Committees and Volunteers

Lourdes Quintana Forster developed her interest and advocacy in breastfeeding as a pediatric resident at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami. While there she formed a close relationship with Faith Ploude IBCLC, an early mentor, Florida Breastfeeding Coalition founder and force in the South Florida lactation support community. As faculty at the University of Miami Department of Pediatrics, Lourdes continued to pursue her interest in lactation support through research, particularly among Latino women, presenting her work at the FCAAP, AAP and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine conferences. Dr. Forster is the Medical Director of the faculty practice at UHealth Desai Medical Center where she works as a general pediatrician and oversees the clinical operations for the Department of Pediatrics. As part of her clinical practice she teaches general pediatrics with an emphasis on lactation education and has trained over 20 graduating classes of pediatric residents and numerous medical students as part of their ambulatory pediatric rotations.

She was named Medical Director for Reach Out and Read Florida in 2023 and has been a long-standing board member of the Healthy Start Coalition of Miami Dade.

Lourdes lives with her husband, Andrew, in Coral Gables Florida. They are proud parents to Catherine, a brilliant grad student and future child psychologist and Hank, a 4yr old Yellow Lab.

I am the proud mother of two amazing daughters, each of whom I breastfed for nearly two years. I was born in Montreal but spent a significant part of my formative years in Haiti. There, I attended medical school at the Universite Notre Dame d’Haiti before transferring to the Universidad Central del Este in Dominican Republic, where I earned my medical degree. Upon moving to the US, I obtained a certification from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and spent several years working as a case manager in a private practice. Ultimately, my interest in public health and breastfeeding led me to pursue a certificate in Human Lactation from Portland State University and become an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant. I am currently working as a Senior Health Educator for the WIC program in Broward County. I find great joy in educating families about breastfeeding and strive to increase breastfeeding rates among minorities. My dream is for breastfeeding to become such a relevant part of public health that policies come to reflect the need for impactful changes, such as maternity leave.

Tenesha Davis is an IBCLC and the owner of Paradise Lactation Care, where she supports families with compassionate, culturally aware breastfeeding guidance.

In just under a year of practice, she has become a trusted advocate for equitable lactation care, with a special focus on serving Black families and underserved communities.

Tenesha is deeply committed to helping diversify the lactation field by mentoring and supporting aspiring BIPOC lactation professionals.

She also leads Paradise Lactation Virtual Admins, a unique service that helps fellow IBCLCs manage their backend business tasks so they can focus on clinical care.

Keshia M. Jenkins, also known as “Kay,” is a Certified Full Spectrum Doula with extensive education in lactation and is currently completing her Full Spectrum Lactation Educator Certification. She is a mother of four humans (all breastfed), a maternal health advocate, and passionate educator committed to supporting families from pregnancy through early childhood. As the founder of MamaKay Birthing Services and Brain Building Consulting, Kay combines her expertise in lactation, early childhood development, and community engagement to promote equitable access to breastfeeding education and support. With a deep belief in the power of informed care and culturally responsive services, she brings both compassion and strategy to her role on the board. Kay is honored to contribute to a collective mission that uplifts and empowers breastfeeding families.