Rate My Professor Deborah O’Connor

Dr. Deborah O’Connor is the Earle W. McHenry Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Milk and Infant Nutrition. O’Connor completed her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Illinois in 1989, MS from the same institution in 1986, BASc in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Guelph in 1983, and is a Registered Dietitian following her clinical dietetic internship at Kingston General Hospital in 1984. Her career trajectory includes leadership positions at The Hospital for Sick Children, serving as Director of Clinical Dietetics and Breastfeeding Support from 2000 to 2012 and Associate Chief of Academic and Professional Practice until 2013. She currently holds appointments as Senior Associate Scientist in the Translational Medicine Program at SickKids Research Institute and Scientific Associate Staff in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology at Mount Sinai Hospital. Additionally, O’Connor chairs the Advisory Board for the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank at Mount Sinai Hospital.

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.