HMI'26 Invited Speakers

Elena Coley-O'Rourke, PhD

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  Elena Coley-O'Rourke, PhD

  Postdoctoral Researcher
  University of California San Francisco

  Dr. Elena Coley-O’Rourke completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2024 in the lab of Dr. Elaine Hsiao at UC Los Angeles. Her work explored how the gut microbiome responds to environmental perturbations to influence neurodevelopment and behavior, with a specific focus on maternal microbiome and fetal neurodevelopment in the context of gestational malnutrition. She was funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship. Dr. Coley-O’Rourke is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Francisco in the lab of Dr. Xianhua Piao, where she studies neuroimmune and glial contributions to cortical interneuron development, with relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia.

Anne Eglash MD, NABBLM-C, IBCLC, FABM

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  Anne Eglash MD, NABBLM-C, IBCLC, FABM

  Clinical Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
  Medical Director, UW Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine
  University of WI School of Medicine and Public Health
  President, The Institute for the Advancement of Breastfeeding and Lactation Education

  Dr. Anne Eglash is a clinical professor with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. In addition to family medicine, she has been practicing breastfeeding and lactation medicine since 1994.
  Dr. Eglash is a cofounder of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the Medical Director and cofounder of the Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, and the Medical Director of the University of Wisconsin Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine Clinic. She has published many peer- reviewed articles on breastfeeding medicine and is a past associate editor for Breastfeeding Medicine Journal.
  Dr. Eglash is founder and president of The Institute for the Advancement of Breastfeeding and Lactation Education (IABLE), as well as a cofounder, inaugural president, and immediate past-president of the North American Board of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine.

Rebecca Hoban, MD, MPH

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  Rebecca Hoban, MD, MPH

  Staff Neonatologist
  Director of Breastfeeding Medicine
  Director of Clinical Guideline Development
  Seattle Children’s Hospital Division of Neonatology
  Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington

  Dr. Rebecca Hoban is a board certified neonatologist with a strong clinical, research, and educational interest in human milk and lactation. Dr. Hoban graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children’s, neonatology fellowship at Tufts Floating Hospital Boston, and a masters in public health at Harvard. She has held positions as a staff neonatologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and the Hospital for Sick Children/University of Toronto in Canada, before moving back to the US in 2023 to become Director of Breastfeeding Medicine for the Division of Neonatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington. She brings extensive clinical, educational, and training experiences from a dozen countries and is active in clinical and translational human milk research. Recent research and clinical projects include improving human milk provision in the high-risk neonatal population, milk sodium and biomarkers to predict lactation success, lactation in the context of substance use, and human milk as potential stem cell therapy in preterm infants with intraventricular hemorrhage.

Aloka L. Patel, MD

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  Aloka L. Patel, MD

  Professor of Pediatrics
  Rush University Children's Hospital

  Dr. Aloka Patel is the Glore Family Professor of Neonatology at Rush University, where she is the Division Head and the Research Director for Neonatology. Dr. Patel’s research has focused on health and cost outcomes associated with human milk feedings for very preterm infants, understanding barriers to continued provision of maternal milk and multiple nutritional clinical trials in preterm infants. Dr. Patel has been funded by NIH to test interventions to increase milk provision for very preterm infants, and an ongoing observational study following these infants into childhood.

Casey Rosen-Carole, MD, MPH, MSEd, FABM

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  Casey Rosen-Carole, MD, MPH, MSEd, FABM

  Chief of the Division of Breastfeeding & Lactation Medicine
  Associate Professor of Pediatrics and OBGYN
  Fellowship Director, Breastfeeding & Lactation Medicine, LILAC
  Consultant, Lactation Study Center, URMedicine MotherToBaby, Finger Lakes Environmental Health Center
  University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

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