Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute creates new vision and mission statements

During the last months of 2022, the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute team has been on a journey to discover what we stand for, and what binds us together and to the communities we serve. The results are new vision and mission statements:

Vision
A world where every family has quality and culturally responsive community and institutional support to ensure all infants and children have an optimal start in life.

Mission
Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute delivers sound, evidence-based, equitable, and inclusive lactation support locally and globally through education, training, and action-oriented research. We advocate through the translation and implementation of practice-based research, train and partner with health care, early care and education, public health, community and lactation leaders, and support resource development to comprehensively advance health equity.

Dr. Mariam Labbok

This is the first rewriting of these statements. Started in 2006 as The Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care under the leadership of the late Dr. Miriam Labbok, the name changed to the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute in 2008. Catherine Sullivan has been CGBI’s director since 2016.

“We have experienced significant growth as a team and organization over the last 17 years, considering CGBI was started with a team of one,” said Sullivan. “The last time we reviewed our Vision/Mission and strategic plan was in the fall of 2015, not long before Dr. Labbok’s retirement in March 2016. As the lactation landscape has evolved, CGBI has become more responsive to the changing environment and expanding needs of stakeholders.”

CGBI’s vision and mission statements connect us to those we work with at UNC Chapel Hill, throughout North Carolina, nationally, and globally. CGBI is housed within the Maternal and Child Health department at UNC Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.

CGBI Team

These vision and mission statements are the result of full staff participation in a three-day off-site retreat. Guided through the process by NOOR Consulting, our objectives included using a somatics framework to explore personal values and leadership style, deepen team members’ relationships, explore overall organization values, and develop a shared identity and strategy.

We thank the NOOR Consulting team for their guidance during this process.

January 27, 2023