Aunchalee E Loscalzo Palmquist CV

Breastfeeding in humanitarian, disaster, and post-conflict settings
Lactation support for marginalized immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S.
Climate change, environmental exposures, and breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and practices
Global bioethics and culture: human milk science, biobanking, and commercialization
Community milk sharing
Food sovereignty and reproductive justice
Community movements to reclaim cultural breastfeeding practices

Selected Grants

Breastfeeding intervention to prevent obesity among Latine children

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of North Carolina - Greensboro · 2024 - 2027

Fellowships, Gifts, and Supported Research

Kalu Diya ("Black Water") · January 2026 - December 2026 Co-PI · Awarded by: The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund · $3,000.00

Community Experiences of Climate and Adaptation in Turkana County: A Photovoice Study · December 2025 - January 2027 Co-PI · Awarded by: DGHI Pilot Grant · $25,000.00 Sustained ethical and equitable community engagement is vital to setting a research agenda on climate and health, especially when the research focuses on climate vulnerable communities. To this end, we propose a community-based participatory Photovoice project in Turkana, Kenya to investigate how communities in this semi-arid region are experiencing, making sense of, and responding to climate stochasticity. We begin with the premise that visual and narrative methods can elucidate human dimensions of climate change that science often obscures. The study will be co-led by a collaborative investigative team from Duke University, Moi University, and Turkana County government. Photovoice is both a mode of participatory inquiry and a medium of science communication that combines visual and narrative data. Using a set of prompts, participants will take photographs that convey their perspective of living in a climate-sensitive environment, including impacts of extreme heat and water insecurity, farming, fishing, and caring for livestock, and community health. These photographs are then used as individual and group interview elicitation prompts to gain deeper insight into participants’ views, concerns, and ultimately, research and action priorities. Participants and local research collaborators will be involved in disseminating this work to community leaders, policy makers, and climate advocacy groups in Kenya. Findings from the study will also be used to inform the development of interdisciplinary climate-health research, including studies that leverage the DGHI East Africa Climate Observatory, and to secure funding for this work.

Bass Connections Closing Heat Gaps & Narratives of Climate Injustice · August 2025 - June 2026 Co-PI · Awarded by: Duke University · $35,743.00

Supporting Safe Infant Feeding in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene: A Photovoice Project · July 2025 - February 2026 PI · Awarded by: Arts & Sciences Council Committee on Faculty Research, Duke University · $5,000.00 Infants and young children (0-2 years of age) are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and food insecurity in disasters and emergencies. In global humanitarian crises, infant and young child feeding in emergencies (IYCF-E) is a sector that focuses specifically on coordinating care to address the unique nutritional needs of pregnancy, lactation, and early infancy. In the U.S., IYCF-E is a neglected sector of U.S. disaster response and emergency management. As a result, community organizations and mutual-aid networks - which are often grassroots efforts that are under resourced and underfunded - are often the only lifeline connecting families with lifesaving interventions in disasters. The North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition’s Support & Advocacy for Infant Feeding in Emergencies (SAFE) Team is one such community organization that mobilized a comprehensive IYCF-E response in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. The proposed project will use Photovoice to document the stories and experiences of the SAFE Team and the families they supported. The overarching goal of the project is to generate a rich visual and narrative dataset that can be studied to understand barriers and facilitators to IYCF-E implementation and innovative practices that can inform future disaster preparedness education, training, and response in NC and across the nation. A Photovoice archive will also allow the SAFE Team to raise awareness of IYCF-E, advocate for maternal and child health support in disasters, educate disaster response teams about community mobilizing for IYCF-E, and preserve the stories of this historical work.

Supporting Safe Infant Feeding in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene: A Photovoice Project · May 2025 - April 2026 PI · Awarded by: DGHI Travel Grant · $5,000.00

Breastfeeding intervention to prevent obesity among Latine children · July 2024 - June 2027 Co-PI · Awarded by: NIH-NIDDK · $264,361.00 Due to high rates of obesity, Latine children are more likely to have type 2 diabetes (T2D) than other racial/ethnic groups. If current trends continue, it is estimated that 50% of Latine children and adolescents will develop T2D in their lifetime. This is critical since the impact of early onset of T2D is extensive involving premature morbidity, high healthcare costs and significant loss of productivity. Hence, interventions that effectively reduce obesity risk and T2D among fastest growing group of Latine children are urgently needed. Excess weight gain during infancy is associated with childhood obesity. Exclusive breastfeeding (directly or expressed) for the first six months is associated with lower risk for excess weight gain and insulin insensitivity during infancy. In our longitudinal sub-study with low-income, Latine mother-infant dyads, mixed feeding (combination of breastfeeding and formula feeding) was more common than exclusive breastfeeding. It was also found that obesity risk among infants increased with an increase in formula feeding. Utilizing Social Cognitive Theory, our goal is to measure the effectiveness of a multi-component randomized control trial - Solo Mi Leche (SMile) – involving: I) Provision of conditional incentives of cash or combination of cash and electric breast pump to enroll in WIC’s Exclusive Breastfeeding Package; and, II) Support of home visiting, culturally and linguistically competent breastfeeding peer-counselors to increase breastfeeding support, knowledge, skills and ultimately self-efficacy. The intervention spanning from birth to six months postpartum will involve 120 Latine mothers eligible or enrolled in WIC program (60 each in intervention & control). Specific aims are to test the effectiveness of SMile intervention in: 1) improving self-efficacy and exclusivity of breastfeeding for the first six months, and; 2) reducing rapid weight gain and obesity risk among Latine infants. We will also carry out a process evaluation to understand strengths of the intervention and opportunities to improve its implementation, feasibility, fidelity, and impact. The proposed pilot trial (Small R01s, PAS-23-086) will allow us to acquire preliminary data through six months of age to develop an effective, fully powered, culturally appropriate intervention promoting breastfeeding throughout infancy, to address obesity, T2D and related disparities Latine population is facing.

Catawba Nation Maternal, Infant, and Early Care Home Visiting Program · 2023 - 2023 Community Engagement and Data Specialist · Awarded by: Catawba Nation · $49,666.00

Infant Feeding in Child Care Study · 2021 - 2023 Principal Investigator · Awarded by: North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education · $477,815.00

Maternal Telehealth Access Project (MTAP) · 2020 - 2021 Senior Qualitative Research Investigator · Awarded by: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), (Lead PI: D. Cilenti) · $4,000,000.00

Breastfeeding Hospital Based Quality Improvement Initiative · 2020 - 2023 Co-Principal Investigator (Lead PI: C. Sullivan) · Awarded by: Department of Health and Human Services CDC RFQ 1436288 · $1,352,970.00

Advancing health equity in the first 1,000 days: Unpacking the disparities in critical care and donor human milk for Black/African-American mothers and infants in the NICU · 2019 - 2020 Principal Investigator · Awarded by: IBM Junior Faculty Development Award · $10,000.00

Ebola survivors' experiences with pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding · 2019 - 2020 Principal Investigator · Awarded by: Explorations in Global Health Award, IGHID, UNC-Chapel Hill · $10,000.00

Taking milk from strangers: An anthropological investigation of milk sharing in the U.S. and beyond · 2014 - 2017 Principal Investigator · Awarded by: Wenner Gren Foundation · $17,000.00

External Relationships

James Bell Associates

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.