Dr. Luseadra McKerracher, along with her supervisors–Drs. Deborah Sloboda (Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster U), Tina Moffat (Anthropology, McMaster U) and Mary Barker (MRC Epidemiology Unit, Southampton U)–co-leads an interdisciplinary, community-based project called Mothers to Babies (M2B) in the city of Hamilton, ON. Collaborating with local public health initiatives and organizations, Mothers to Babies aims to assess and support pregnancy health and wellbeing in Hamilton. The project takes the developmental origins-based view that early life environment, especially during pregnancy, influences later life health outcomes and disease risks. By supporting pregnancy health and wellbeing, M2B ultimately seeks to reduce the city of Hamilton’s well-documented health inequities and heavy burden of non-communicable diseases in the next generations. 

In addition to her role in the M2B project, Dr. McKerracher continues to pursue research on a number of topics she began to develop during her graduate training as an evolutionary anthropologist. In particular, she examines evolutionary ecological factors influencing women’s diets, health and reproduction, especially in the context of small-scale, natural fertility populations. 

You can read more about her work here, here and here.