Research Committee

Mary Renfrew FRSE, is a British midwife and academic. She graduated in nursing from the University of Edinburgh in 1975, and in midwifery from the same institution in 1978. She obtained a PhD on breastfeeding in 1982, while at the Medical Research Council’s reproductive biology unit in Edinburgh.

Professor Amy Brown is Programme Director for the MSc in Child Public Health at Swansea University, specialising in teaching about the impact of pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period upon child health and wellbeing. A psychologist by background, she is also Director of the Centre for Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translation (LIFT) conducting vital research into new parents’ experiences of feeding their baby and the interplay between this and parenting styles and mental health. She has published widely across these topics, helping to inform policy and practice both in the UK and internationally.

Professor Brown has collaborated on a number of research projects with the Human Milk Foundation across topics such as the impact of receiving donor human milk on parental mental health and wellbeing, milk donor perceptions of the acceptability of breastmilk as a tool in breast cancer research, modifiable barriers to human milk donation and improving resilience in human milk banking. She manages our donor milk hub in Swansea and is helping to expand our milk banking services across South Wales.

Narendra Aladangady currently works at the Blizard Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. Narendra does research in Neonatal Medicine. Their current projects are ‘Gut perfusion and injury in preterm infants’ and Parent Communication.

Luisa is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, where she teaches genomic and molecular epidemiology to Undergraduate and Postgraduate students. She leads research in population health science, researching the role of prenatal exposures on child development, mainly prenatal alcohol exposure. Luisa is an expert in quantitative analytical strategies and methods to improve our understanding of the causes of health and disease.

Dr Hamid Ghoddusi is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in food science and microbiology. He is also Head of the Microbiology Research Unit (MRU) and course leader for Food Science – MSc and Food Science MRes.

Dr Katherine Fowler is a Hearts Milk Bank donor and mum of 2. She donated milk whilst feeding her youngest until he was 18 months old. Katherine is also a research scientist working in the field of cancer research. As a mum who received lots of support to breastfeed, and as a researcher, Katherine is interested in the science behind human milk and how research can help mothers to breastfeed and families to access human milk.