MRT-TI grad Larelle Bookhart joins CGBI (video)
July 1, 2024
Dr. Larelle Bookhart
North Carolina native and Gillings School of Global Public Health alum Larelle Bookhart, PhD, MPH, RD, IBCLC, is an Assistant Professor with the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI), housed in the Department of Maternal and Child Health.
Dedicated to building a continuum of breastfeeding support locally, nationally, and globally, Dr. Bookhart’s research and teaching interests include breastfeeding support, lactation care, nutrition during the first 1,000 days, and maternal and infant healthcare delivery system factors that may reduce health inequities.
“We are ecstatic to welcome Dr. Bookhart back to Carolina. She is a well-respected, collaborative academician and change leader in the fields of nutrition and lactation,” said Catherine Sullivan, MPH, RD, LDN, IBCLC, FAND, Director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. “As a mixed methodologist, she will have an immediate impact on the growth and sustainability of our institute. Students will benefit from her knowledge and skills as well as her person-centered approach.”
In addition to her CGBI responsibilities, she is an investigator for Partnering with WIC to Advance Maternal Health Equity, which began in June 2024. The goal of this project is to improve WIC participant and staff ability to recognize and address early warning signs of maternal morbidity and mortality.
Larelle and family
Dr. Bookhart earned her PhD in Nutrition from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. At Gillings, she earned a BSPH in Health Policy and Management, an MPH in Nutrition and Dietetics, and completed the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative. In 2017, she became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.
She comes to CGBI from the Division of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health and an affiliate of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health.
Dr. Bookhart served as county level director of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children in Halifax County, North Carolina, 2016-2017.
She and her husband Jason have a two-year-old daughter.
– Robert A. Poarch
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