Who We Are
Board of Trustees
Debbie Barnett MBE | Chair
Debbie is current Chair of UKAMB and the Milk Bank Technical Advisory Group of ICCBA and a member of the Standards Committee. Her path into milk banking came after a varied career initially as a general nurse and then a midwife. She had a number of roles which gave her a variety of skills including research, IT, e-health, quality improvement and project development. Since taking up her post as an Infant Feeding Advisor and Donor Milk Bank Coordinator in 2009, she has led the development of Milk Bank Scotland, a nationwide milk bank service covering the whole of Scotland. She has also had the pleasure of working internationally supporting milk banks and infant feeding practices in Vietnam, Africa, India and Pakistan. She is delighted to be supporting UKAMB through this transition phase and to work with like-minded organisations to build resilience for the future.
Shel Banks | Vice Chair
Shel Banks is an IBCLC working part time in the NHS in Lancashire, she also has a small private practice and works with a number of international organisations to support improved infant feeding outcomes for families everywhere, providing teaching, writing and other expertise.
Shel has been involved in 3 Cochrane systematic reviews and the development of 3 NICE guidelines, including CG93 on Donor Milk Banking.
She has 4 teenagers and has been a Trustee of UKAMB for around 10 years.
Jackie Hughes | Trustee
I undertook Midwifery training following qualification as a nurse, then continued to work as a midwife on Labour ward and in the community and really enjoyed home births, during this time I undertook a degree in Applied Psychology and then studied for a Master’s degree in Public Health, these opportunities have supported my career and have been invaluable in all that I do.
I progressed to Midwifery management and later on HNS management when part of my role involved amalgamating Wirral and Chester Milk Banks. This increased my interest and understanding of Milk Banking.
In April 2015 became Strategy Manager for the Milk bank at Chester (formerly North West Human Milk Bank). During this time, I became Chair of Trustees for UKAMB and was lucky enough to be supported to help develop the future of UKAMB and identify the needs of Milk Banking across the UK learning from different milk banks and particularly the devolved nations.
Having handed over the Chair in September 2020 to Debbie I am now happy to be in a supportive role as a Trustee as we take the Charity forward in the future.
Marion Copeland | Trustee
Marion Copeland is part of the management team for the Southwest Neonatal Network Milk Bank.
She has been a midwife for over 30 years and has been an IBCLC since 2008.
She currently works as the Infant feeding specialist midwife for the North Bristol NHS Trust and was awarded the Chief Midwifery Officer Gold Award in 2019 for her work as Infant feeding specialist and in Milk Banking.
Marion has four grown up daughters and is very proud to have two wonderful granddaughters.
Ann McCrea MBE | Trustee
Ann trained as a Nurse and Midwife in England before moving to Ireland, where she trained and practised as a Health visitor. In 1995 Ann qualified as a Lactation Consultant and is still practicing in this field.
There was a need for a Human Milk Bank in Ireland, Ann worked to get the Human Milk Bank in Irvinestown up and running. The Milk Bank rapidly became an all-Ireland Service and has moved twice to cope with the high volumes of milk required for the babies.
Ann has been involved in the work of UKAMB since 1999.
Erin Zoharie | Trustee
Erin is a two-time breastmilk donor and started donating to the Queen Charlotte Hospital in early 2008 after the birth of her first child. Seeing the need for support of new mothers and the use of life-saving donor breastmilk, she started volunteering as treasurer for HMBC as well as training as a breastfeeding counsellor and postnatal doula. She worked for The Breastfeeding Network for five years on the maternity wards of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, helping thousands of women to establish breastfeeding from the very start of their journeys. After funding to breastfeeding support stopped in 2018, she started her own business Mummy Minder while carrying on her volunteering with UKAMB.
Simon Dyall | Trustee
Dr Simon Dyall leads the Clinical Neuroscience programme at the University of Roehampton, London and is Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma, Queen Mary University of London. He is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and Trustee at UKAMB and in addition to being an elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) he is a member of numerous scientific societies and professional bodies and is on the Editorial Board of the journal, Lipids in Health and Disease.
His research sits at the interface of neuroscience, neurobiology, nutrition, and psychology (Nutritional Neuroscience). His Neuroactive Lipids Lab utilises both pre-clinical and clinical approaches to explore the role of lipids in brain protection and repair during development, aging and after neurotrauma. His current research interests are focusing on two main areas; the perinatal period, particularly around optimising the fatty acid intake of preterm infants, and the role of omega-3 fatty acids and allied nutrients in mobility and cognition in aging.
Tanya Cassidy | Special Advisor
Dr Tanya M. Cassidy is ethics advisor for UKAMB. She is a cultural social psychologist by training, with over three decades of experience working in the UK, Europe and North America. She is a Fulbright-HRB (Irish Health Research Board) Health Impact Scholar, an EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Award (MSCA) Fellow, and an Irish Health Research Board Cochrane Fellow. She is International Convenor in the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy, Community Health, Faculty of Science and Health, Dublin City University, Ireland.
Scientific Advisory Board
Simon Dyall | Chair
Dr Simon Dyall leads the Clinical Neuroscience programme at the University of Roehampton, London and is Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma, Queen Mary University of London. He is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and Trustee at UKAMB and in addition to being an elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) he is a member of numerous scientific societies and professional bodies and is on the Editorial Board of the journal, Lipids in Health and Disease.
His research sits at the interface of neuroscience, neurobiology, nutrition, and psychology (Nutritional Neuroscience). His Neuroactive Lipids Lab utilises both pre-clinical and clinical approaches to explore the role of lipids in brain protection and repair during development, aging and after neurotrauma. His current research interests are focusing on two main areas; the perinatal period, particularly around optimising the fatty acid intake of preterm infants, and the role of omega-3 fatty acids and allied nutrients in mobility and cognition in aging.
Aleksandra Wesolowska
Aleksandra Wesolowska is affiliated as an Assistant Professor in Department of Medical Biology at Medical University of Warsaw and currently she is Head of The Laboratory of Human Milk and Lactation Research at the Regional Human Milk Bank in the Holy Family Hospital. She is a President of Human Milk Bank Foundation since 2009 when it has started promoting human milk banking in Poland. In 2012 she organized the first laboratory in Poland fully equipped with human milk bank resources to focus on the research on human milk and the care of mother and child. Since 2014 so far, she has been a member of the Board of European Milk Bank Association. Her current scientific interests are biochemistry of human milk, nutritional therapy, and the challenge of preterm feeding in NICIU including low own mother’s milk supply and access to safe donor milk.
Konstantinos Gerasimidis
Professor Konstantinos Gerasimidis is Professor of Clinical Nutrition. He has graduated in Nutrition and Dietetics and completed his postgraduate studies in Clinical Nutrition. Professor Gerasimidis’ clinical research investigates the link between malnutrition and clinical outcomes in adults and children with acute and chronic disease. He is particularly interested in the screening and assessment of disease-associated malnutrition and its impact on patients’ clinical outcomes. His laboratory-based work explores interaction between the gut microbiota and diet in the onset and propagation of acute and chronic illnesses.
Tanya Cassidy
Dr Tanya M. Cassidy is ethics advisor for UKAMB. She is a cultural social psychologist by training, with over three decades of experience working in the UK, Europe and North America. She is a Fulbright-HRB (Irish Health Research Board) Health Impact Scholar, an EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Award (MSCA) Fellow, and an Irish Health Research Board Cochrane Fellow. She is International Convenor in the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy, Community Health, Faculty of Science and Health, Dublin City University, Ireland.
Minesh Khashu
M.B.B.S, MD, FRCPCH, FRSA, Q Fellow (Health Foundation & NHSI), Fellow England Centre for Practice Development
Consultant Neonatologist & Prof. of Perinatal Health. Dr Khashu is a clinical leader reimagining healthcare with a focus on system wide transformation, continuous Quality Improvement and Patient Centred Care. He has experience of clinical management and leadership at hospital, regional and national level including strategic change, system redesign, large scale quality improvement and development of national guidance and multi stakeholder collaboration. He is involved with multiple international research projects as well as improvement collaborations.
Dr Khashu leads with vision & compassion with a focus on inspiring individuals as well as teams. He is committed to Collaboration. “Collaboration is the most critical innovation for the healthcare today”. He is a resilient and determined problem solver and effective and supportive team leader – committed to developing and empowering talent. Dr Khashu is a well-regarded mentor and clinical leader.
Dr Khashu’s clinical interests include NEC, neonatal nutrition especially breast milk and donor human milk and neonatal quality improvement.
Cami Martin
Camilia (Cami) R. Martin M.D., M.S. is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and the Associate Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Director for Cross-Disciplinary Research Partnerships in the Division of Translational Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Boston, MA.
Dr. Martin received her M.D. from Cornell University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital/Northwestern School of Medicine where she also served as Chief Pediatric Resident. Dr. Martin completed her fellowship in Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine at the Harvard Combined Program in Neonatology. During her fellowship training, she completed a Masters in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Martin’s research interests are focused on neonatal nutrition and its impact on health and disease in the preterm infant. She has participated in multi-site clinical trials serving as the Principal Investigator at BIDMC evaluating growth and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in the extremely preterm infant. Her current research focus is on lipids and fatty acid metabolism, postnatal intestinal adaptation including the microbiome, and the nutritional impact on organogenesis, development of immune defenses, and regulation of inflammation.
SPONSORS
Labcold
Savant
Sterifeed
Versapak
UKAMB supports non-profit milk banks by assisting them to fully implement NICE Guideline and to provide safe, screened human donor milk, fully track and trace compliance across the UK and Ireland. UKAMB also recognizes the responsibility and duty of care of milk banks in ensuring donors, donor's infants and recipients are protected from harm by donating or receiving donor human milk.