GOLD Speakers

Dr. Leslie Parker, PhD, APRN

• Speaker Type: 2024 Main Presentations
• Country: USA

Biography:

Dr. Leslie Parker is a Professor in the College of Nursing and an adjunct Professor in the College of Medicine. She has had an active practice as a nurse practitioner in the neonatal intensive care unit for the last 30 years where she cares for critically ill infants and their families. Dr. Parker directs one of the few research programs dedicated to developing strategies to improve the nutritional health of premature and critically ill infants. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and distinguished by interdisciplinary team science bridging nursing, medicine, microbiology, and public health across the University of Florida and globally. Dr. Parker's research focuses on two important areas of neonatal care;

(1) Optimal delivery of nutrition

(2) Increasing infant consumption of breast milk by improving lactation success in their mothers. Because optimal nutrition including high doses of mother's own breast milk decreases the risk of potentially preventable serious complications, her work has made significant and long-lasting contributions to improving the health of premature and critically ill infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Dr. Parker has developed nutritional strategies that health care providers have integrated into their daily practice thus improving short and long-term health outcomes of the most vulnerable patients.