Semaj Bruce, IBCLC
Swag Coordinator
Semaj Bruce, IBCLC is a mother of two. Born in Culver City, California, raised in San Bernardino, California and now resides in Las Vegas since 2002. She enjoys family barbecues and fun in the sun with hikes or visiting her favorite place, the beach. Life is precious and she thanks God everyday she is given the gift of life to be present.
Semaj is always passionate and thinking about developing ways to increase breastfeeding rates among Black women. She found out about Black Breastfeeding Week from Black Mother’s Breastfeeding Association who pioneered the celebratory week in 2014. Semaj took notice and wanted to also celebrate the local Las Vegas mothers of color. So, she began Nevada’s first Black Breastfeeding Week celebrations is 2015. She has continued to celebrate this week with the support of community partners such as Southern Nevada Breastfeeding Coalition, The Southern Nevada Health District, Southern Nevada Maternal Child Health Coalition, Kijiji Sisterhood, WIC and many others.
Marketing Coordinator
Anita Momodu, CPC
Anita travels the world gathering communities, uplifting experiences and demolishing shame. Her passion is helping birthing individuals and their families redefine what parenthood looks like for them while helping them take back their power from shame in their journey to and through parenthood, and cultivating conversations that have been silenced for too long. Anita is a Clinical Professional Counselor, author, speaker, sleep consultant, full spectrum doula, and currently serves as the southern Nevada breastfeeding coalitions educational planner and marketing coordinator.
Anita currently works in her own mental health private practice, co-facilitates a black moms in loss group through Postpartum Support International, and is the central florida regional co-chair for the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for POC.
Website Coordinator
Jacquelyn Bonde, MPH, CLE, CBS
Jacquelyn Bonde resides in Reno, Nevada with her two kids, partner and basset hounds, Mary and Gus. She became interested in lactation and community nutrition while completing her undergraduate degree in nutrition at the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2015, following the birth of her first child, she experienced many lactation challenges, which drove her to want to support other parents with lactation. After completing her degree, she became a Certified Lactation Educator (CLE), and her passion for lactation and nutrition led her to the Nevada WIC Program. In 2018, she became the Nevada WIC Program’s Breastfeeding Coordinator where she works to ensure WIC participants have the information and materials they need to meet their lactation goals. When she is not working, she enjoys reading, cooking and growing food, as well as spending time with her family and friends.
Board Member Emeritus
Colette Moore
Colette wholly believes in the mission of the breastfeeding coalition to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. She has been a member of the coalition since 2006, the year she earned her first certification credential in lactation. She became an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2015 and joined the SNVBC board in 2017. Colette worked with newborns and their families as a Registered Nurse, and later as an RN program coordinator and lactation specialist, at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada for over 35 years. With a background in newborn intensive care and community outreach and education her passion has always been helping families to get off to a healthy start. Whether working in community outreach or counseling families in support groups or at home, Colette believes that providing education and support helps families build confidence in their journey towards meeting their breastfeeding goals. Colette, a Las Vegas “native” since 1975, is married to a true Las Vegas native. They raised their family here and have 5 grandchildren who are 5th generation Nevadans.
Education Planner
Maria Palapa
Maria is a recent graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. She is a Community Health Worker, CPR Basic Life Support Instructor, and serves as the board secretary for the Flavors for Life non-profit organization. She is currently a graduate assistant for the School of Public Health supporting a project involving household food insecurity and breastfeeding amongst mothers and infants. In this systematic review, she reviewed the literature for inclusion and exclusion data, extracted data from included studies, and assisted with the manuscript. She will also be supporting the EARN-FS project assisting with data collection.
Maria's passion is to educate, inform, and empower our communities to have opportunities for a healthier, better life. Her interests are to work with initiatives targeting childhood obesity, breastfeeding, and chronic disease.
Member at Large
Rebecca Jimenez
Hi, my name is Becca. I’m a mama to a beautiful baby girl. I became a certified breastfeeding counselor during my own breastfeeding journey. Like many first time moms, I faced my own struggles and had to learn to navigate through new experiences. As a CBC, my main goal is to provide individualized guidance and education for mothers during their own breastfeeding journeys. It’s a very common misconception that breastfeeding is simply physical, rather than a spiritual, emotional, and mental experience. I hope to bring every mother the confidence to trust their own intuition in raising their families.
Member at large
Dawn Lipkin, RN
I am a Certified Registered Nurse in Maternal Newborn Nursing with many years of experience with new mothers and new babies. I am a firm believer in the importance of breastfeeding for mother and for baby and I breastfed all my own children. Having done so, I know that sometimes things are not always easy, and I love teaching and supporting others to meet their breastfeeding goals.
Events Coordinator
Kaelani Queen
My name is Kaelani Queen I am a new full spectrum doula servicing the Las Vegas area. My goal is to bring more inclusivity, advocacy and representation into this space. I’m very excited to start the lactation educator journey and bring more of my educator background into birth work. I can’t wait to hold and share space with all the amazing doulas and birth workers in the Vegas valley and meet many new birthing parents in my community. I’m a mommy of two girls myself and love all things food, music and I love to learn.
Community Outreach Coordinator
Rachael Sudek
As a parent who breastfed and exclusively pumped for a total of three years, I understand the challenges and rewards that come with the journey. My goal is to support and empower parents by providing them with the guidance and resources they need to make informed feeding choices. I look forward to learning and growing in this field and making a positive impact in my community.
Northern Nevada Representative
Jennifer Campbell
Jenn spent over 15 years as a birth assistant, lactation consultant & CLE, CBE, and Birth Doula, with a passion for supporting women who have become Mothers. Jenn is also a Bereavement Doula®, helping families struggling with grief and loss, as well as an Adoption & Surrogacy Doula.
Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of DOULA CO-OP of Nevada, a non-profit connecting birth, postpartum, and end-of-life doulas statewide with underserved communities.
Jenn is Mom of 18 (yes, 18 kids!), a parenting veteran since 1992. She has written the blog "Mom’s Running It" since 2011, and has been the host of the "Becoming Parents Podcast" since May 2017, which is ranked in the top 2.5% worldwide.
Jenn is a Speaker and has over 15 years of experience in the foster care sector, both as a parent and a trainer.
