An Update from Mudiwah Kadeshe, ILCA President

As the president of the board of directors of the International Lactation Consultant Association^® (ILCA^®), I deeply value listening carefully to you, our members. I also want to be transparent with you about our organization. In 2019, I will be sharing with you the things that have excited me, the ways ILCA is stepping forward, and invite you to tell me what is and is not working for you as an ILCA member.

We have set big goals for the year ahead. We want to provide you with outstanding education and connection – whether in person or virtually. We are working to increase access to education, improve technology to serve you, and provide you with additional tools as we work together towards equity in the profession. We are excited to be doing this work together with you, our members and volunteers.

I cannot wait to see you 24 – 27 July in Atlanta, Georgia, United States for ENGAGE, our annual conference and general meeting. In addition to this great opportunity to get together, our board of directors will also be embarking on an international listening tour so that we can hear from you in your own community. Keep an eye on your weekly ILCAlert for more information.

We are working hard to increase access to member benefits. Soon, we will offer closed captioning on all recorded webinars. The expectation is that this visual word tool will allow more of our members to experience these great educational sessions, while laying the foundation for providing translations of these webinars.

To achieve all of our goals, we need your help. Soon, we will launch  a new structure for our volunteers. We have heard you. Our present way of engaging with volunteers has been challenging and we have not always made the space for you to work to the best of your ability. The  board of directors is committed to providing direction so that you, our volunteers, can put your expertise into action. Our volunteer application process will open soon!

Of course, big goals require funding. I am pleased to share that we have approved our 2019 ILCA budget. While this year’s budget may be ambitious, I believe that we can achieve our goals and be fiscally responsible. While we have not historically published our current year budgets, I encourage our members to explore our financial audits and minutes for our past Board of Directors meetings (please note that this link is available to members only). And, as always, I am happy to engage with you about ILCA’s financial health and priorities.

We are currently looking for a new member to our Board of Directors to fill the role of Secretary. You can read more about the position in our recent post at Lactation Matters. Please consider whether you or a colleague would be a good fit to help provide leadership as we work together to “transform world health through breastfeeding and skilled lactation care.”

I want to hear from you. It is vital that I know what joys and challenges you face in your daily work and how ILCA can better support you through our core values of knowledge, equity, and diversity. As we experienced at last year’s conference, we truly are better together. You can email me anytime at president@ilca.org.