WoW Woman in FemTech I Sarah Kellogg Neff, CEO of The Lactation Network

Sarah Kellogg Neff is CEO of The Lactation Network (TLN), where she leads the purpose-driven team in its mission to make lactation care accessible and inclusive.

Sarah is fighting to create a world where all parents have equal access to the vital information and resources they need to best care for themselves and their children. Through education, connection, and advocacy, TLN fosters a network of inclusive care, where moms and International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) empower each other to thrive. TLN is the go-to source for lactation education, a one-stop shop for lactation products and services, and a key initiator of lactation health awareness. 

In her free time, Sarah is a mentor in 1871, advising early-stage founders in brand strategy and development across the healthcare industry. She lives in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village with her husband and Weimaraner.

The Lactation Network is the nation’s largest network of IBCLCs, working to raise awareness for lactation support and ensuring it is both accessible and inclusive, by connecting families to this care through their health insurance. Services include prenatal consultations and lactating consultations postpartum, as well as a wide selection of the best breast pumps and accessories on the market. By fostering community, curating resources, and removing social stigma, The Lactation Network is redefining how we think about, talk about and approach feeding our babies.

Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

As the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran and an early childhood development professional, I have an innate sense of service. This perspective initially led me to pursue my legal degree but along the way, I found myself advocating for others by growing purpose-driven companies. Today, I am the CEO of The Lactation Network, where I get to put this perspective to work every day and fight to ensure that every family gets the expert, insurance-covered lactation care they deserve. 

Since launching in 2016, we have become the nation’s largest network of IBCLCs with consultants in all 50 states plus D.C, and are helping nearly 10,000 families each month. As a team, in the past year, we’ve tripled revenue and our monthly lactation visit volume as well as the company’s headcount -- all while maintaining customer satisfaction. As I oversee our talented team, keeping them focused, motivated and set up for success, my goal is to ensure the company’s mission is always on the horizon and I am proud to spend each day as a conscientious steward of our brand. 

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

Throughout my career, I've loved growing purpose-driven companies–from a stealth legal education SaaS start-up to most recently originating the CMO role for Graymont Medical, a six-company healthcare portfolio. In February 2021 I stepped into the CEO seat of the portfolio’s women’s health company, The Lactation Network (TLN), where I saw an opportunity to raise my voice on behalf of those who might otherwise suffer in silence.

Every day we hear from families, sharing how they would have given up breastfeeding if it weren’t for their TLN lactation consultant. Parents are on their fourth child and wish they’d known about us for their first. We also get notes from our consultants telling us how they can finally pay for their kid’s braces, or that they can pay their student loans for the first time because they’re working with TLN. Every morning I wake up grateful to help families reach their feeding goals and consultants grow their practices.

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

I have about two decades of professional experience. That said, in many ways I’ve been preparing to become a CEO since I was 16 years old. I’ve always thrived on building and leading high-performing teams. 

Healthcare is tough because our system is convoluted and complex, and it often puts patients last. It’s also literally life or death, so the stakes are as high as they get. And the forces supporting the status quo are real: I can’t even recount the number of times I’ve been told that TLN can’t do what we’re already doing or that the problems we’re solving aren’t problems at all. As a culture, we chronically understudy women’s bodies and undervalue women’s pain. So indifference is a huge obstacle, but fighting indifference lights me up. 

What are your biggest achievements to date?

At TLN, we’re changing the lactation consultant profession by creating a viable path to independence that consultants now build their practices around. In a discipline where lactation consultants often give their expert services away for free, partnering with TLN enables them to reach new patients and help their patients get the insurance-covered care they deserve. TLN is creating an ecosystem where consultants can do more than survive—they can thrive. 

In addition, as part of our work connecting all families to insurance-covered care, I’m passionate about driving inclusion across the industry. In 2021, we began offering LGBTQ+ sensitivity training for the first time and all of our IBCLCs also receive access to The Melanated Mammary Atlas, a searchable directory of images of various breast-related conditions on brown skin that provides the single largest collection of such images for diagnostics, assessment and education purposes. We are also working on partnerships with The B.L.A.C.K. Course to further ensure culturally sensitive care for BIPOC families, and sponsor scholarships for the breastfeeding education course made by and for Black People and those supporting black breastfeeding.

Lastly, in 2022, we launched The Lactation Network Fund, a grant program that seeks to create pathways for economic empowerment, resiliency, and independence while ensuring the sustainability of lactation care. The primary objective of the grant program is to drive equity in access to the IBCLC profession, thereby enabling culturally competent care and increasing patient access to high-quality lactation education and support. As we remove barriers to entry into the field of lactation care, we hope to cultivate a more diverse pipeline of IBCLC candidates.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

Over the past few years, I forged relationships with key federal representatives in the House and Senate to impact public policy around lactation rights and accessibility to care. I’m working shoulder-to-shoulder with regulators and policymakers to ensure that the Affordable Care Act’s mandate is real for all American families. In 2023, we hope to further this effort by continuing to expand our network and help reach more families in need, eliminating access deserts, identifying ways to reach communities in need of lactation support, and continuing to advocate for the lactation consultant profession.

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

Women in Tech often work in historically female-dominated functions such as marketing and HR. So how we think about “tech” needs to continue to evolve, and we need to invite more women into different functions. 

It is also important to rethink what it means to be a “visionary.” Our notion of visionaries is both Silicon Valley-centric and male-dominated. Not every visionary looks, acts or sounds like Elon Musk. Nor should we.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?

As tech continues to expand beyond certain geography and a certain demographic, we have an incredible opportunity to redefine which problems we think are worth solving and who gets to go about solving them. Women’s health generally, and maternal health specifically, are finally coming to the forefront. Women’s pain is starting to be taken seriously and I love seeing companies tackling moments from fertility to menopause and more. There is a long way to go, but I’m proud to be a part of this long overdue movement. 

I’m particularly proud of the problems that TLN is working on solving: Making sure that every family who wants lactation care can get it, and that expert lactation consultants can build thriving practices and achieve economic independence. 

Our economy assigns very little (if any) economic value to caregiving, despite the obvious reality that our economy would come to a screeching halt without it. The fact that caregiving often occurs in the home, rather than in the public sphere, compounds this undervaluation. 

Whether breastfeeding a baby or caring for a new lactating family, caregiving is overwhelmingly done by women, and it’s done in the home. When people say that breastfeeding is free, the underlying assumption is that women’s time is free. And when lactation consultants, a field dominated by women, are expected to work for a pittance or donate their time, our culture again reinforces the idea that women’s time is free. My vision is of a world where caregiving has social and economic value. This is a problem that is worth tackling, and a tech-enabled approach is helping us tackle it at TLN. We’re not a typical tech company–and I savor that. 

We’re also rethinking what it means to create an inclusive, female-friendly work environment. When we know that women are more likely to be interrupted and to have our ideas second-guessed and our judgment questioned, what do we do with that information? Meeting culture is front and center here. Especially when I’m collaborating with my team, it’s incumbent upon me to make sure everyone feels comfortable speaking up, and everyone feels comfortable disagreeing with me. I lean on questions like “Does anyone disagree?” or “What am I missing?”  or “You disagreed with me before–have I convinced you yet?” to invite my team to consider all angles of a problem–and to acknowledge that I don’t have all the answers. 

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

I think of career-changers like me and I’d tell them don’t be afraid to change direction. I decided in high school that I wanted to be a federal prosecutor and then a judge; I spent 10 years on that path, graduated law school, earned my license, and then decided not to practice law. Don’t get caught up in sunk costs or what other people tell you that you should be doing. Healthcare is an industry that demands innovation, and much of that innovation will come from beyond the industry. A favorite quotation of mine is: If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. 

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

Senator Duckworth. A pioneer in so many arenas, including becoming the first Senator to give birth while in office and to breastfeed on the Senate floor. A relentless advocate for women, families, and veterans.

Leah Ward Sears. The first Black woman to become chief justice of a state supreme court. I had the opportunity to work with her a few years ago and have admired her ever since.  

Zoe Schor. Chef and owner of Chicago restaurant Split Rail and cocktail bar, Dorothy. She’s writing different, better rules on what it means to be in the restaurant industry–and making great food while she’s at it.

Find out more about The Lactation Network on their website.

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This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.