Biographical Information
Dr. Chetwynd began her career at Family Medicine as the Perinatal Nurse Coordinator and then co-Director for the Maternal and Child Health Program. After more than a decade in these positions, she returned to school at the UNC Gillings School for Global Public Health where she minored in epidemiology while receiving an MPH and Doctorate in public health. She rejoined the department in 2018 as a researcher and consultant in community engagement, focusing on rural maternity care as the department developed the Maternity Care Center at Chatham Hospital in Siler City. She is a founding member of EMBRACe (Equity for Moms and Babies Realized Across Chatham)—a grant-funded program approaching equity through service alignment, and continues her work in Chatham county, as lead researcher on an evaluation project funded by The Duke Endowment.
Dr. Chetwynd’s research and publications cover topics including rural maternity care, breastfeeding and metabolic health, reimbursement for lactation consulting, LGBTQI+ families, and breastfeeding research methodology. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Human Lactation and an active advocate for breastfeeding across the state. Her advocacy includes working with NC Medicaid to improve reimbursement for lactation support; chairing her state breastfeeding coalition, broadening their work to include implementation of grant-funded projects to increase equity in lactation support; creating an interactive statewide breastfeeding support service resource; initiating a statewide breastfeeding summit; and taskforce work in a variety of maternal and child health efforts across the state.
Areas of Interest
Rural maternity care, maternal child health, health equity, breastfeeding, and methodology for breastfeeding research.
