boppy advisory network

Dr. Paul is a board-certified general pediatrician with over 20 years of clinical experience in both the pediatric office and newborn nursery settings. He is also an educator and researcher, who has conducted many studies designed to support breastfeeding. He led the development of the Newborn Weight Tool (NEWT), which is publicly available at www.newbornweight.org. NEWT is designed to help those who are breastfeeding by comparing an individual baby’s weight loss against that from a large sample of newborns.

Community-based nonprofit offering services focused on Maternal, Child and Family Health & Wellness within the State of Louisiana. The first in the country to intergrade a WIC & Healthy Start program named a Perfect Match. WIC Service provider administering services within Region 1 in the State of Louisiana and Healthy Start HRSA funded grantee focused on reducing racial disparities, infant mortality and expanding activities to address maternal mortality and morbidity in Jefferson Parish of Louisiana.

As a maternal health policy professional and extended breastfeeding mom, Denys champions health equity by advancing breastfeeding awareness, education and support through high-impact advocacy campaigns, and consensus building that engages government, nonprofit and community entities. A preeminent thought-leader, Denys has a successful record translating asks into action as the Founder and Principal of a strategic communications consultancy that specializes in developing cohesive, multilateral strategies utilizing an innovative diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racist approach. As a former Congressional Staffer and federal employee, she brings over a decade of combined experience in government and nonprofit operations, in addition to a strong working knowledge of Washington, and deeply cultivated relationships with key players in the Beltway. Denys completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at Howard University. She resides in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area with her husband, Dr. Ceylon Mitchell, and their two toddler sons.

Dr. Coulter also serves as the physical therapist in the Cranial Remolding Program at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and was instrumental in co-authoring the 2013 and 2018 update of Physical Therapy Management of Congenital Muscular Torticollis: an evidence based Clinical Practice Guideline from the American Physical Therapy Association and the manuscript Developing Evidence-Based Physical Therapy Clinical Practice Guidelines. In 2004 she co-authored the chapter Identification and Treatment of Congenital Muscular Torticollis in Infants in the 2004 supplement to JPO, Orthotic Treatment of Deformational Plagiocephaly, Brachycephaly and Scaphocephaly. In addition, she continues to lecture and published in peer review journals and books on topics relating to physical therapy interventions in children with torticollis and cranial deformations that include chapters in the Campbell’s Physical Therapy for Children, Meeting the Physical Therapy Needs for Children, and Physical Therapy Case Files: Pediatrics

Alison Jacobson has been involved with First Candle for over 20 years following the loss of her first son to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death in 1997. For six years she served on the Board of Directors and continued to play a role as spokesperson and consultant. Ms. Jacobson assumed the role of Executive Director/ CEO in 2016 and has since guided the organization through a rebranding and renewed focus on addressing the racial disparities in the rates of Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths and how implicit bias and social determinants of health factor into these deaths. This led to the development of First Candle’s safe sleep and implicit bias training program for care providers, Straight Talk for Infant Safe Sleep and their community-based parent education program Let’s Talk Chats for safe sleep and breastfeeding. Her collaborative work with organizations and agencies including the Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association, Center for Black Women’s Wellness, the March of Dimes, the NICHD, HRSA, CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics has helped her forward the organization’s mission to get every baby to their first birthday.