December 11, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

Victoria Adebiyi graduates with a Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior (HPEB) this month after completing her global health dissertation project. She’s currently working on two manuscripts that describe what she learned during a mixed-methods study conducted in Nigeria.

With funding from the Nestlé Foundation and support from advisors both at the University of South Carolina and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Adebiyi and her two research assistants interviewed employed mothers of infants in urban Nigeria to better understand their decision-making process related to whether they continued breastfeeding exclusively after returning to work following maternity leave.

The research team also examined influences on the decision-making process of postpartum mothers. For example, they examined the role that members of social networks (e.g., family members, friends) can play in mothers’ decisions around infant feeding.

“The World Health Organization recommends giving infants breast milk only – exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months,” Adebiyi says. “Exposing infants to exclusive breastfeeding is an important foundation for promoting adequate growth and brain development for the children and preventing chronic diseases in adulthood. Formally employed mothers, however, often struggle to continue exclusively breastfeeding their children, especially after returning to work, partly due to inadequate maternity provisions and support at the workplace.”

The project builds on more than a decade of public health nutrition experience that began when Adebiyi was an undergraduate student at the University of Ibadan. She then completed a hospital-based internship to become a registered dietitian – an experience that fueled her passion for finding solutions to preventable diet-related chronic diseases.

A scholarship from the Mastercard Foundation brought Adebiyi to the United States where she studied public health nutrition as part of a master of public health program at the University of California, Berkeley. When looking for researchers involved in global health nutrition, she met HPEB faculty Leila Larson and Edward Frongilo and made her move to the Arnold School.

Over the past four years, Adebiyi has worked closely with her mentors, contributing to global health research. She co-authored peer-reviewed papers related to promoting healthy dietary intake in the United States, describing the consequences of food insecurity among children and adolescents globally, and anemia among mothers and children in India.

“The rigorous training I acquired under the supervision of my advisors, securing a grant and leading my dissertation research in addition to the intensive class work during this doctoral program have all equipped me with the skills I need for my future work,” says Adebiyi, who plans to continue her work in a research institute. “My goal is to contribute to our understanding of nutritional and health behaviors of populations and to support the design, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions that will make a meaningful positive impact on population health.”

She is particularly grateful for the role of Larson and Frongillo in her professional development.

“I have especially enjoyed the mentorship, guidance, and immense support from my advisors,” Adebiyi says. “By believing in me, valuing my ideas, giving constructive feedback, and pushing me to think broadly and critically, my advisors have prepared me to be a critical thinker and researcher who will make valuable contributions to the field of global health. I am taking these deeply impactful experiences with me as I graduate.”

---