Meet The OBS Team

Jayne Joyce MA, MSc, DipSW, IBCLC - Project Lead & Facilitator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Jayne, originally from Birmingham, has lived in Oxfordshire since 1990 and has 2 degrees from Oxford University, including a Masters in social work. She worked in Banbury and Oxford as a social worker with children and families, before training as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor with La Leche League in 2003 and discovering that her passion for helping children and parents to form strong relationships was most fulfilled when supporting breastfeeding! She has three daughters and was the first person in her family in living memory to breastfeed:

“I had great support with breastfeeding from a neighbour whose baby was a few months older than mine. She helped me feel comfortable feeding outside my house, came with me to my first support group meeting and taught me how life-changing it can be to have a well-informed breastfeeding friend”.

Jayne joined the OBS team as a volunteer in 2010, accredited as an IBCLC in 2011, became a regular facilitator in 2012, leading on safeguarding and volunteer training/supervision, and took on the role of Project Lead in 2018. During 2018-9 Jayne worked with Charity Mentor Tina Elder to develop both OBS's strategic focus and her own leadership skills. She offers 1:1 helping sessions.

Lisa Mansour IBCLC - Facilitator & Ethnicity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Lisa Mansour IBCLC originates from Oxfordshire, where she has lived for most of her life. She originally studied photography and discovered her passion for supporting breastfeeding when she worked in the NHS as a Maternity Support Worker from 2001-8, mostly in the community.

“I have always loved being able to help mothers and babies with breastfeeding and I felt even more inspired and passionate after experiencing a pretty easy breastfeeding relationship with my first daughter. Feeding my second daughter has been challenging at times and has taught me many very useful lessons. I cherish both deeply”.

Lisa has been involved with our organisation since 2008, and was Project Lead from 2012-18, before giving birth to her second child. She offers 1:1 helping sessions and co-facilitates the OBS Group sessions.

Charlotte Gilman BSc - Fundraising Lead & Facilitator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Charlotte has been living in Oxford since 2002. She comes from a sales and marketing background and previously worked in London as a fundraiser for the Children’s Society and NSPCC.
  
She comes from a family that struggled to breastfeed and found feeding her first baby difficult, but thanks to supportive friends, a great midwife and health visitor, managed to continue and has had a passion for breastfeeding ever since. She signed up to do the peer supporter course soon after her second child was born and volunteered at Baby Cafes for 4 years.  She then worked for the NHS as a Breastfeeding Support Worker based at Donnington and Blackbird Leys Health Centres, providing home visits to new families.

“I think my favourite learning experience was spending time Breastfeeding Clinic at the John Radcliffe Hospital. It not only taught me the importance of positioning and attachment but also the sheer determination women have to breastfeed. I knew from this special time that I wanted to spend the rest of my career supporting families at such a crucial time in their lives to achieve their breastfeeding goals. The right support can be life changing” 

Charlotte has been working as a facilitator for OBS since 2013, having been involved with the organisation as a service user and a volunteer since 2006. Now that her 3 children are older and with her 12 year background of supporting families to breastfeed, she is now training to become an IBCLC. She is also the Development Lead, working with the team to ensure we remain funded.

Charlotte offers 1:1 helping sessions and co-facilitates the Antenatal and OBS Group sessions.

Emily Tammam BSc, IBCLC - Facilitator 

Emily is originally from the Yukon in Canada, but has lived in the UK for long enough to no longer sound Canadian! She has a Bachelor of Science in Management from the London School of Economics and previously worked as an Immigration Officer at the High Commission of Canada, in London. Emily first trained as a peer supporter with the Breastfeeding Network in 2007. In 2010, she accredited as a voluntary breastfeeding counsellor with La Leche League, shortly after moving to Oxford.  She became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2017, after a decade of supporting women with breastfeeding. Alongside this, Emily has four daughters and is lucky enough to come from a family where breastfeeding was well supported.

"I remember attending an NHS antenatal breastfeeding session while pregnant for the first time and asking the breastfeeding counsellor how I could train to do what she was doing. I feel so privileged to be able to support women and families with breastfeeding in the antenatal and postnatal period, at what can be a very vulnerable time in their lives. The impact that skilled support can have is life-changing and the feelings and memories of this support can stay with a woman for the rest of her life."

Emily joined the OBS team, initially as a volunteer, in 2016. She began doing cover facilitation for the team later that year, and became a regular facilitator in 2018, after accrediting as an IBCLC. In addition, Emily is now the Project Administrator and the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead for OBS.  

Julie Gallegos RN, MPH, IBCLC - Facilitator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Julie is originally from New Mexico. She worked several years as a maternity nurse before completing a Master of Public Health at Columbia University in NYC. She then worked on several international maternal-child health projects throughout the world, including in Amman, Jordan where she qualified as an IBCLC in 2013.

Julie moved to Oxford in 2019 and joined OBS in March 2020, just as COVID was starting. Since then, she has been taking on more responsibilities with OBS behind the scenes. She joined the Facilitator team in November 2020. Julie offers 1:1 helping sessions and co-facilitates the Antenatal and OBS Group sessions.

Catriana McKie BASc, MSc - Digital Lead This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Catriana studied as a mechanical engineer in Vancouver and worked in engineering design software at the Ferrari Formula 1 team in Maranello, Italy in the early 2000s. After a Masters in Science and Technology Studies in Edinburgh, the challenges and rewards of breastfeeding her eldest son, born in 2007, started her on the path to supporting other families to breastfeed. The following year Catriana moved to the Banbury area, where her daughter was born, and she was accredited as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor (Leader) with La Leche League in 2013. She started volunteering with OBS in 2014 and took over facilitating the since closed Ambrosden session in 2015. Since the birth of her third child she has been webmaster and Digital Lead for OBS.  

Kawther Alfasi BA, MA, PhD - Operations Lead This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Kawther was born in Tripoli, Libya, and moved to the UK with her family at the age of two (the final flight out before the 1992 UN Security Council embargo took effect...or so family legend has it!) She went on to study for a BA in English Literature at Oxford University, before switching disciplines, first with a MA in Politics and Religion from Birmingham University, then a PhD in Politics from Warwick University. She worked in academic journal production at Oxford University Press until her daughter was born in 2019.

Her own, initially challenging experience of breastfeeding reinforced the importance of having timely, skilled and empathetic breastfeeding support - and how fortunate it was to be living in Oxfordshire, where that help was so readily accessible. She joined OBS as Operations Lead in January 2021.