Keynote - Dr. Beck-Sague’, Pediatrician, Scholar-Practitioner

Overview
Speaker(s)

Moderator: Sheila McKinney, PhD, MA, CHES

Focus: HRSA Maternal & Child Health Bureau and the Bigger Picture

“Breast-Feeding in African American Communities: Biology, Immunology and Population-Level Impacts”

Description: Breastfeeding is the principal source of nutrition for infants. However, the role of breastfeeding in maternal and infant survival and health extends beyond nutrition. Breastfeeding plays a key role in extensive infant defenses against infectious and environmental threats, and in maternal health. Nationally, associations among state-level racial disparities in poverty, resources for families, breastfeeding, and infant survival suggest potential population-level impacts of increasing breastfeeding in elimination of disparities.

Consuelo Beck-Sagué, MD, FAAP

Consuelo Beck-Sagué, MD, FAAP, recently retired from her position as Associate Professor of Public Health at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at Florida International University (FIU). She obtained her medical doctoral degree at Temple University Medical School and is board-certified as a specialist in clinical pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. She served as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, for 19 years focusing on prevention and treatment of HIV and other infectious diseases, and on elimination of racial disparities in maternal and infant health. She served as a Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative consultant to the Dominican Republic Ministry of Health for four years, focusing on use of antiretrovirals for HIV prevention and treatment in women, infants and children. While at FIU, she was Principal Investigator of FIU’s HRSA-funded training program for Maternal and Child Health (MCH), which created an MCH concentration and certificate program. Dr. Beck-Sagué is the author/co-author of 20 chapters in medical and epidemiology texts, 20 CDC Guidelines/Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report articles, and 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, some cited thousands of times. Her principal professional interest is the elimination of racial disparities in health outcomes in US women and children.