CGBI: Message from the Director

Catherine Sullivan

Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute was founded on January 1, 2006 by previous department chair, Dr. Bert Peterson. Thanks to a generous donor who chooses to remain anonymous, the Institute was launched with an endowed chair and resources to permit immediate action in support of research, service, and training in public health as well as the clinical skills that are necessary for increased support to enable every woman to choose and succeed in optimal infant feeding. Dr. Peterson had the vision of bringing in a known leader and advocate in the field of lactation and birth spacing, Dr. Miriam Labbok, to be the founding Director (2006-2016). You can learn more about Miriam and our history under the About tab (Our History).

Today we are pleased to be funded by several donors including: the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the John Rex Foundation, the Duke Endowment, the Kate B Reynolds Charitable Trust as well as several federal entities. The Institute is well placed at UNC, in the oldest state university in the United States, since improving the health of North Carolinian families is our primary goal. We are also fortunate to be in the Maternal and Child Health Department under the leadership of Dr. Carolyn Halpern. The highly respected Department of Maternal and Child Health, with its state, national and global interests, serves as the perfect home for this new center of excellence, which supports the mother/child dyad as the focus for research, service and training.

For more about the Institute, please see our brief Rack Card Brochure. In addition, we produce a quarterly newsletter, the Breastfeeding Exclusive, and maintain a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter (catch the latest feed updates in the lower left of every page of our website).

On a personal note, we are sincerely grateful to be able to carry on the legacy of Dr. Labbok to promote, protect and support the reproductive continuum both globally and domestically.

With best wishes for the future,

Catherine S. Sullivan, MPH, RD, LDN, IBCLC, FAND
Director and Assistant Professor
Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI)
Department of Maternal and Child Health