2025 Speakers & Topics
Prof EL-Khuffash is a Consultant Neonatologist & Paediatrician at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and a Full Professor of Paediatrics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is also a board-certified lactation consultant, a digital artist, and the lead host of the acclaimed Baby Tribe Parenting Podcast. He has over 20 years experience in newborn care and has considerable knowledge of breast-feeding medicine and experience in providing antenatal and postnatal feeding advice and support to new mothers. This includes identifying and addressing challenges to breastfeeding in both the mother and the baby. He also specialises in general feeding difficulties and early feeding issues encountered by babies. His primary clinical and research area is the assessment heart function in term and preterm neonates. He is the lead for neonatal echocardiography and heart function assessment in the neonatal intensive care unit in the Rotunda Hospital.
He is the recipient of several national and international research awards with a total grant value of over 4 million euro, over 180 international peer reviewed publications and over 30 keynote presentations. He has successfully supervised 9 post graduate PhD candidates since his return to Ireland and continues to mentor post graduate PhD students.
Prof EL-Khuffash completed a one-year fellowship in paediatric cardiology in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. Prof EL-Khuffash has assumed a leadership role at a Global level in devising training guidelines for echocardiography by the Neonatologist.
Prof EL-Khuffash graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 2002 and enrolled in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland paediatric specialist training scheme in 2005. He completed a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in University College, Dublin in 2008 and his neonatal specialty training in Toronto, Canada (2009-2011). Following this, he was appointed as a consultant Neonatologist and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto in January of 2011. He obtained a diploma in clinical epidemiology during his time in Toronto.
Explore the remarkable journey of the heart in babies born preterm, from the fragile moments of birth to the challenges they may face in adulthood. Preterm birth profoundly impacts cardiac structure and function, setting the stage for long-term cardiovascular health. Drawing on the latest research and clinical insights, I will guide the audience through the evolving understanding of preterm heart development, highlighting the unique hemodynamic challenges in the neonatal period, the adaptations in childhood, and emerging evidence of cardiovascular risk in later life. By bridging the gap between neonatal care and adult cardiology, this presentation underscores the need for a lifespan approach to the cardiovascular health of those born preterm. Together, we will reflect on the innovations that have shaped care and discuss what the future holds for this growing population.
Bobbi Pineda served in NICU OT clinical roles from 1992-2006, where she gained expertise with early therapy to fragile infants. The premature birth of her first child, in addition to her interest in transforming practice, motivated her to pursue her PhD. She then spent 14 years doing research at Washington University exploring factors that can impact the lives of high-risk infants and families. She joined University of Southern California's faculty in 2020 and continues her research within the NICU Therapy Lab, while mentoring graduate students. Her research largely aims to understand modifiable factors within the NICU environment that can improve outcomes. Targets are the early sensory environment, early therapy service delivery, and early oral feeding. She is an author of the Supporting and Enhancing NICU Sensory Experiences (SENSE) program and the Neonatal Eating Outcome Assessment.
She also has the inventor of the Preemie-Pacer bottle, which is under development and testing. She serves on the Neonatal Therapy National Certification Board, which aims to validate the experience and knowledge of those practicing in the NICU. She has also authored more than 60 peer reviewed publications and speaks internationally on the topic of the early NICU environment.
The Supporting and Enhancing NICU Sensory Experiences (SENSE) program was developed to improve the NICU environment and optimize infant and parent outcomes. It was developed using a stepwise, systematic, and scientific process that leveraged evidence on positive sensory interventions in the NICU and expert input. The SENSE program is intended to be parent-delivered and is a comprehensive approach to ensure appropriate multi-modal positive sensory exposures across hospitalization for high-risk infants in the NICU. The core concepts of the program are that it is evidence based, the interventions change across postmenstrual age, interventions are done in a way that respond to the infant’s behavioral cues and what their current needs are, parents are the ideal providers of positive sensory exposures, and simple low-cost exposures can be integrated into the daily NICU flow. During this presentation, we will discuss the rationale for improving the early sensory environment, describe the core components of the SENSE program, identify research done on the SENSE program, and discuss implementation strategies.
Céleste Johnston, OC, RN, DEd, FCAHS, is Emerita Professor of McGill University. Her research, spanning four decades, has focused primarily on pain in neonates, particularly those born preterm. She was among the first to systematically describe a multidimensional pain response in healthy infants. Thereafter, most of her neonatal studies focused on pain experiences of preterm neonates. She determined the effectiveness of some non-pharmacological interventions to relieve acute procedural pain in neonates.
Her most recent research examined the effectiveness of skin-to-skin contact, or Kangaroo Care, for reduction of acute pain response. She has held key leadership roles including being Secretary of SIG for Pain in Childhood, Council Member of IASP and President of the Canadian Pain Society. She has received numerous awards for her research including Honorary Member of IASP, Distinguished Career Award and Mentorship Award of the Canadian Pain Society, Jeffrey Lawson Award for pain advocacy in children from the American Pain Society.. Most recently Céleste was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in honour of her lifelong accomplishments in the area of pain in neonates. Her pride and joy has been the outstanding students with whom she was privileged to work.
Neonates in intensive care units undergo many tissue damaging procedures over the course of their admission which cause pain. Assessing the amount of their pain is challenging due to their inability to communicate verbally. However there are non-verbal indicators of pain, both behavioural and physiological, that parents and staff can use to assess the pain. Pharmacological interventions for pain must be used sparingly in this population as there are long term consequences associated with extensive use. There are several approaches to non-pharmacological interventions that have demonstrated efficacy: oragustatory, vestibular, positioning, sensorial, and combinations of these approaches. Learn more about these various interventions and ways to involve parents in care.
Chelsea is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT), Certified Perinatal Mental Health Clinician (PMH-C), Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), and Clinical Supervisor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Master of Arts degree with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Azusa Pacific University (APU). Chelsea is an Adjunct Professor at APU and Vanguard University, and is passionate about investing and equipping the next generation.
Together with her husband she specializes in couples’ intensives, and individually she specializes in maternal mental health. Her current work focuses on supporting women and couples in renegotiating and reprocessing through experiences of birth trauma, NICU stays, perinatal mood & anxiety disorders, perinatal grief & loss, incomplete self-protective responses, early attachment ruptures, intergenerational trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, and infidelity and betrayal.
In addition to her focus on maternal mental health and couples counseling, she has extensive experience working with developmental & complex trauma, HIV/AIDS, addiction and substance abuse as a former Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor (CATC), shame, loss of identity and self-harm behaviors, & has international experiences working clinically in Kenya, East Africa. Chelsea and her husband reside in Orange County, CA with their two daughters, one of whom was a 29+0 weeker, spending 61 days in the NICU at the height of the second wave of the pandemic.
Care providers in the NICU are called to sit with clients in the ambiguous, painful, and unexpected encounters a preterm birth brings. Counselling is meant to be helpful, supportive, and bring clarity to our clients to the best of our efforts, but how do we show up for our clients when the road ahead is so uncertain, and paved with fears of what’s to come and memories of what was? How can we take a bottom-up approach to offer healing and grounding to parents who are stuck in survival mode? How can we nurture integration and be the caretakers of our clients’ nervous systems? This presentation aims to answer some of these questions while equipping clinicians with practical tools to promote a holistic healing process through the NICU and beyond through the lens of Somatic Experiencing®.
Debbie Fraser is a nurse practitioner and the curriculum lead for the NP program at Athabasca University. She is the director for Nursing Professional Development with the Academy of Neonatal Nursing and the Editor-in-Chief of Neonatal Network. Debbie speaks widely on topics related to the care of high risk neonates. In addition she has written over 80 neonatal-related peer reviewed articles and book chapters.
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is one of the major morbidities affecting premature infants worldwide. With effects ranging from mild vision impairment to blindness, ROP can have a lifelong impact on the outcome of VLBW infants. The incidence of ROP varies widely between developed and developing countries but also across states and provinces. The exact etiology of ROP remains elusive as do strategies to prevent the development of this disease. This presentation will review the current understanding of the pathophysiology of ROP and will review strategies to prevent and treat this devastating disease.
Dr. O’Connor is a PhD-trained nutritional scientist and dietitian who is currently the Earle W. McHenry Professor, and Chair, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She holds cross appointments in the Translational Medicine Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital. At SickKids, she previously served as Director of Clinical Dietetics and Breastfeeding Support, and then as Associate Chief of Academic and Professional Practice.
Dr O’Connor is best known for her work in running complex feeding trials examining strategies to support optimal feeding of very low birth weight infants with long-term follow-up. Over the past 10 years her team has integrated investigation of the milk and gut microbiota into their research to understand how early feeding can influence colonization in the VLBW infant gut. Dr. O’Connor has received numerous awards in acknowledgment of her translational research including most recently the Earle W. McHenry Award for Distinguished Service in Nutrition, and Fellow Distinction from the Canadian Nutrition Society (their most prestigious senior awards). She is also a recipient of a Tier#1 Canada Research Chair in Human Milk and Infant Nutrition.
Early development of the gut microbiota in infancy can have a profound impact on short- and long-term health; mediated in part by the gut microbiota’s role in nutrient metabolism, training the developing immune system, and protecting against pathogens. Early feeding practices (parent milk, formula; at breast/chest, bottle feeding) in healthy term-born infants influence which microbes an infant first acquires which, in turn, helps shape the trajectory of microbial development across the first postnatal years. Hospitalized infants, most notably preterm infants born of very low birthweight (VLBW 1250 grams), have perturbed gut colonization for several reasons including separation from parents, tube feeding (vs at the breast/chest), high supplement use (e.g. pasteurized donor human milk, formula), and routine antibiotic use. This presentation provides a synopsis of the plethora of recent evidence using advanced technologies used to characterize gut colonization in term-born breast/chest-fed infants and how and why this differs in hospitalized VLBW infants. Associations between early feeding practices, the microbiota found in human milk, and gut colonization will be discussed, as well asevidence that several of the benefits of mother’s own milk feeding may be mediated through gut colonization.
Dr. Jessica Daigle, known as “Dr. Jess,” is a board-certified pediatrician, neonatal/pediatric hospitalist, and the Founder/CEO of Mom & Me MD. A mother of two preemies, she brings both personal and professional insight to her work. Dr. Jess leads a concierge practice in Atlanta, GA, offering in-home and virtual follow-up care for NICU graduates to support the transition home. Her practice empowers parents, particularly mothers, to navigate life after the NICU with resilience.
Dr. Jess is a sought-after speaker, addressing topics on compassionate care, reducing NICU bias, and supporting the mental health of NICU families. She has presented at major conferences, including the National Association of Neonatal Nurses and the Black Maternal Mental Health Summit. Additionally, she offers specialized training for doulas and birth workers, focusing on communication, compassionate care, and cultural sensitivity in the NICU setting.
Her insights and advocacy have been featured in podcasts like Dear NICU Mama and All About Pregnancy & Birth with Dr. Nicole Rankins. She is also a co-author in Made for More: Physician Entrepreneurs Practicing Medicine and Living Life on Their Own Terms. Dr. Jess lives in South Atlanta with her husband and two children. Follow her on LinkedIn @jessdaiglemd
In the high-stakes world of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the way we communicate can profoundly shape the experiences of families and staff alike. This keynote presentation explores the transformative power of language, communication, and empathy in fostering trust, connection, and healing in the NICU. Empathy serves as the foundation that bridges verbal, non-verbal, and written communication, ensuring interactions are meaningful and supportive. Through research, real-world examples, and actionable strategies, participants will learn how empathetic communication creates a psychologically safe environment, mitigates emotional trauma, and enhances relationships between healthcare professionals and families. Together, we will reflect on the impact of words, tone, and gestures while exploring practical tools to promote connection, collaboration, and compassionate care in the NICU.
Dr. Jennifer Barnes is the Neonatal Intensive Care Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, NC. She has almost 15 years of experience within the field. Dr. Barnes received her bachelor’s degree at Virginia Tech and her Doctor of Pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia. She completed her pharmacy practice residency at Alamance Regional Medical Center- Cone Health. Dr. Barnes is board certified in pediatric pharmacotherapy. She is also an active member of the Pediatric Pharmacy Association (PPA) and has served as the neonatology committee chair. Dr. Barnes serves as a clinical assistant professor for pharmacy advanced practice rotations for University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina, Wingate University and High Point University. Her current research areas of interest include the role of diuretics in bronchopulmonary dysplasia treatment and antibiotic stewardship for late-onset sepsis amongst other topics.
Parenteral nutrition (PN) is ubiquitous in the neonatal intensive care units and many neonates require longer durations of PN that increase their risk of associated liver disease. PNALD is associated with significant morbidities including liver transplantation and mortality. Preventing these adverse effects and early treatment are essential. During this presentation we will discuss PN modifications including differing lipid therapies. We will review the literature for different lipid emulsions in detail and their role in not only treatment but prevention. Lastly, we will discuss pharmacologic agents that are used as adjunctive therapies.
Jodie Simich is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in one of the leading hospitals in New Zealand. She has been in this role for more than three years which entails working closely with the medical and nursing team in delivering quality care to patient and family. It is a role that Jodie finds challenging but very rewarding.
Central line insertion is a common procedure performed in the NICU. This is particularly important in preterm and/or sick neonates requiring vascular access for nutrition and medications. However, the use of central lines comes risk, in particular, central line associated bacteremia (CLAB). This presentation will delve in to the what, why and how of CLAB prevention.
Justine is the Clinical Nurse Consultant in NICU at John Hunter Children’s Hospital, which follows 17 years as Nurse Educator. Her main clinical interests in neonatology have focussed on organ donation in the newborn, identifying and responding to deterioration, palliative care, feeding methods in NICU, neonatal networking and unit variations in outcome. Her latest passion has become sustainability and working towards reducing NICUs carbon footprint.Justine is a member of the Executive of Australian College of Neonatal Nurses and chairing the Standards for Practice working group.
The World Health Organisation has listed climate change as posing the single biggest threat to the health of the global population. Healthcare, internationally, will see significant impacts affecting the people they serve. Making changes to healthcare and the way in which it is delivered can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the sector. Health services currently contribute approximately 7% of Australia’s entire carbon footprint. Intensive care units have a much higher carbon footprint than general wards, using a large amount of energy, pharmaceuticals, single-use products and generating large volumes of waste. Therefore, as part of the acute care health system, NICU services have an important role to play in reducing waste, recycling products, reducing single-use items and reviewing routine testing. This presentation will discuss impacts of climate change on maternal & child health, particularly as it relates to neonatal care, as well as outline actions that can be taken now, and into the future, with examples of innovation from around the world.
Michelle has been a respiratory therapist for 23 years. Working in the neonatal population for approximately 22 of those years, she was the Neonatal Respiratory Care Specialist for a large organization, where she enjoyed bringing evidenced based practice to the bedside.
Preterm babies are highly susceptible to oxidative stress which can lead to organ damage. This presentation will review the current evidence for neonatal oxygen management, adjusting oxygen concentration and contraindications to over oxygenation. Also discussed will be endotracheal tube management, including techniques to properly secure and manage intubated patients to avoid accidental dislodgement of the endotracheal tube.
Naomi Bar-Yam, ACSW, PhD, has been working in maternal and child health for over 35 years as an educator, researcher, advocate, and writer. Her professional training is in social work and social policy. Naomi is past president of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) and the founder and director emerita of Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast, which provides safe donor milk to hospitals and families throughout the northeastern US. She writes and speaks widely on technical, ethical and policy aspects of milk banking, breastfeeding and maternal and child health.
This presentation primarily addresses bedside NICU care providers including nurses, lactation consultants, physicians, dieticians and therapists. Full term nursery providers and community breastfeeding professionals will also benefit from this presentation. Topics covered include: practical information on how to collect, store, and prepare mothers’ own milk and donor milk in the NICU; how to talk with parents in an ongoing conversation about breastfeeding and use of donor milk in the NICU and beyond; hospital protocols and equipment that will improve safety and support breastfeeding in the NICU and nursery and strategies for strengthening providers’ impact on hospital policies that support NICU parents and babies.
Prof. Welma Lubbe is a professor in Nursing and Midwifery at North-West University and the director of the NuMIQ research focus area within the School of Nursing Science. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, presented at numerous national and international conferences, and written professional and parenting articles. Her research centers on neurodevelopmental supportive care for preterm infants, leading the INDeSC program, and she holds a C1-rating from the South African National Research Foundation for international recognition.Prof.
Lubbe serves her third term as the South African representative on the Council of International Neonatal Nurses. She is a member of both the Graven’s Developmental Care Consensus panel and the SCENE research group. Additionally, she is an international advisor for the Journal of Neonatal Nursing.As founder of Little Steps®, a support organization for preterm parenting, she created South Africa’s first evidence-based website on prematurity and offers educational programs. Prof. Lubbe also collaborates with various media and professional organizations and is the author of Prematurity – Adjusting your dream (2008 & 2021). She is passionate about empowering parents of newborns and premature babies.
This presentation aims to illuminate the critical role of positioning in promoting neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm infants. We will first define neurodevelopmental care and explore its significance in the neonatal context, focusing on how positioning influences sensory experiences, which are essential for brain development. Research findings will be presented, highlighting the short and long-term benefits associated with effective neurodevelopmental care.
Next, we will identify evidence-based positioning strategies and interventions designed to optimize physical development and minimize complications. Key guidelines will be reviewed, along with the use of various positioning aids. Emphasizing family-centered care, we will discuss strategies for actively involve parents in positioning decisions, fostering a collaborative approach to infant care.
Finally, practical skills for assessing and implementing individualized positioning plans will be introduced. Participants will learn to evaluate an infant's positioning and create personalized plans to support development. Hands-on practice will be facilitated through the use of mannequins or simulations, equipping attendees with the necessary techniques to enhance the care of preterm infants in neonatal settings.
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Annet Mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became a mother for the first time. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer with the Dutch breastfeeding Organization and in 2008 sat for and passed the exam administered by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, she now
Annet Mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became a mother for the first time. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer with the Dutch breastfeeding Organization text text text text more name mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became.
Dr. Speakers Full Name
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