the Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor (BFCAA) with the leadership/mentoring of International Board Certified Lactation Consultant Barbara Robertson and her trained colleagues.
Veronica Kincad become passionate about high quality breastfeeding support as a new mom who struggled to find good lactation help with her first child. With her love for babies and breastfeeding ans her desire to help parents, she decided to pursue a career change as a lactation consultant. She became a CCLS in 2020 and is currently working toward becoming an IBCLC through Pathway 3 as an intern at the Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor.