Nutrition
Dr. Sisk earned her PhD in Nutrition from UNCG in 2005. Since her graduation she has worked as a Registered Dietitian and Lactation Consultant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Her dissertation was the first published work to report measurements of stress and anxiety in women before and after receiving counseling on the benefits of human milk for their premature infants, and consequently, how much breast milk the mothers were able to provide their babies.
She challenged a traditional view prevalent among health care providers that women should not be encouraged to breast feed if that was not their original plan.
She has continued to do research while working as a clinical dietitian and has published several manuscripts in high-impact journals such as “Pediatrics: The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
Dr. Sisk has served as a faculty member of the North Carolina Lactation Educator Training Program for 25 years and has trained approximately 1,250 nutritionists and nurses in the state of NC in the area of breastfeeding premature infants. She also serves as a preceptor to UNCG students on their dietetic internships, as well as students from UNC Chapel Hill.
Her contribution to the field of pediatric nutrition has resulted in changes in care provided by health workers in neonatology. She is recognized in our state, and throughout the country, as a leading nutritionist and lactation consultant in neonatology.