LILAC Mentors

Reasons to Be a Mentor

• Experience 
  If you are in the field of breastfeeding and lactation medicine (BFLM), you probably already spend a lot of your time teaching others. You may currently have a learner, or many of many different levels. In the past, BFLM providers would have to create many of their own materials. We’d sometimes struggle with lack of time, consensus and resources to properly train our colleagues and successors. The LILAC provides an opportunity for high-level BFLM providers to share their knowledge with dedicated, high-level learners, with the support of a curriculum, evaluation tools, and a scholarship team. You will be training the next generation of leaders!
• Resources
  LILAC mentors have the same curriculum access as fellows, with up to date readings and videos by leaders in the field. If mentors complete assignments, they may also receive CME (continuing medical education) credit and L-CERPS. Library access is also available.
• Academic Appointment
  LILAC mentors are offered Adjust Professorship positions in the Division of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine at the University of Rochester.
• Stipend
  LILAC mentors will be offered a stipend of 1/5^th of the fellow's tuition, per year, for their time. The total amount will depend on the Country Category in which the fellow practices.

Required of Mentors

Mentors

Mariana Colmenares Castano, M.D., I.B.C.L.C.

Mariana Colmenares Castaño MD, IBCLC. Mariana studied medicine at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), and trained as a pediatrician at the National Pediatric Institute, in Mexico. After the birth of her first child she witnessed the lack of knowledge around breastfeeding within the medical profession so she decided to specialize in breastfeeding medicine. She certified as a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2011 and in 2013 did a clinical rotation at the International Breastfeeding Clinic in Toronto. Mariana has collaborated with national projects with the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico and UNICEF. She is a founding member of the National Lactation Consultant Association of Mexico (ACCLAM), where she served on the Board of Directors as Education Coordinator (2014-2019). Her passion around teaching and training the medical profession pushed her to start a 280 hour online course, to become Breastfeeding Counselor. Mariana became part of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine in 2012, and part of board directors since 2019, where she is now secretary for the period 2022-2025. She is currently a member of the International Lactation Consultant Association ILCA and Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. Mariana collaborated with Liquid Gold project and collaborated with the project Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly, form Yale University. Mariana has been part of expert committees with the World Health Organization in the re-edition of the Infant and Young Child Feeding model chapter, co-published numerous articles, co-authored a chapter for the National Academy of Medicine in Mexico and she has been speaker in national and international conferences. Mariana moved to London with her family in 2022, when she did a Clinical Fellow in Community Paediatrics and is now working as a Specialty Doctor in Community at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She works in private practice as Lactation Consultant and Tongue-tie Practitioner.

Cristina D. Cornelio, M.D., IBCLC

Dr. Cristina D. Cornelio earned her medical degree from De La Salle University College of Medicine and is a Fellow of both the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). She is also an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and is currently pursuing an MBA in Health at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. With a personal commitment shaped by her own breastfeeding journey as a mother of two, Dr. Cornelio has played a pivotal role in national breastfeeding advocacy. In 2012, she co-led efforts to uphold the Philippine National Milk Code in Congress and served three terms as Chair of the PPS Breastfeeding Committee. During this time, she led transformative initiatives to strengthen the role of health professionals in breastfeeding support. These include founding the Annual PPS Breastfeeding Congress, establishing Breastfeeding Coordinators in all PPS-accredited hospitals, training nursing educators through the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing (ADPCN), and co-organizing landmark conferences to expand lactation education nationwide. Dr. Cornelio is the founding President of the Philippine Society of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (PSBLM) and the inaugural Chair of the Department of BFLM at The Medical City, where she co-established the country’s first Fellowship Training Program in BFLM. She continues to lead efforts in clinical leadership, policy reform, and professional education to improve breastfeeding outcomes in the Philippines.

Jamie I. Cumpas, M.D., IBCLC

Dr. Jamie I. Cumpas is a pediatrician and Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (BFLM) physician with a strong focus on integrating evidence-based lactation care into pediatric and maternal health practice. She earned her medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas and completed her pediatric residency at The Medical City, where she now serves as the Training Officer for the Philippines’ first Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine Fellowship Program. She is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), having trained at both Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and The Medical City. Dr. Cumpas holds leadership roles in national medical societies, including previous Chair of the Breastfeeding Committee of the Philippine Pediatric Society. She is a founding officer of the Philippine Society of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (PSBLM) and helped launch the first Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) “What Every Physician Needs To Know About Breastfeeding” workshop in Manila, Philippines. She actively contributes to curriculum development and professional training, collaborating with institutions such as the Association of Deans of the Philippine Colleges of Nursing and the Department of Health. She also co-founded Create Health and serves on the Smart Parenting Board of Experts as a lactation consultant, continuing to champion breastfeeding support and education nationwide.

Lorelei Michels, D.O., NABBLM-C, FABM

Dr. Lorelei Michels is a specialist physician, who is Board-Certified in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (NABBLM-C). She began her training as a Board-Certified Family Medicine physician and became interested in women's health and breastfeeding as a resident in Chicago, IL. From her work and life experiences, she realized a need for more breastfeeding education and support, especially from the medical community. To accomplish this, she decided to specialize in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (BFLM) and became a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and an IBCLC in 2009. In 2010, she opened her Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine clinic in Albany, NY to help mothers and babies in her community. She has led advocacy and public health efforts for breastfeeding and lactation through medical publications, educational seminars, and 15 years as a board member of the NY Statewide Breastfeeding Coalition. In 2014, she was honored by the ABM as a Fellow. She continues to advance the field of BFLM as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Rochester Medicine Division of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine. She enjoys teaching Medical Students, Residents, Fellows, and other healthcare professionals about BFLM.

Brie Proctor, D.O.

Dr. Brie Proctor earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and her medical degree from Oklahoma State University. She completed her Family Medicine residency at Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she and her husband also served as foster parents through Indian Child Welfare, deepening her appreciation for early attachment and trauma-informed care. Shortly before completing residency, Dr. Proctor gave birth to her daughter—a life-changing experience that sparked a deep personal and professional passion for breastfeeding medicine. After residency, her family relocated to Montana to pursue their dream of mountain living, where she worked in urgent care while continuing to support new families. In 2024, Dr. Proctor completed the LILAC Fellowship and began leading mom-baby support groups to help postpartum families build community and achieve their infant feeding goals. She currently serves as a physician chart reviewer and is also adjunct faculty at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Montana. Her most meaningful role remains being a mother to her beloved daughter, who continues to inspire her commitment to nurturing, evidence-based postpartum care.

Paula K. Schreck, M.D., NABBLM-C, IBCLC, FABM

Paula K. Schreck MD, NABBLM-C, IBCLC, FABM attended the University of Michigan Medical School. She completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of California, San Diego. After training, she returned to her home state of Michigan where her work in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine began. She has led quality improvement and Baby-Friendly initiatives for many Michigan hospitals and has also consulted for quality improvement collaboratives in Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. Currently, she is medical director of The Lactation Consultant Program, a Pathway 2 academic lactation consultant training program. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and works on several ABM initiatives including the ABM Newsletter and the “What Every Physician Needs to Know” programming. She has maintained a busy Outpatient Breastfeeding Clinic at her home hospital since 2008. Her and her husband love visiting their two adult sons and any other kind of travel, and they are frequently found walking their dog Mr. Darcy along the shores of Lake St. Clair. (…and she loves Jane Austen.)

Sarah Sobik, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Sarah Sobik graduated medical school from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2016. She completed a residency in pediatrics at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s, after which she joined as faculty in the Section of Community Pediatrics at UAMS and as a research collaborator at the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center. Dr. Sobik set out to re-establish the Breastfeeding Medicine and Lactation Clinic at Arkansas Children’s and received International Board Certified Lactation Consultant certification in spring of 2021 and her board certification in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine in 2023. She has striven to expand her clinical skills and offer lactation services in the Arkansas Children’s primary care clinics to newborns and lactating mothers in Central Arkansas and other parts of the state that have limited lactation services through telemedicine. She has focused her research on improving breastfeeding rates in the clinic setting, specifically to at-risk populations, human milk composition, and early nutritional programming on breastmilk composition. Dr. Sobik’s clinical work and research focus is to improve health outcomes and nutrition for infants and their mothers from the start and to improve breastfeeding support for all infant-mother pairs in the state of Arkansas.

Julie Ware, M.D., M.P.H., I.B.C.L.C., FAAP, FABM

Dr. Julie Ware is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She is an experienced board-certified pediatrician who specializes in Breastfeeding Medicine within the Center for Breastfeeding Medicine. Dr. Ware received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and completed her M.D. degree and Pediatric Residency training at Baylor College of Medicine. After years of general practice with a focus on Breastfeeding Medicine, she completed an MPH degree at the University of Memphis. Julie is also an Internationally Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and certified by the North American Board of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine.

Dr. Ware has served on the Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Breastfeeding and on the Board of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), and now serves as the President- Elect of ABM. Dr. Ware is currently on the leadership team of the Southwest Ohio Breastfeeding Coalition and one of the Ohio AAP Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinators. She founded the All Moms Empowered to Nurse (AMEN) Peer-to-Peer Breastfeeding Support group serving African American moms in Cincinnati. Dr. Ware’s particular interest is improving maternal and child health through the promotion and support of breastfeeding, especially in those populations least likely to breastfeed. Her research and community efforts are focused on the elimination of disparities in breastfeeding and infant mortality.

Sarah Weinstein, MN, CNM, IBCLC, PMH-C

Sarah earned her bachelor's in integrative biology from Berkeley where she first learned about midwifery care in her reproductive biology course. She earned her BSN and graduated with her master's in nurse-midwifery from Oregon Health and Sciences University in 2014. She completed her training and started her career in the Four Corners region, and since then, she has caught babies in and out of the hospital and in rural and urban settings. Moved by the concept described by Indigenous midwife and activist Katsi Cook of mother as our "first environment," and the clear connection between the social and experiential environment and the health of families she worked with, Sarah expanded her full-scope midwifery to include breastfeeding and lactation medicine. She started a breastfeeding medicine clinic at her institution, co-founded and co-runs the breastfeeding task force, provides breastfeeding and lactation education to colleagues, residents, and students, and works with her interdisciplinary team to advocate for and provide evidence-based breastfeeding and lactation education and care. She is active in midwifery as advocacy in AZ, and is currently a member of the OBGYN faculty practice at Banner University Medicine in Tucson. She is pursuing her PhD under the guidance of Drs. Elise N. Erickson and Aleeca F. Bell.