Clinicians in the Trenches: Kathleen Stahl, RN, IBCLC

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

I would like to introduce you to Kathleen Stahl, an RN and IBCLC from the Annapolis/Baltimore area.  I first met Kathleen at a local educational meeting and have since had several conversations with her about her unique perspective on breastfeeding support.  As a NICU IBCLC in a hospital that primarily sees an underserved population and with a private practice in a particularly wealthy area, she sees a wide range of perspectives on breastfeeding support.

Can you describe a typical day in your current hospital job?

I work as a lactation consultant in the NICU of a large, Baltimore hospital.  Most of the babies that I see in the NICU are very premature and may not feed by mouth for several weeks or more so, in working with them, I support moms in pumping.  I touch base with any moms who are coming in for feedings but many aren’t able due to transportation issues. I will follow up with moms who are still admitted to the hospital, making sure everything is going well and that they have a breast pump for discharge home. I will also see anyone who is on bed rest prenatally that is high risk to talk about the value of breastfeeding.  I also do consults in the NICU during the day for the babies that are starting to go to breast.

In addition, I do follow up phone calls to track our breastfeeding in the NICU at 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months and provide outpatient support as we frequently have preemies going home that are not consistently feeding well at breast and will need to have supplemental expressed milk.  The outpatient consult also gives the mother the confidence and reassurance she needs to wean off of breast milk supplementation to exclusive breastfeeding.  I have found that in this particular NICU setting, private outpatient consultation has been more successful than breastfeeding support group once the babies are  discharged.  Mothers can schedule the time to come in when it works for them. While all the mothers have phones, many do not have cars or computers, so finding the best mode of communication for each mom is vital.

The majority of the time I spend educating mothers on the value of breastfeeding.  It is a very scary and stressful time for these mothers with babies in an intensive care unit.  They are afraid to touch and hold their babies and they are fearful of the monitors.  I spend alot of time just building relationships of trust with them so they feel comfortable talking with me about their breastfeeding concerns.  Since the parents watch the nurses with wide eyes as they measure everything that goes in and out of their babies, it is difficult to get the parents to have the confidence while breastfeeding when they cannot measure exactly how much is going in to the baby.

In the NICU, the challenge is mother and infant separation.  Ideally, I would like to see both parents be able to stay comfortably with their babies.  I feel that there is room for more parent education that would make them more comfortable to help in the care of their babies. The NICU is very intimidating with all of the wires that are attached to the babies and the monitor alarms going off.  It makes parents and family members/visitors very nervous. NICU is a very scary time for families.  It is important in my role to educate and try to help the parents be at ease with their baby.

How does your hospital work contrast with your role in private practitioner?

Many of the mothers who have premature babies where I work have not even considered breastfeeding. Many of the pregnancies are not planned. Formula feeding/bottlefeeding is the cultural norm. They are shell shocked to have just given birth to a baby that weighs a little over a pound.  They may not have even planned to breastfeed but just spoke with a neonatologist that told them that breast milk can help save their baby’s life.  Often times there is a cultural barrier…all they know is bottle feeding.  They are afraid of people seeing their breasts and most have had very little prenatal care or none at all.  Due to economic barriers, they come at most once a day and stay for about an hour or two and leave. Some are just stressed from the dire circumstances of their baby’s health and the stress can impede their milk supply.  I spend most of my time talking parents into breastfeeding and how wonderful it is not just for the baby but for them.  Many of these patients have economic stressors like one mother I supported who was back to work 2 weeks after giving birth at a local fast food chain.  Many mothers are single parents and many have poor family support.

Contrast that with the mothers I see in my private practice who want to breastfeed. They have already been educated about the value of breastfeeding not only for the baby but for themselves.  They know they will have a healthier baby and many do not want formula to ever touch their baby’s lips. Many of these parents were breastfed as infants and see formula feeding as a failure. These parents would gladly pump or stand on their heads to breastfeed. These parents are usually higher-income, higher-educated people who have taken the classes and had the prenatal care.  They are usually committed couples who do not have many economic stressors.  Most also don’t have the stressor of an extremely ill child.  These parents have invited me in to assist with their breastfeeding relationship of a healthy child.

These groups are as different as night and day.  Most mothers in the NICU will pump once they are informed of the benefits of human milk for their sick babies.  But they have many social and economic barriers that cause additional stressors to the mother and infant dyad.  Where as in my private practice, there are many fewer barriers to breastfeeding.  These mothers have plenty of support and they see breastfeeding as the cultural/desired norm.

What are the unique challenges of each of these kinds of work?

I wish I could do more for these mothers.  A single mother who has 5 children at home giving birth to a 28 weeker, and her car breaks down…I wish I could find a way to fix her car! Talk about stress and socio-economic factors!  Also, the father of the baby is not involved. How do I meet her needs? Need I say more?  My heart breaks for the disadvantaged families here.

The rewards of seeing healthy babies going out the door.  That is a huge reward!  The biggest reward is the great big smile on a mother’s face when she can tell that the baby is nursing well. Often times, NICU mothers have a hard time exclusive breastfeeding when they go home because they still have to supplement and because they don’t trust that the baby will get enough.  I do test weights so the parents can see what baby is getting.  I have had a mom of twins that is now exclusively breastfeeding because she was coming in for outpatient consults after her babies were in the NICU.  That has been a very rewarding experience for her and me.

I have to say that my private practice support group recharges my soul when I get discouraged working in the NICU.  Those mothers and babies in the NICU have so much working against them, separation, sick baby, having to pump, stress, stress stress.  Nurses that are used to measuring everything going in and going out that are unsure of breastfeeding and inadvertently say the wrong things…parents that stop pumping or don’t want to put baby to breast and I feel like I have failed them…like I have let them down. Then I go to my mother’s support group and look at the 2 year old that is still nursing whose mommy told me he was a failure to thrive 20 months before.  I am encouraged how we worked together and he is a beautiful happy breastfeeding boy!  Or the mom that says she is thinking of weaning and at the end of group says, “Nope, we’re not ready yet”.  I have moms of newborns that are having melt downs and another mother puts her arm around her and tells her not to give up.  I have hope for the next day.

Annapolis Breastfeeding Care,LLC, was formed in January of 2008 by Kathleen Stahl, recognizing the needs of women and infants with the desire to receive services in the privacy and comfort of their own home.  Kathleen provides private home consultations, breastfeeding classes, pump rentals, sales and breastfeeding accessories.  Kathleen has been a registered nurse since 1994 and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1999.

After years of working in Labor and Delivery, Kathleen decided to dedicate her nursing skills to helping mothers breastfeed.  Kathleen is a strong believer in the many benefits which breastfeeding provides for both mother and baby, and after almost 10 years of working in Lactation departments, helping mothers and listening to their struggles and concerns (and having had two kids of her own!), Kathleen realized that having to travel back and forth to the hospital with a newborn added unnecessary stress to new mothers.  So, in January of 2008 Kathleen started Annapolis Breastfeeding Care, LLC, which offers a wide array of lactation consulting services, geared towards bringing quality lactation services and products to the comfort of one’s home.

Posted in Clinician in the Trenches, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Got Twitter?

Posted on May 22, 2012 by

Written by Maryanne Perrin – MBA, graduate student in Nutrition Science, ILCA volunteer

Many of my friends who are die-hard Facebook users say they just don’t understand the power and appeal of Twitter. If you fall into this category, read on! We are trying to build an army of TwIBCLCs (slang for “IBCLCs who tweet”) to fill the social media airwaves with breastfeeding chatter in preparation for the 2012 ILCA Conference and World Breastfeeding Week. In this article we’ll give you five great reasons to “Get Twitter” and we’ll also cover some Twitter basics in hopes that you’ll pick up your phone (or laptop) and tweet.

Five Great Reasons to “Get Twitter”

(1) Significant improvements in breastfeeding rates will require major cultural changes and Twitter has a track record as a tool for driving change (think Arab Spring and Komen breast screening funding). The more people there are talking about a message, the closer we move towards a tipping point where breastfeeding becomes the cultural norm.

(2) TwIBCLCs can share real-time insights and sound bites from conference presentations with thousands of IBCLCs around the world who aren’t able to attend (Twitter makes it easy for people to view all messages associated with a certain subject – in this case #ilca2012). That’s a great gift to your colleagues! If you want to see what TwIBCLCs were saying at last year’s conference, click here.

(3) During the conference we’ll give away a daily prize (gift certificates, webinar certificates, and even a Conference Registration Day for 2014) for a TwIBCLC selected at random (just tag your tweets with #ilca2012 so we can find them).

(4) Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter as a networking tool! Relationships I’ve developed on Twitter have led to media interviews and even an invitation to attend a congressional briefing in Washington, DC. To help you further expand on your Twitter relationships, we’ll hold a Tweetup (“an organized gathering of people who use Twitter”) in the Exhibitors Hall on Friday, July 27, 2012 from 12:30pm until 2:00pm so you can meet your fellow TwIBCLCs face-to-face.

(5) Finally, you’ll master the art of brevity by making your point in 140-characters or less and earn groovy-points with your kids, colleagues and clients for embracing a new technology.

Getting Started with Twitter

Okay, you’ve just created a Twitter account. Now what? Like anything in life, you’ll get as much out of Twitter as you put into it. Here are some tips for getting started.

  • Make sure to complete your full profile, which includes a 140 character description of yourself, a photo, and a link to your website, so people can learn a bit about you and your interests. (It’s hard to feel connected to an image-less, description-less Tweeter.)
  • Find people to “follow” by searching on terms that interest you (e.g. breastfeeding, IBCLC). Once you follow someone, their tweets will show up in your newsfeed. Don’t forget to follow ILCA (we’re at @ILCA1985)!
  • Join in conversations, share news, or retweet valuable information others have shared. You only have 140 characters so consider using a URL shortening service like bit.ly, tinyurl, or goo.gl to create a shortcut for longer URLs.
  • Consider using hashtags (e.g. #breastfeeding) in your tweets for specific keywords that you are interested in. This allows others to find you and begin a conversation based on common interests. The hashtag for the 2012 ILCA Conference is #ilca2012.
  • Want more information? Twitter 101 provides basic information about Twitter and links to additional resources.

Are you a TwIBCLC? We’d love to hear comments on how you’ve used and benefited from Twitter.

By Maryanne Perrin – MBA, graduate student in Nutrition Science, ILCA volunteer

Posted in ILCA 2012 Conference, Social Media | Tagged | 1 Comment

Time Magazine Cover – ILCA’s Response

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

Written by Lisa Mandell, IBCLC, Secretary ILCA Board of Directors

via Time Magazine

By now, many of you have heard about, seen, and talked about Time Magazine’s recent cover featuring a mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son. The cover photo accompanied a story about Attachment Parenting and Dr. Bill Sears.  There have been numerous blog posts written on the topic already from major media outlets such as USA Today and the Huffington Post, from breastfeeding mothers and from several of our colleagues serving breastfeeding mothers, including the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, and Best for Babes.

ILCA would like to remind all of us that breastfeeding beyond infancy is normal, and in many parts of the world, children wean typically between 2 and 5 years of age. As members of ILCA, we do not want to be any part of pitting one mother or her choices in parenting against another mother, as the Time cover encourages. We endeavor to provide and disseminate evidence-based information on breastfeeding, including breastfeeding beyond infancy. We encourage greater support for all mothers and families, from governments, employers, and society. And we welcome the discussion this opportunistic cover has started. Let’s continue that discussion with mothers, clients, friends, acquaintances, employers, health care professionals, even the stranger in front of us in the checkout line. We will help all mothers by continuing to explain the normalcy of breastfeeding, the continued benefits of breastfeeding until the child weans, and the need to support all mothers.

Lisa Mandell, MBA, IBCLC has been working with breastfeeding mothers and babies for over twelve years, first as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor through La Leche League, and then as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Lisa has a private practice seeing mothers and babies in their homes, and has also worked as a lactation consultant in hospitals and a pediatrician’s office, and teaching breastfeeding classes for a birth center. She has been involved in her USLCA chapter as President, CERP Coordinator, and is currently coordinating work on a mentoring consortium to provide a variety of clinical experiences for aspiring lactation consultants. She is pleased to serve as Secretary on the ILCA Board of Directors.
Posted in Breastfeeding News, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Pumping Strategies for the Working Mother

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

Written by Wendy Wright, MBA, IBCLC Co-Owner Lactation Navigation – Workplace Lactation Consultants, LLC

The primary focus of my lactation practice is in the workplace.  Why?

  • Mothers are currently the fastest growing segment of the U.S. workforce.1
  • In the past 20 years, the percentage of new mothers in the workforce has increased by more than 80%.2
  • The current level of new mothers in the workforce is 60%.2
  • As we have all witnessed, working outside the home negatively affects initiation and duration of breastfeeding.1
  • One third of working mothers return to work within three months of the birth of their child and two thirds return within six months.1

The three questions I am most frequently asked are:

  1. How often should I pump once I return to work?
  2. How much milk will I need each day?
  3. How should I package milk and store for future use?

Below are my answers – understanding that each woman’s situation is unique and she may or may not be exclusively breastfeeding.  For the purposes of this article, all women are working full time and exclusively breastfeeding!

How often should I pump once I return to work?  Returning to work before your baby is six months old requires expressing milk approximately every three hours when separated.  For example, for an 8-hour shift you will be separated from your baby for about 10 hours (work, lunch break, commute).  Over the 10-hour period, it is recommended that you express milk three times.   Some sample schedules may look like these below.  Notice that I have added in morning (pre-work) and evening (post-work) expression sessions.  These are to assure that mother has enough milk to provide for the time separated and also designed to keep supply high and the mother comfortable.  Some mothers may find that they are able to breastfeeding their babies before they leave for work and right when they get home, making it unnecessary to pump before and after work.  It really is what works best for the mother and baby.

Once your baby is taking well to solids, you may have the opportunity to reduce the number of pumping sessions each day.  Remove the session that is the least productive for you.  Each session should empty the breast – approximately 15 minutes pumping time.

How much milk will I need each day?  Breastfed infants consume approximately one ounce (30ml) per hour when separated from their mother from age 6 weeks until age 6 months.  So, if you are separated for 10 hours Monday – Friday, I recommend providing the caregiver with 10 – 12 ounces (300-365ml) of breastmilk, although some babies may need more.  It is important to review appropriate feeding cues with caregivers so breastmilk is not offered at every cry, fuss or frustration.   Remember, this is only one third of the milk the infant will consume each day – the rest of her consumption will be directly from the breast and she will take what she needs when you are back together.  Many infants will reverse cycle feed thereby getting their primary calorie consumption in the evenings and nights.  Mothers should be aware of this and welcome it as a terrific method for maintaining supply.

How should I package milk and store for future use?  The method that seems to work best for the busy working mother is to start each week on Sunday night by removing 10 – 12 ounces (300-365ml) of frozen breastmilk from the freezer and thawing overnight in the refrigerator.  Milk can then be packaged for the care provider in small bottles (2.5 ounces for example (74ml) for consumption throughout the day on Monday.  The mother will then express milk on Monday.  Monday’s milk will be stored in the refrigerator overnight and provided for baby on Tuesday.  Tuesday’s expressed milk will again be stored overnight in the refrigerator and provided on Wednesday, etc. On Friday, milk is packaged in 1 and 2 ounce bags (30-60ml) and frozen, clearly labeled with the date.  Using this pattern, the baby will only receive frozen breastmilk once each week and the freezer supply will be efficiently rotated.  There is a tendency for less and less milk to be expressed as the stressful week progresses.  Freezing in small packages will allow mom to pull one or two ounces from her freezer on Thursday or Friday if needed without having to defrost and potentially waste 5 ounces (148ml) of frozen breastmilk.

Additional information may be found on-line:

www.LactationNav.com

www.workandpump.com

www.kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/bf-links-pumping/

Reassurance and support can make all the difference for these mothers.  Encourage networking with other breastfeeding mothers at work and plenty of skin to skin time together when mother and baby are home.

 References:

1. United States Breastfeeding Committee. Workplace breastfeeding support [issue paper]. Raleigh, NC: United States Breastfeeding Committee; 2002.

2. U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau. Employment status of women and men in 2008. Available at: http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/Qf-ESWM08_txt.htm. Accessed May 15, 2009.

3. Society for Human Resource Management. 2007 Benefits Survey Report. Available at: http://www.shrm.org. Accessed April 17, 2008.

Wendy Wright, MBA, IBCLC

Wendy spent 15 years in the biotech industry in the Bay Area and worldwide prior to breaking out on her own and founding Lactation Navigation in 2007. Wendy has a B.S. in Health Services Administration from the University of Arizona and an MBA with a Marketing emphasis from the University of Cincinnati. Wendy’s daughter is twelve and her son is five. Both kids love to swim and enjoy bicycling. She is dreadfully fearful of spiders and enjoys spicy food any time of day. Lactation Navigation allows Wendy to combine skills learned in the corporate setting over the past 15 years with her love of breastfeeding. It allows her to spend time with her children and also with new mothers. It also encourages health and happiness for other families, and brings bottom-line profits to progressive companies.

Posted in IBCLCs around the globe | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Kangaroo Care Awareness Day

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Written by Amber McCann, IBCLC, Owner of Nourish Breastfeeding Support

On May 15 of this year, we will celebrate the first annual International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day.

As lactation consultants, most of us are well-versed in the importance of keeping babies skin to skin with their mothers and we are familiar with the work of Dr. Nils Bergman.  We regularly encourage the mothers we work with to hold their babies to their chests with their skin touching, we advocate for policy changes in hospitals, and we educate the public about this important practice.

Kangaroo Mother Care has three parts:

  1. Skin to Skin Contact - putting babies in the “sweet spot”, right between mother’s breasts and under her chin, is important starting at birth, but helpful anytime.  Babies and mothers should be kept like this as much as possible and around the clock.  Even dads, partners and grandparents can keep a baby close and tight.
  2. Exclusive Breastfeeding – for most babies, this means feeding directly from their mother’s breasts.  Babies who are born prematurely might need to be fed by another method and might also need additional nutrients.
  3. Support of the Mother/Baby Dyad – Whatever mother and baby need, regardless of whether this is a physical need, an emotional need or a medical need, we meet these with a focus on keeping them together.
The Gates Foundation is also working hard to promote the practice in places like Malawi, where it can have a significant impact on the survival of pre-term babies.  Click here to watch a short video about their work.

We encourage you, on May 15th, in celebration of the first International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day, to take a few moments to read a new article, engage in conversation with a new health care provider, and encourage one more mother to keep her baby right on her chest, right where he/she belongs.

Interested in hearing Dr. Nils Bergman speak about the power of Kangaroo Care?  Here are a few upcoming dates.

Wednesday, June 6 (Dover, DE)

Thursday, June 7 (Voorhees, NJ)

Friday, June 9 (New York, NY)

Tuesday, June 12 (Baltimore, MD)

Wednesday, June 13 (Plainsboro, NJ)

Friday, June 15 (Washington, DC)

Posted in IBCLCs around the globe | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Late-Preterm Infants: A Population at Risk

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

Written by Crystal Karges, DTR, CLEC

During my pregnancy with my second child, the last thing I expected was to deliver prematurely; at 35 4/7 weeks’ gestation to be exact.  After the experience with the birth of my first child, who practically had to be coaxed from the womb at almost 41 weeks, I was not prepared for the challenges that came with having a late preterm baby.

Rushing to the hospital the night of my daughter’s birth, I remember praying earnestly for her precious life, unknowing of how her beginning moments would unfold.  She was born swiftly, weighing a whopping 7lbs of pure sweetness.  Unbeknownst by her size, however, the next couple days confirmed her vulnerability and immaturity as a late preterm, and much to my dismay, she struggled with hypoglycemia, hyperbilirubinemia, and poor feedings.

My greatest struggle lay in my inability to properly nourish her in those first critical days.  So eager was I to breastfeed, yet her feeding difficulties proved it much more complicated than I had ever imagined.  With the help of some fantastic lactation consultants and in my stubborn adamancy and determination, we formulated an effective plan to deliver my baby the vital nutrition she needed to combat the hypoglycemia and hyperbilirubinemia while assisting us in establishing breastfeeding-all so crucial in those first 72 hours.

“Late-preterm infants”, defined by birth at 34 0/7 through 36 6/7 weeks’ gestation, are a population at risk, particularly as they are less physiologically and metabolically mature than term infants.  As a result, late-preterm infants are at a higher risk than term infants of developing medical complications, resulting in higher rates of mortality and morbidity during the birth hospitalization. Though many late-preterm infants are frequently the size and weight of some term babies (as was the case with my own baby), there is the potential that they may be managed by caregivers and health professionals as though they are developmentally mature.  Herein lies the danger however, as studies have demonstrated the risks this special population faces, including higher rates of hospital readmission during the neonatal period (Engle, et al).

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of having a late-preterm, as I discovered with my own baby, are the unique obstacles that may be confronted with breastfeeding.  It is particularly crucial to educate mothers on how to evaluate feeding success and what signs to look for to detect dehydration and hyperbilirubinemia.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a formal evaluation of breastfeeding, including observation of position, latch, and milk transfer be undertaken and documented a least twice daily after birth along with a developed feeding plan that is understood by the family.  Helping mothers of the late-preterm infants understand the different needs her baby has, along with a targeted feeding plan of care, can help establish breastfeeding success in the short and long term.

I am deeply grateful to the Lactation Consultants who supported my desire to breastfeed while addressing the needs of my baby, who decided to enter the world a bit sooner than expected.  Through their gentle guidance, I was able to use a supplementary nursing system to feed her at breast to help promote and establish our breastfeeding relationship while ensuring she was receiving the nutrition she needed.  Fast forward five months, and we’re still going strong with exclusive breastfeeding.  I know the guidance and support I had in her early days of life were monumental in setting us up for success in the long run.

Lactation Consultants are a vital part of a comprehensive team that can address the unique needs of the late-preterm infant population.  What has been your experience in your practice working with late-preterm infants?  How have  you  helped a mother establish breastfeeding?

For more valuable resources on breastfeeding the late preterm baby, please refer to the following:

References:

“Late-Preterm” Infants: A Population at Risk.  William A. Engle, Kay M. Tomashek and Carol Wallman.  Pediatrics 2007; 120; 1390.  DOI: 10.1542/peds.2007-2952

The Relationship of Brain Development and Breastfeeding in the Late-Preterm Infant.  Sunny G. Hallowell and Diane L. Spatz.  Journal of Pediatric Nursing 2012; 27: 154-162.

Posted in Research | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Meet Our ILCA Staff – Ashley Lehman

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

My name is Ashley Lehman and I am ILCA’s Electronic Media Coordinator. I am originally from Gaithersburg, Maryland but moved to North Carolina when I graduated from Elon University in 2008. I received a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a minor in Art. After I graduated from Elon, I worked as a Media Supervisor at an insurance marketing company. In early 2010, I joined the ILCA team as an administrative manager, assisting with the publications and membership departments. In my free time, I love to watch movies, spend time with my husband and our dog, Daisy, and vacation at the Walt Disney World resort every chance I get.

As I mentioned, I am ILCA’s Electronic Media Coordinator and that encompasses a lot of different job responsibilities. The main part of my job is updating and maintaining the ILCA website. This includes accepting and approving ILCA Advertising applications to post on the Worldwide Education Calendar and Career Mart. In addition to updating the ILCA website, I also manage ILCA’s Continuing Education website, process Independent Study Module answer sheets, manage ILCA CERPS onDemand webinars, work with the Social Media Coordinator to maintain ILCA’s social media pages, and send out listservs to the ILCA membership. I also answer a majority of the phone calls that come into the ILCA office.

A typical day in the ILCA office for me starts at 8am, although I’m not sure you could really call it a “typical” day since each day is a little different than the next. The day normally starts with me checking voicemails and emails. I make sure to respond to every email as soon as possible to ensure that our members are getting the assistance they need in a timely manner. Then I move on to updating ILCA’s website and the Continuing Education website. I also am in charge of sending all ILCA listservs so if there are any to be sent out that day, I get them ready to go. Throughout this typical day, I am the first person to answer the phones and assist members with various questions about ILCA. At lunch time, the staff all get together and eat in our conference room. It is a great time for us to get to hang out and talk about non-work related things. However, lunch time conversations have been known to turn into brainstorming sessions on ILCA related subjects such as improving membership, conference and webinars. We get a lot of great ideas during these brainstorming sessions!  It is always great to collaborate with other ILCA staff. After lunch, it is back to checking emails, answering phones and updating the websites. If it is a webinar day, then I am putting on my headset and getting ready to introduce our webinar speaker. I finish up the day with more updates to the website, answering phones and responding to emails. At 4:30pm my day in the office is complete and I am back again tomorrow to do it all again.

Posted in ILCA Staff | Tagged | 1 Comment