Meet The MLCA Board of Directors
Melanie Venuti, IBCLC - President
Melanie (she/her) is a private practice lactation consultant offering in home and telemedicine lactation care in the Boston area and surrounding suburbs. Melanie has worked in many aspects of maternal and child health including nutrition counseling and parental education over the last decade. She prides herself in offering a casual and laid back approach to counseling, offering families practical advice for breastfeeding and parenting success based on their individual goals.
After having her own children, Melanie continued to advocate for individual care plans realizing that infant feeding is not “one size fits all”, helping families make realistic expectations and define their own success.
Melanie has been on the MLCA Board since 2020 and is thrilled to take on the roll of President. Melanie lives in Dedham, MA with her husband, 2 busy, sports loving boys.
Lauren McVeigh, RN, IBCLC - Vice President
Lauren (she/her) is an RN IBCLC and general board member at MLCA. She provides in-home and teleheath lactation visits ranging from prenatal classes to weaning consults, and everything in between at her private practice based out of Franklin, Massachusetts.
Lauren felt compelled to support lactating families after earning her nursing degree and having her first daughter. After experiencing the positive effects of local, comprehensive, clinical quality lactation care she realized she wanted to be part of the resource system that improves care for all families. Lauren started her private practice, Families in Bloom, to better meet the needs of her community. She has led local feeding support groups for families, and frequently participates in education & outreach at local health fairs and community events. She strives to dismantle barriers to lactation care by advocating for families and IBCLCs at various levels both personally and via the Access Committee at MLCA.
Lauren has a BA in Spanish Language and Culture from Salve Regina University, and a Nursing Degree from Maurine Church Coburn School of Nursing in Monterey, California. She received her CLC in 2014, and earned her International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) credential in 2018 after working as a nurse in several settings since 2011. Lauren lives in Franklin with her husband and 3 school-aged children, and enjoys running, gardening, and creative projects of all kinds.
Sharla Lloyd Halperin, MPH, IBCLC - Past President
Sharla (she/her) is an IBCLC in private practice, helping lactating folks all around the Boston area. Her passion for human lactation began at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied nutrition and dietetics. Her studies and training continued as a midwifery student, a breastfeeding mother of two, a La Leche League Leader, a birth and postpartum doula, and a public health nutritionist and CLC at the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). While working toward her Master of Public Health degree in maternal and child health at Boston University, she conducted research for John Snow Inc. Research & Training Institute (JSI) and the Healthy Start EPIC Center. This research informed the training materials for CLCs at 100 Healthy Start sites nationwide.
Sharla believes that food equity includes the provision of breastmilk for all babies. To ensure that all families have equal access to skilled lactation care and human milk, Sharla strives to affect change at the policy, community, interpersonal, and individual levels. She sees supporting lactation professionals as key to this work.
Sharla and her husband live in Dedham, where they raised two now-young-adult sons.
Jenny Weaver, RN, IBCLC - Secretary
Jenny (she/her) is an IBCLC doing community based lactation support in the Greater Boston area. She grew up in Baltimore, MD, met her husband while living in Middlebury, Vermont, and together they moved to Arlington in 1984. Jenny attended UMass Boston’s School of Nursing and became an RN in 1989. As a new nurse in postpartum care, Jenny loved helping new parents with breastfeeding. She was inspired by the new and growing research in the early 1990’s on human milk and breastfeeding and chose to grow her expertise in lactation support. Jenny became an IBCLC in 1998. Jenny has one son who lives with her along with her mother in their multi-generational home in Arlington.
Lynne Ricardo, BSN, RN, IBCLC - Treasurer
Lynne (she/her) is a private practice lactation consultant offering in home and in office (Marshfield) lactation care south of Boston. Lynne has worked in a variety of settings in maternal and child health over the last 34 years, 26 years as an IBCLC. As a 1989 graduate of St. Anselm College, she earned a BSN. In her senior year, she had a summer internship in the NICU at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. It was there that her interest in pediatrics was sparked. Lynne’s work experience as a RN has involved inpatient work on an infant toddler unit at RI Hospital caring for medically complex children and in the community at Quincy Visiting Nurse Association as a maternal-child health nurse.
Lynne has worked as an IBCLC at South Shore Hospital and Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. At Brockton Hospital, she was active in policy changes, data collection and staff and patient education per the guidelines of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. While building her full-time private practice, Lynne provided lactation support to families at Bridgewater Pediatrics, working closely with pediatric providers to coordinate care and feeding plans. At Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles in West Bridgewater, Lynne was lead facilitator at the Baby Cafe and helped in the set up of their Milk Bank Depot.
Lynne supports families in meeting their individual goals. She firmly believes that learning is lifelong as she continues to expand her knowledge to reflect current research. Lynne and her husband live in Whitman, MA and are the parents of two young adults. In her spare time, Lynne enjoys boating, fishing, spending time outdoors and with her family.
Tamar Winter, BSN, RN, IBCLC - General Board Member
Tamar (she/her) is an IBCLC in the Boston area. She works in private practice seeing families in their homes or virtually. Tamar is also a member of the Lactation Support Program at Boston Children's Hospital.
While working as a bedside nurse in the cardiology department at Boston Children’s Hospital, Tamar was drawn to lactation support. While there, she pursued her IBCLC training and was certified in 2009.
Tamar is the proud mother of two breastfed children, now ages 13 and 10. She lives in Brookline, MA with her husband, their two children and one cat.
When not supporting lactating parents, Tamar can be found in the kickboxing gym with her daughter.
Tamar fundamentally believes in the development of IBCLC as a profession and as an individual provider. She is thrilled to be able to work on this goal with the help of MLCA.
Lisa Sadler, CLC, Postpartum Doula (DONA)
Lisa (she, her) is a Postpartum Doula and Lactation Counselor.
She is currently a student enrolled in the Lactation Program at Arizona State University, working on Pathway 3. She has been supporting families in the South Shore Area for the past 5 years. She enjoyed over 15 years as an Early Childhood Montessori educator, before realizing her dream to become a Postpartum Doula and hopefully soon an IBCLC. In supporting families Lisa has noticed one of the biggest hurdles for new parents was around infant feeding, especially breastfeeding. Lisa strives to address unrealistic expectations and support families on their breastfeeding/infant feeding journey (no matter what that may look like). Her advice to families: Nothing will be as you expected. Trust yourself and ask for help when you need it.
In Lisa’s spare time, she can be found walking, reading, traveling, gardening, going to the beach, and attending hockey games (her youngest son is a Goalie). She also enjoys spending time with family, dog Tallula, and close friends.