Our MILC Advisory Board
Dr. Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH | @UCSDMommysMilk
Founder & Program Director, Mommy’s Milk Dr. Christina Chambers is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Vice Chair of Clinical Research for the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD and Rady Children's Hospital. She is a perinatal epidemiologist, whose research is focused on environmental exposures and pregnancy and child health outcomes, including birth defects. She co-directs the Center for Better Beginnings in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD and is the Program Director of MotherToBabyCalifornia - a service providing evidence-based information on exposures during pregnancy and lactation to the public and health care providers. She is the Founder and Program Director of Mommy’s Milk - a nationwide human milk biorepository for research. |
Dr. Alan Katz, MBChB, MSc, CCFP, FCFP | @AlanKatz6
Director, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy Dr. Alan Katz is the Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) and Professor of Community Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He received his medical training at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He is a past chair of the Health Research Ethics Board in the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. His research interests are focused on Primary Care delivery, including quality of care indicators, knowledge translation and disease prevention. |
Dr. Terry Klassen, MD, MSc, FRCPC | @tpklassen
CEO & Scientific Director, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba Dr. Terry Klassen is the CEO and Scientific Director for the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), Academic Director for the George and Fay Yee Center for Healthcare Innovation, Professor of Pediatrics & Child Health at the University of Manitoba, and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Clinical Trials. Dr. Klassen is a clinician-scientist whose clinical base is pediatric emergency medicine and has been active in collaborating on national research programs, Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) and Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN), involving randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and knowledge translation. Dr. Klassen is also the Scientific Director for TREKK: Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids - a knowledge mobilization network to address critical knowledge gaps in emergency settings. |
Dr. Rafael Perez-Escamilla, PhD | @rperezescamilla
Principal Investigator, Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly Dr. Rafael Pérez-Escamilla is a Professor of Public Health, Director of the Office of Public Health Practice, and Director of the Global Health Concentration at the Yale School of Public Health. He is the Principal Investigator of the Yale-Griffin Centers for Disease Control Prevention Research Center. His global public health nutrition and food security research program has contributed to improvements in breastfeeding and other maternal, infant and young child nutrition outcomes, iron deficiency anemia among infants, household food security, and early child development. He is the Principal Investigator for Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly. |
Dr. Katherine Kearns & Dr. Christina Raimondi | @mbmilkdocs
Physicians & co-Founders, Winnipeg Breastfeeding Centre Drs. Kearns and Raimondi are Family Physicians who co-founded the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Centre in 2017; the first of its kind in Manitoba. Dr. Kearns does low risk obstetrics, seeing moms and babies throughout the prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum periods. She regularly presents to residents and physicians in various specialties, and to students currently in medical school. Dr. Kearns was recently awarded a Manitoba Honour 150 Award, recognizing her work to educate and support Manitoba families, physicians and medical trainees about breastfeeding. Dr. Raimondi sees mother-infant dyads with breastfeeding challenges and guides them through this transitional and vulnerable time in their lives. As a clinical teacher at the University of Manitoba Department of Family Medicine, her goal is also to educate physicians about human milk and breastfeeding medicine. She believes human milk feeding is medicine, and breastfeeding/chestfeeding is a fundamental reproductive right. |
Dr. Deborah O’Connor, PhD, RD | @DLOConnor0803
Earle W. McHenry Professor & Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto Dr. O'Connor is recognized for her work on human milk and infant nutrition. Her research focuses on the strategies to increase the use of human milk in vulnerable populations which includes the use of donor human milk when parent milk is unavailable. Dr. O'Connor is also interested in understanding the factors that affect the folate and one-carbon nutrient status of women, infants, and young children, specifically the role of universal folic acid fortification of the food supply, vitamin and mineral supplementation and colonic bacterial folate biosynthesis in the folate status of women of reproductive age. |
More profiles coming soon!