Meet Our board and volunteers

Founder & President

Latoya Blueford is a child-loss-survivor, former NICU-mother, Certified Pregnancy and Infant Loss Advocate, Postpartum-Doula, Legislative Advocate for the Shine-for-Autumn Act (state level), former Rape-crisis Advocate through Lifelines Counseling Services,  Alliance for Black NICU families board member, and PreemieWorld board member. Her life's work is to walk the NICU and bereavement journey with families offering a display of hope and reassure that no matter what the final outcome is, they are not alone and given the proper resources and support they will overcome any obstacle.

Her goal is to bring awareness to NICU postpartum care by giving the world a glimpse inside the NICU postpartum world. A NICU mother is still a postpartum mother but with a critical baby, a devastating reality.

It is her mission to develop and implement new ways to improve conditions, heal, and therapeutically process trauma for NICU and bereaved families.

Treasurer 

Emily Locke is a PhD student in medical anthropology at the University of Alabama, a postpartum doula, and a volunteer community birth doula. She first learned about The Skylar Project when she was collecting data for her masters thesis that explored the impact of multiple natural disasters on infant health, well-being, and feeding in Alabama’s gulf coast. Emily is a passionate advocate for equitable access to doula care, midwifery, and evidence-based practice. She loves to support moms by connecting them to resources that help them thrive.

Secretary 

Arielle Arroyo is a Physician Assistant student and  graduate from Norfolk State University with Bachelors of Science in Mass Communications;  She is versed in the areas of basic patient care, emergency healthcare, project management, social media outreach, audience engagement and public speaking. She is dependable, result-oriented young professional who is a team player and self-starter. Her education background and previous work experience has prepared her for the capabilities to succeed in fast-paced, evolving and intense work environments. Her professional experiences have allowed me to efficiently manage logistics and perform supervision of teams in order to fulfill the requirements of a project from its inception to conclusion.

Advisory 

Deb Discenza gave birth to her daughter at 30 weeks gestation in 2003. From day one she was thrust into advocating and never looked back.  Whether it was her starting the award-winning Preemie Magazine in 2005 or co-writing The Preemie Parent’s Survival Guide to the NICU and launching PreemieWorld, she saw a huge void in parent education in and out of the NICU especially in underserved communities.  In 2020 she Co-Founded the Alliance for Black NICU Families, a non-profit providing racial and health equity in the form of a free wearable breast pump.  In 2023 she founded and is the Executive Director of PreemieWorld Foundation, Inc., providing equitable access to patient education in the form of like-minded books and long term outcomes data for premature infants into the geriatric years. Also in 2023 she founded and is the Executive Director of the Books for Healing Partnership, Inc. going no where no one else can with patient education in the form of a children’s story to be used in all forms of healthcare.  When not doing all of that, Deb serves or has served on numerous boards and committees including the International Neonatal Consortium, the National Coalition for Infant Health and NICU Parent Network, International Children’s Advisory Network as well as the NICHD Neonatal Research Network’ Community Engagement Board and the Board of Directors for Kindred 360.

Content Creation 

Fundraising Committee

UAB Student Volunteer