Deborah Myers, MS, CNS, CLE

Deborah Myers is Chief of Nutrition & Breastfeeding Services.

Debbie joined South LA Health Projects in 1989 to head up the nutrition and breastfeeding efforts of our WIC program. In this capacity she now oversees a robust breastfeeding program, which includes a breastfeeding peer counselor program she initiated in 1991 and still thrives today, and several auxiliary and core WIC breastfeeding support services, as well as the full range of nutrition and health education services provided our WIC participants.

She is a member of the Breastfeeding Promotion Committee of the National WIC Association, and a founding member and past president of BreastfeedLA.

Debbie holds a master’s of science degree from the Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University, where the focus of her master’s thesis was an analysis of infant feeding choices among Dominican women in New York City. She also is a UCLA certified lactation educator and a certified nutrition specialist (the American College of Nutrition.)

Strongly impacted by extended visits to Central America, graduate school professors in exile from Chile, and the Nestles boycott, Debbie has dedicated her professional career to helping low- income mothers make wise and healthful decisions for themselves and their families, free from corporate and commercial influence.

Prior to joining South LA Health Projects, Debbie held positions out of state. At the Population Council, she was a team member on a project to increase breastfeeding rates in a New York City public hospital, focusing on hospital practices and nursing education. Low-literacy patient education materials developed in the project won a Mercury Award and were used nationally and internationally.

Subsequently she joined a research team at Development Associates, Inc., where she conducted research for the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA, identifying and profiling successful breastfeeding approaches and programs with potential application to the national WIC Program. Their findings were published in “Promoting Breastfeeding in WIC: A compendium of Practical Approaches.”

Debbie has coauthored several publications concerning breastfeeding, which have appeared in Pediatrics, The Journal of Human Lactation, and Advances in International Maternal and Child Health.