Board of Directors
Laurel Edwards Franczek
PRESIDENT
Laurel started working with Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance in 2011, during the process of MADMA forming into a non-profit organization. Laurel serves MADMA as president and as one of the triage coordinators and freezer hostesses on the east side of Madison, helping recipient families troubleshoot their babies' nutritional needs while sharing breastfeeding information and resources.
Laurel also volunteers with La Leche League and works as a Respiratory Therapist at the VA hospital. She is wife to Chris and mother to sons Ian, Alex and Erik, none of whom bat an eye at the frequent milk exchanges flowing through their home. With their two dogs, Laurel enjoys walks on local trails and in dog parks, plus reading, gardening and coffee breaks with friends.
Tanya Mudrick
VICE PRESIDENT
Tanya is honored to be an active member of the Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance board of directors, currently serving as vice president. In 2012 when her son Oren Jasper was stillborn at term, Tanya had the opportunity to pump and donate Oren's milk to other local babies who were in need. As a former midwife, a bereaved mother, and a milk donor, she can offer a unique perspective and deep compassion to bereaved donors. She knows firsthand how powerful it can be to help and connect to living babies when you have had pregnancy and infant loss. Tanya is grateful to the other bereaved board members of MADMA for the incredible support they gave her when she was pumping and feels blessed to be part of this circle of strong women. She is also blessed to have a living “Rainbow Baby”, birthed by her wife, for whom Tanya was able to re-lactate. She is excited to be a community resource for induced lactation. Her Rainbow Baby was the recipient of a generous quantity of donor milk when her wife was diagnosed with cancer as Tanya’s supply wasn’t large enough after her wife, who was co-nursing, had to wean.
In addition to working with Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance, Tanya provides education and support to others about family led funerals and green burials. She enjoys making music, doing a variety of craft projects, and spending time with her family. Tanya, recently widowed, had a phenomenally supportive wife. She has two sons at home, a grown foster daughter, and three babies who live in her heart.
Alix Loniello
SECRETARY
Alix Loniello discovered the wonderful world of human milk sharing by supporting doula clients through their infant feeding journeys. She quickly became convinced that family milk sharing must be a biological norm! Alix is delighted and honored to serve families in the Madison area as a birth doula, CLC, childbirth educator, and nurse. She believes strongly in the idea that when one gives time and resources to one’s community, they receive much more in return. She loves volunteering with MADMA, La Leche League, Pregnancy Options WI (P.O.W.E.R.S.) and the Institutes for Healing Racism.
Alix enjoys making art, taking naps, long distance running, reading all the good books, and spending time with her wonderful family: partner Dave and children Addison, Sebastien, & Valentino. Alix feels so lucky to be a part of MADMA. What she loves most of all about being a freezer hostess is hearing donor and recipient stories!
Laura Lewein
TREASURER
Laura is the daughter of a midwife and remembers going on trips with her mom to pick up coolers full of breastmilk. So it only felt natural to get involved with Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance as a milk donor after the homebirth of her daughter in 2015, and then later as a freezer volunteer in the summer of 2016 and now as treasurer. Laura is grateful to be a part of an organization that is helping increase access to breastmilk for all.
Outside of Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance, Laura works as a postpartum nurse at Meriter Hospital, enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee, CrossFit, hiking, volunteering for Ice Age Trail Alliance and camping with her husband Alex, and daughters Maya and Sonja.
Hannah Bernard-Donals
DONOR COORDINATOR
Hannah is a retired midwife and has been involved in Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance From its infant stages. In the beginning, Hannah drew labs, held milk in her freezer, and answered calls from both donors and recipients. Over the years, Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance has grown and now Hannah serves Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance through coordinating and facilitating with donors.
Hannah sees working with Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance as a natural extension of her experience as a midwife and certified lactation counselor. Hannah is the mother of three adults who, while they no longer live at home, all participated in helping move donor milk in the early days of Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance. Hannah is enjoying retirement and spending lots of time with her new grandchild.
Ingrid Andersson
MIDWIFE VOLUNTEER AND DONOR SCREENER
Ingrid performs lab draws and health screenings for milk donors, and with her husband, Hannu, manages the MADMA website. Ingrid founded MADMA in 2007 is very grateful to all the deeply caring volunteers, mothers, partners, family members, health professionals and advocates who have made Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance a sustainable milk-sharing model. Good things take a good village.
Ingrid is a nurse-midwife, activist and poet. She loves live music, good story-telling, gardening, traveling, and being with her family and other marvelous animals (30,000 honey bees, 1 dog, 5 chickens, etc.)
Miranda Welch
MIDWIFE VOLUNTEER AND DONOR SCREENER
Miranda began screening and doing lab draws for milk donors after over a decade of connecting parents in the community with MADMA. She is grateful to be a part of such a strong, loving community – to support the special ways that families care for each other.
Miranda serves our community as a Licensed Midwife and activist. She loves feminist science fiction, riot grrrl music, yummy food, loving on her wild yard and the creatures in it, and family time with her wife and three fur babies.
Susan Sandford
BOARD MEMBER
Susan assists MADMA with marketing and communications efforts. Her journey with MADMA began in 2021 after the birth of her daughter when she was unable to produce enough breastmilk. Thankful for the support and resources MADMA provided, she offered to help with the groups social media to try to raise awareness for the cause. Outside of Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance, Susan enjoys growing native plants, hiking, and art. She has three children, cats, chickens and a dog.
Raquel Shoemaker
BOARD MEMBER
Raquel graduated from Southwest Wisconsin Technical College where she earned an Associate’s degree in Midwifery. She strives to empower parents with knowledge and support while creating a fulfilling, as well as safe, birthing experience. Her unique gifts include her ability to be a gentle, unobtrusive presence in women’s lives while leaving them with the knowledge and skills they need to have confidence in their abilities. Whether you are a first-time parent or are working through a prior traumatic birth, seeking a VBAC, having breastfeeding troubles, or adjusting to parenthood and pregnancy, Raquel has the experience and skills to assist you.
Before her midwifery training, Raquel earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Special Education from St. Cloud State University. She worked as a teacher for over 12 years where she taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders. During her teaching years, she also earned a Master of Arts in Education - Moving Students Towards Resiliency from St. Catherine's University.
Alex Rogers
BOARD MEMBER
Alex found MADMA via a Facebook post looking for milk donors. During the first few days after her daughter was born, Alex and her family relied on donations to help supplement her baby's feedings. Months later, after seeing the Facebook post, Alex reached out to MADMA to learn more about donating her freezer milk in hopes of helping other families and to help alleviate some of the stress of having a new baby.
In her professional life, Alex works at a non-profit focused on early literacy with the goal of empowering parents as their child's first and best teacher. She believes there are many ways to raise healthy children and for those who want to provide milk for their babies, Alex is honored to donate.
Cathy Szudy in memoriam
From the early 1970s up to her death in 2017, Cathy's life work was pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. As an RN, an international board-certified lactation consultant and nurse-midwife, Cathy was a trail-blazer on Wisconsin breastfeeding frontiers and was a founding supporter of Madison Area Donor Milk Alliance. Helping develop milk-sharing systems in Madison and the Midwest gave her great satisfaction. Cathy was also a bereaved mother and always found time and words to help mothers who suffered loss. Over her career, Cathy helped thousands of mothers who needed guidance in breastfeeding, though her greatest pride and joy might have been the fact that her passion was passed down through her children: all her grandchildren were (are) breastfed.