Rate My Professor Deborah O’Connor

O’Connor’s research program centers on human milk and infant nutrition, evaluating strategies to enhance human milk feeding for vulnerable populations, such as hospitalized very low birth weight infants and term infants with conditions like post-surgical chylothorax. Her team explores the effects of maternal diet and antibiotic use on milk’s nutrient and bioactive components to promote optimal growth, neurodevelopment, gut colonization, and morbidity reduction. She also investigates factors influencing folate and one-carbon nutrient status, including vitamin B12, in women, infants, and young children, with emphasis on folic acid fortification, supplementation, and colonic bacterial folate biosynthesis. As a recognized expert, she contributes to national and international maternal and neonatal nutrition guidelines and has served on expert panels for the NIH BEGIN Work Group, US-Canada Human Milk Composition Initiative, WHO, and Dietary Reference Intakes. Notable honors include Fellow of the Canadian Nutrition Society in 2023, Earle W. McHenry Award for Distinguished Service in Nutrition in 2020, Earle W. McHenry Chair in 2020, Faith Elizabeth Winifred Bayley Nutrition Lectureship in 2016, and Khursheed Jeejeebhoy Award in 2015.