Meet our 2019-2020 Board

Katie Howser, IBCLC
President 
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Katie Howser is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) based in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she attended the University of California San Diego for lactation and then performed 300 clinical hours at Kaiser San Francisco Hospital. Katie is very active, providing in-home lactation services and she worked with over 1,000 families. Katie believes in the importance of lactation support and she provides balanced non-judgmental services.
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Margaret Kler,  IBCLC
Vice-President + Communications

​Margaret ( Maggie ) Is an IBCLC. Maggie earned her Bachelor in Science from the University of Cincinnati and later attended University of California San Diego for Lactation. Maggie earned her Clinical hours with Healthy Horizons Breastfeeding Centers Inc. She visits with new families in the Burlingame and Menlo Park offices of Healthy Horizons and does in-home visits in the Bay area. 

Lucia Lainez
​Membership

Lucia Lainez, M.S., CCC-SLP, C/NDT, is the owner of LaLa Speech Therapy clinic in San Francisco.  She is a bilingual (English/Spanish) Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in pediatric feeding and neurogenic disorders.  She has dedicated her professional career to holistically support young infants and children, as well as their caregivers. ​. ​

Ellen Schwerin, MPH, IBCLC
Treasurer

Ellen is the mom of one 13-year old boy, three cats, one lizard, and one business: Happy Milk Lactation Support. She is a non-judgmental IBCLC doing home visits in the East Bay and San Francisco, and is in-network with Aetna Insurance and CLEO.

Mary Marine, IBCLC
​Education 

Mary Marine is a Board Certified Lactation Consultant based in East Contra Costa County. She is a mother of three now grown children. La Leche League was her source of information and support with breastfeeding. She wanted to give back the help she received and started volunteering in 1996. Mary enjoyed helping others with breastfeeding so much that she prepared to take the IBCLC exam in 2002. She has a BA in Health and Safety Studies from Cal State LA and MA with a focus in Lactation Consulting from Union Institute and University. She works at Contra Costa Medical Center in the postpartum unit, in clinics seeing babies during their initial doctor visits and does home visits. 

Molly Brannigan, IBCLC
​Secretary

Will Be Updated Shortly... 

Megan Wood, IBCLC
​Past President
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Megan’s passion for maternal health was born 16 years ago along with her first pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding experience. Since giving birth to her daughter in 2002, she has been a birth doula, a midwifery student, a midwife, a postpartum doula, a lactation intern, a board-certified lactation consultant with a small private practice, and in 2018, a perinatal health educator at a major hospital and board president for BALA. She is excited to play a role in bringing together lactation professionals from all around the Bay Area to network and share in continuing education opportunities. ​