GOLD Speakers

Deborah L. O'Connor, PhD RD

• Speaker Type: 2025 Main Presentations
• Country: Canada

Biography:

Dr. O’Connor is a PhD-trained nutritional scientist and dietitian who is currently the Earle W. McHenry Professor, and Chair, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She holds cross appointments in the Translational Medicine Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital. At SickKids, she previously served as Director of Clinical Dietetics and Breastfeeding Support, and then as Associate Chief of Academic and Professional Practice.

Dr O’Connor is best known for her work in running complex feeding trials examining strategies to support optimal feeding of very low birth weight infants with long-term follow-up. Over the past 10 years her team has integrated investigation of the milk and gut microbiota into their research to understand how early feeding can influence colonization in the VLBW infant gut. Dr. O’Connor has received numerous awards in acknowledgment of her translational research including most recently the Earle W. McHenry Award for Distinguished Service in Nutrition, and Fellow Distinction from the Canadian Nutrition Society (their most prestigious senior awards). She is also a recipient of a Tier#1 Canada Research Chair in Human Milk and Infant Nutrition.