Merilee is a registered nurse and an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant. She completed her PhD in nursing at the University of Calgary with Dr. Karen Benzies, examining maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and infant feeding outcomes in moderate and late preterm infants enrolled in the Alberta Family Integrated Care (FICare) trial. Merilee is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Manitoba in Dr. Meghan Azad’s lab, exploring clinical applications of donor human milk. Specifically, her proposed research will explore the hypothesis that in the absence of mother’s own milk, the use of donor milk matched to maternal secretor status will result in significantly more favourable microbiome diversity. Merilee’s research fellowship is funded by the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation and her research space is supported by the NorthernStar Mother’s Milk Bank. When Merilee is not researching breastfeeding and human milk, she enjoys hiking with her family, reading and drinking good coffee.