University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

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Lactation Space Working Group

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nursing mothers breastfeed for a minimum of one year when possible. Lactation spaces support families and working mothers, and by extension, the organizations where they work and study by reducing employee and student departures and absenteeism and by increasing morale and productivity. The availability of employer and school-provided lactation spaces minimize the need for a nursing parent to have to decide between leaving the workforce or school in favor of continuing to breastfeed child(ren) or potentially prematurely terminating breastfeeding. This working group will review the work and recommendations of the informal working group, dubbed LacNation, that convened in 2019-20 with the intent of calling attention to the lack of publicly available lactation spaces on campus.

Working Group Members (2023-24)

  • Kaamilyah Abdullah-Span, Co-Chair, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Kasey Umland, Co-Chair, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
  • Elle Alrabiah, College of Engineering
  • Nizam Arain, Office for Access & Equity
  • Amira Al-Mutairi, College of Education
  • Amie Baumeister, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
  • Brian Bundren, Office of the Provost
  • Courtney Evans, Illinois International
  • Lauren Karplus, College of ACES
  • Subhashini Srinivasan, Institute for Genomic Biology
  • Danielle Fleenor, ex officio, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion