Becky Mannel, MPH, IBCLC, FILCA
OBRC Director
Becky has worked in lactation for almost 30 years. She developed and then managed the hospital-wide lactation service at OU Medical Center for 15 years. She is currently Director of the Oklahoma Breastfeeding Resource Center in the Department of OB/GYN at OU Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) and Executive Director for the Oklahoma Mothers’ Milk Bank (OMMB). She leads the Becoming Baby-Friendly in Oklahoma project sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH). Becky also developed and oversees the Oklahoma Breastfeeding Hotline and provides professional training/education to Oklahoma hospitals to improve their breastfeeding care and outcomes, both OSDH-funded projects.
As a faculty member at OUHSC, she has developed a variety of curricula from a half-day basic orientation course to a 2-day course taught to health department home visiting staff. Becky has lectured to physicians, residents and medical students and provides regular medical student lectures. She developed a month-long elective rotation in lactation for Pediatric residents which was formally approved by the ACGME Pediatric Residency Review Committee. Becky collaborated with OSDH/WIC to develop the WIC Clinical Lactation Preceptorship which continues annually. She developed the first formal clinical training in Oklahoma for aspiring lactation consultants, a 4-month program approved by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. Becky has presented at state, national and international professional conferences numerous times and her education courses have been attended by a wide variety of health care professionals including nurses, physicians, dietitians, physical and occupational therapists, childbirth educators and lactation consultants.
Becky served 4 years on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Human Lactation and has served as Lead Editor for two editions of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) textbook, Core Curriculum for Lactation Consultant Practice. She co-edited the new (2018) Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Care sponsored by the Lactation Education Accreditation and Approval Review Committee.
Becky served a 2-year term, 2021 – 2022, as President of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) Board of Directors and represents HMBANA on the US Breastfeeding Committee. She is past Chair of the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) and past President of ILCA. Becky has been involved in the Coalition of Oklahoma Breastfeeding Advocates (COBA) since its founding in 2000 and has served in various offices, including Chair 2006-2009 and 2012-2017.Becky has represented the lactation consultant profession at national-level meetings, including those for the development of the 2011 U.S. Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding and at national strategy meetings sponsored by the CDC from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, Becky was elected as a full member of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and is involved in several lactation related research studies.
In 2017, Becky was awarded the Warren Crosby Champion for Maternal and Infant Health Award by the Oklahoma Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative. This award is given for “championing efforts to improve outcomes for Oklahoma’s mothers and infants and going above and beyond to do what is right for the patients”.
Becky lives with her husband in Edmond, has 3 grown children and is a proud grandmother of 3.