Kathryn Wouk, PhD

About

Dr. Wouk is an Associate Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) in Chapel Hill. She is a maternal and child health epidemiologist with substantive expertise in infant and young child feeding and a research focus on Spanish-speaking populations. She completed her PhD in 2018 in Maternal and Child Health with a minor in Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She trained to become a lactation consultant through the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative and completed postdoctoral training at UNC’s Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI).

At PIRE, she continues to collaborate with CGBI to evaluate programs to expand access to evidence-based maternity and child care practices across North and South Carolina. She also works with UNC’s Department of Family Medicine, contributing expertise in informatics and electronic health record data analysis for a mixed methods evaluation of a new rural maternity center. She is interested in research to support the health of parent-infant dyads, especially those who speak Spanish, use substances, or are affected by the criminal justice system. Katie also serves on the boards of El Vinculo Hispano in Chatham County, North Carolina and of the Global Health Foundation in Denver, Colorado.

Honors and Awards

2K Pilot Award
2019, North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS)

Delta Omega
2019, UNC Chapter of Delta Omega

Teaching Interests

Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative (2017-Present)

Research Activities

The goal of Katie’s research and practice is to support thriving families through evidence-based programs and policies that serve pregnant and postpartum people. This goal has grown out of 15 years of experience advancing the interdependent health outcomes of birthing people and their infants, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer, a qualitative researcher in Bolivia, and a bilingual nutritionist at a community health center. Katie’s dissertation involved analysis of longitudinal data on a cohort of mother-infant dyads, finding an association between the maternal experience of infant feeding and postpartum depression and anxiety. Building upon these findings, she obtained independent funding to collaborate with a network of community health centers in the design of holistic postpartum services for their mostly Latinx patients. She has also worked with state early childhood leaders from the Child Fatality Task Force and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to lead a geospatial and statistical analysis of lactation resources and breastfeeding rates, contributing to Medicaid’s adoption of a reimbursement policy for lactation services in North Carolina. Katie currently collaborates with clinical and community partners in Western North Carolina to study and improve perinatal substance use treatment.

Service Activities

Co-Chair, Curriculum Committee, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup, Maternal and Child Health Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2020-present.

Advisory Board Member, Mary Rose Tully Training Institute, 2017-present.

Board Member, El Vinculo Hispano (2021-present)

Board Member, Global Health Foundation (2013-Present)

Treasurer, North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition (2015-2019)

Student Representative, CGBI Faculty Search Committee (2016-2017)

Student Family Advocate, UNC Graduate and Professional Student Federation (2016-2017)

Student Representative, UNC Maternal and Child Health Doctoral Committee (2014-2017)

Co-Chair, UNC Maternal and Child Health Student Doctoral Committee (2015-2016)

Secretary, Breastfeeding Forum of the American Public Health Association (2013-2016)

Board Member, North Carolina Partners of the Americas (2013-2014)

DONA-trained doula, UNC Birth Partners (2013-2015)

Education