PROJECT: Advance breast/chestfeeding equity in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) pregnant and lactating parents — an overlooked and understudied population. Adapt a culturally and linguistically relevant prenatal breast/chestfeeding toolkit that was developed for AANHPI expectant parents-to-be and being piloted in the Chinese and Vietnamese communities to other AANHPI ethnic groups in California.

Skye Shodahl is a second-year doctoral student in the Community Health Sciences Department within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Broadly, her research interests include the social determinants of maternal and child nutrition among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. More specifically, Shodahl is interested in the impact of structural factors (i.e., physical, economic, political, and sociocultural) on aspects of infant feeding (i.e., supplementation rates, exclusivity rates) and maternal and child health disparities in AANHPI communities.

Shodahl hopes her research will be a catalyst for the development of relevant interventions and transformative policies critical to making the health of AANHPI women, children, and families a shared value.