CAROL MACGOWAN, MPH, RDN

CHEER 2024 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: CAROL MACGOWAN, MPH, RDN!

CHEER is honored to recognize Carol MacGowan, MPH, RDN, with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award for her decades of service, leadership, and advocacy in breastfeeding and maternal and child health. Through her work as a Project Officer and Deputy Branch Chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and her deep commitment to partnerships across sectors, Carol has helped shape the national landscape for breastfeeding support and inspired generations of public health professionals to pursue equity through collaboration, data, and heart.

Carol often says she was “born into public health.” Her father, a horticulturist, worked in agricultural development, teaching students how to establish small family farms and gardens to nourish their communities. Her mother, a public health nurse, focused her career on prenatal care and the prevention of childhood malnutrition. Born and raised in Angola and educated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Carol grew up surrounded by conversations about health, prevention, and community well-being.

Carol, with mother and younger sister Linda, visiting South Africa after high school graduation.

“I learned a great deal about health and disease prevention through upstream public health interventions,” Carol recalls. “I have had a fascination with babies and children as far back as I remember. I also grew up in a community where breastfeeding was the norm, so this tradition is deep-seated in me.”

Carol’s remarkable career includes more than 20 years at CDC, where she helped strengthen national data systems, build partnerships, and advance evidence-based practices in maternal-child health. She is quick to emphasize, “Nothing I have done has been in isolation. I have always been a part of a larger team.”

Mentorship has always been part of her model. “I see mentoring as an obligation—especially to the next generation,” Carol explains. “First, I trust and believe in a person; then I challenge them to a level of discomfort that will lead to growth; and finally, I let go.”

When first joining CDC, Carol contributed to testing and defining the breastfeeding questions used in the National Immunization Survey (NIS), strengthening the accuracy of national breastfeeding data. She also participated in pilot testing the Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) survey, which continues to guide improvements in maternity care nationwide. Her team launched CDC’s first hospital-based quality improvement project, Best Fed Beginnings, in 2011, demonstrating the value of collaboration with birthing hospitals—a model that continues today through initiatives like CHAMPS National.

Before her years at CDC, Carol worked as a WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) nutritionist in Multnomah County, Oregon, before moving to Botswana, where she developed and taught a high school home economics program for four years. Returning to the US, she became Georgia’s first breastfeeding coordinator, leading statewide efforts in nutrition and breastfeeding promotion. Additionally, Carol chaired the Georgia Breastfeeding Coalition, established regional breastfeeding coordinators who met regularly to share strategies, helped organize focus groups for initiatives such as the USDA-funded Best Start Project, and secured Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) funding to build local, multisectoral breastfeeding coalitions.

Carol as a baby, with her mother Margaret, Angola.

Carol’s work has been guided by mentors and a lifelong love of learning instilled by her mother. “She filled my life with so many possibilities,” Carol says. “She loved talking about the richness of different cultures, learned multiple languages, and emphasized the need to respect different lifestyles and religions.”

Carol describes her long-standing collaboration with the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) as one of the great privileges of her career. Following the Innocenti Declaration of 1990, which called for every nation to establish a multisectoral breastfeeding coalition, US breastfeeding advocates established the nonprofit USBC to serve in this role. When Carol joined CDC in 2005, she became the project officer for the agency’s early support of USBC. What began as a small amount of funds used to hold partner convenings has since grown—thanks to Congressional support—into sustained, annual infrastructure, capacity-building, and program funding.

“I am honored to have served as CDC’s liaison to USBC,” Carol says. “Together we have gone through growing pains, faced national crises, and listened and responded to the collective voices of our communities.”

Advancing breastfeeding and young child feeding on a national level has not been without challenges. Carol notes that while CDC funding for this work is invaluable, it remains small compared to the need. Her focus has been on using those funds efficiently to have the broadest impact, identifying mechanisms that reach organizations with the ability to implement programs that are both impactful and sustainable.

Carol and her husband.

Newly retired and looking to the future, Carol remains focused on the systems and supports families need to thrive. “Those of us fortunate to have the training and positions that allow us to give back must facilitate change at every level—individual, organizational, community, and governmental,” she says. “Policy, systems, and environmental changes are critical so families can access the support they need and make the decisions best for them.” Carol envisions a future where quality healthcare is accessible and culturally focused; where the prevention of maternal mortality is a priority for population-based initiatives; where extended family leave, affordable childcare, and supportive birthing and breastfeeding practices are the norm; and where community support is available when families need it most.

Carol MacGowan has built bridges among government, healthcare systems, and communities, always centering families’ needs. Her leadership has strengthened national infrastructure, improved care for countless families, and nurtured a generation of public health leaders who will carry her vision forward. CHEER proudly honors Carol’s lifelong commitment to advancing maternal and child health.