About Us

Executive Board

President

Angela Lober

Ph.D., RNC, IBCLC

Angela has been an educator and clinician for over 20 years. She became an IBCLC in 2005 providing evidence-based care within an academic medical center and within her community. She has taught all aspects of breastfeeding to nurses, physicians, speech pathologist, dietitians and many other healthcare professionals and paraprofessionals for more than 15 years. She completed her Ph.D. at Arizona State University's College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation focused on the breastfeeding complexities of late preterm infants.

Secretary

Beyauna Billings

CLEC

Beyauna started her breastfeeding journey after several years in blood banking and dialysis. She recognized the importance of health education after working with populations that were unaware of the long-term impacts of their health related decisions. She is student of the Lactation Consultant Education program at UCSD and is excited about her journey of becoming an IBCLC.

Beyauna currently serves as the leader of the Young Adult Ministry at her local church. She also participates in Achieving My Purpose a mentoring group for minority women in business. Beyauna hopes to teach classes to that center on First Foods and decreasing current infant and maternal morbidity gaps.

Treasurer

Marissa Honey-Jones

IBCLC, RLC

Marissa has been supporting families with breastfeeding for over a decade. She began as a second-generation La Leche League Leader after the birth of her son, and later attended the Southwest Clinical Lactation Education program at Arizona State University, earning her IBCLC credential in 2013. Marissa sits on the board of the Central Arizona Lactation Consultant Association, is a former Volunteer Educator for Babywearing International of Phoenix, and represented Arizona at the 2016 USBC Meeting in Washington, DC.

Marissa owns her own office-based private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is passionate about empowering families, facilitating professional and community opportunities for advocacy, and is addicted to continuing education and learning.

Communication Director

Renee Palting

RN, IBCLC, RLC

Renee has been a breastfeeding advocate for over 30 years and earned her IBCLC 20+ years ago. In addition to her RN-IBCLC background, she has extensive experience in mass communication, marketing, technical writing, and non-profit development. Renee has been or is currently a member, a volunteer, or an employee for various professional and community
organizations that focus not only lactation science and services, but also women, children, and family health and advocacy. Renee is the owner of Mindful Lactation, LLC based in Tucson, Arizona. Renee has served ABC in the past as the President (2002-2007) and as Communication Director (2007-2014).

What Drives Us

Our Mission

Our mission is to work collaboratively to increase rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration to improve the health of Arizona's families.