The Team

Gillian Weaver has specialised in the field of human milk banking for over 36 years. Throughout this time, she has been committed to driving improvements in safety, quality and sustainability of human milk banking as well as to promoting and facilitating equity of access to donor human milk for all infants who will benefit. She was the co-founder (1997) and chair/national forum lead (2003 – 2015) of the UK Association for Milk Banking (UKAMB – https://ukamb.org) and co-founder (2010) and president (2012-2015) of the European Milk Bank Association (EMBA – https://europeanmilkbanking.com). Gillian has contributed to the development of internationally recognized standards and guidelines for the UK, Europe, India, and South East Asia and is currently a member of the GDG for the development of global guidelines/standards by the WHO. In 2020 Gillian founded the Global Alliance of Milk Banks and Associations (GAMBA), a virtual network that facilitates ongoing communications with members from over 50 countries.

Flic is a digital communications specialist with over 20 years’ experience managing award-winning campaigns for charities and healthcare brands on a global level. With a psychology degree and having first started her career in the NHS, she has always wanted to make a difference to people’s lives. Flic initially became involved in the Hearts Milk Bank as a milk donor in 2017 and helped to launch the HMF charity in 2018. Her role includes managing communications for the Hearts Milk Bank and Human Milk Foundation across all channels including our website, social media, press/tv/radio/print, and the creation of fundraising and outreach campaigns through video. Flic also works with Trusts and Foundations applying for grant funding, strategic planning and impact reporting and manages the relationships with our charity corporate partners. Flic is passionate about creating societal change in how we support new parents and changing perceptions of human milk.

Tina Crombie has been on the HMF Board of Trustees since 2020. Tina has a background in biological sciences and law, project and contract management and intellectual property (IP). She is co-founder of Astute,  implementing scalable systems and processes for life science companies. She has 25 years’ life science business experience and is an experienced charity trustee. Tina joined the HMF to help navigate challenges and opportunities in growing the organisation to contribute to delivery of the best possible support for families.

Gemma joined the HMF board as a Trustee in January 2021. She has lived experience of our work, having been a milk donor following the birth of her son, Wilf. Gemma is a Consultant Obstetrician with a special interest in maternal medicine at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, providing holistic care for women with diabetes and other medical conditions in pregnancy and beyond.  She brings with her an understanding of the complex landscape of health care in England and hopes to help the HMF achieve its ambition of equitable access to human milk.

Emma joined the HMF Trustee Board in 2022. After spending 9 years as a primary school teacher and Deputy Head in inner London, Emma became a mother and realised how desperately breastfeeding support was needed by so many. She qualified as a Breastfeeding Counsellor with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers in 2007 and started volunteering on the Department of Health’s National Breastfeeding Helpline when it first opened, alongside offering support for families at home and at drop-in groups.

Emma became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2011 and re-certified in 2016 and 2021. She works as a private lactation consultant and also continues to offer voluntary support at groups across West Haringey and on the National Breastfeeding Helpline and ABM national helpline. 

In 2022, Emma received the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain award for outstanding contribution to breastfeeding.

Simon held the position of Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Sussex, where he was responsible for driving excellence in research and teaching for 30 years. He has since served on and chaired a number of UK and European research grant review panels, and he is currently Secretary and an active volunteer and Trustee at SERV Sussex (charity No.284455). Most recently, Simon has helped to co-ordinate the set-up of the Hearts Milk Bank donor milk hub in Sussex. In his role as Trustee with the Human Milk Foundation he brings his unique skill sets to helping drive excellence and innovation through our programme of research, in support of infant and maternal health.

Julie joined the HMF Board of Trustees in 2025. She has experienced our work on both ends, as her son received donor milk in his first days in the neonatal unit and she became a milk donor later after it proved medically necessary to put him on specialised formula. Her prior experience is in the tech industry, implementing and managing large-scale data infrastructure and governance for big tech and fintech. She brings project management and operations skills to the HMF, supporting effective delivery and sound organisational processes.

Alison Spiro PhD, MSc, RGN, RHV, QN

Alison joined the Human Milk Foundation as a trustee in 2026. 

She trained as a nurse and a health visitor in the 1970s and worked at St Georges Hospital and two outer London boroughs. She then worked as a health visitor in Harrow for 30 years and an NCT breastfeeding counsellor, and a tutor. She completed her MSc in medical anthropology in 1994, studying Gujarati mothers’ attitudes to breastfeeding and then proceeded to PhD in social anthropology in 2004. Alison has published in anthropological, nursing and health visiting journals and contributed to book chapters. She has worked as a specialist health visitor and infant feeding lead in a community and a hospital NHS trust, taking them both to be Baby Friendly accredited by Unicef in 2014. She became a Queen’s Nurse in 2014 and won the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s Award for Outstanding Service in 2015.  

Alison was a committee member of the NICE Faltering Growth Committee in 2017 and was involved in the UK Government’s ‘Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly’ project. She was breastfeeding advisor for the Institute of Health Visiting between 2017-2023. Her book ‘Breastfeeding for Public Health, a Guide for Community Healthcare Professionals’, was published by Routledge in 2022. She worked on the Steering Group for the two UK Reports for the World Breastfeeding Trends initiative, launched in 2016 and 2024 in Parliament. She is an Honorary Lecturer at Brunel University, London and now works as a volunteer at a breastfeeding support group and a local baby bank.  

Dr Jim Gray has been a Consultant Microbiologist at Birmingham Children’s and Women’s Hospitals since 1995. He has research and clinical interests in the prevention and management of obstetric and neonatal infections, and has worked on several programmes with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). His introduction to working with NICE was as a member of the ‘Donor milk banks: service operation Guideline Development Group’. Jim is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospital Infection (the official journal of the Healthcare Infection Society) and has editorial responsibilities with a number of other academic journals.

Wendy Jones was a community pharmacist and also worked in GP surgeries supporting cost effective, evidence-based prescribing. She qualified as a pharmacist prescriber. Wendy left work in 2011 to work on writing her book Breastfeeding and Medication (Routledge 2013), developing information and training material on drugs in breast milk. She also recently published Breastfeeding for Dads and Grandmas (Praeclarus Press) and Why Mothers Medication Matters (Pinter and Martin). Wendy runs a helpline service on the use of medication in breastfeeding mothers for a UK charity, responding to healthcare professionals and mothers. She has been a breastfeeding supporter for 30 years. Wendy is passionate that breastfeeding should be valued by all and that medication should not be a barrier.

Professor Amy Brown is Programme Director for the MSc in Child Public Health at Swansea University, specialising in teaching about the impact of pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period upon child health and wellbeing. A psychologist by background, she is also Director of the Centre for Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translation (LIFT) conducting vital research into new parents’ experiences of feeding their baby and the interplay between this and parenting styles and mental health. She has published widely across these topics, helping to inform policy and practice both in the UK and internationally.

Professor Brown has collaborated on a number of research projects with the Human Milk Foundation across topics such as the impact of receiving donor human milk on parental mental health and wellbeing, milk donor perceptions of the acceptability of breastmilk as a tool in breast cancer research, modifiable barriers to human milk donation and improving resilience in human milk banking. She manages our donor milk hub in Swansea and is helping to expand our milk banking services across South Wales.

My volunteering role with the HMF began in 2020. I was sitting at home undergoing treatment for breast cancer and thought it would be an opportunity to do something positive and keep my mind busy! So far I have enjoyed assisting at events, seeking out donations of prizes for raffles and coming up with ideas for fundraising, such as a virtual balloon race. It is exciting to be a part of this growing charity, the team always make me feel appreciated and valued, which I can say, hand on heart made a huge difference to my mental state during my treatment.

Jan is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and formerly a tutor and breastfeeding counsellor /  supporter with the National Childbirth Trust and the Breastfeeding Network. She is one of our team of volunteers in Norfolk supporting with our hubs and projects in the region.

Jo is one of our volunteers in Norfolk and helps with our hubs and projects in the region.