Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA, is a lactation consultant working in private practice (since 1999), and a lawyer (since 1983).She received her certification as IBCLC in 1997, after volunteering for six years as a volunteer counselor with the Nursing Mothers' Advisory Council.Before she left the active practice of law (to stay at home with her three children), Liz worked as a criminal prosecutor, a U.S. Congressional lobbyist and a federal litigator. Her legal expertise is in ethics, lobbying, administrative and criminal law. Liz is familiar by training and experience with the array of challenges faced by lactation consultants each day. As an IBCLC, Liz has worked in: private practice (offering home visits); a hospital setting (offering prenatal education, rounding on breastfeeding mothers and babies in the full-term and Level III NICU nurseries, and providing in-service education to nurses, doctors and midwives); a non-profit, community-based breastfeeding clinic (providing IBCLC service to mothers on a sliding fee scale). Liz has served as the Secretary on the Board of Directors of the International Lactation Consultant Association (2005-2011) and she remains active in her local Pennsylvania-based USLCA chapter.She was awarded the designation of Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association (FILCA) in 2008, the inaugural year for the program.Being a leader in the professional association for IBCLCs allowed Liz to share her expertise in corporate governance and policy-development -- but she always kept an eye on how organizational decisions would trickle down to the day-to-day, working IBCLC. Liz has been a well-received speaker in local, national and international venues. Her topics include legal and ethical matters, and matters of practical administrative interest to the private practitioner.
