I am a nutritional and perinatal epidemiologist, and the goal of my research is to discover the healthiest weight and dietary patterns that promote the health of pregnant women and their children. Through a strong research portfolio of federal funding, I have contributed to scientific advances in our understanding of optimal weight gain recommendations during pregnancy, evaluation of pregnancy diet patterns using novel machine learning methods, the reproductive consequences of maternal obesity, and the role of vitamin D deficiency in adverse birth outcomes. I have contributed my experience to several national panels that set guidelines for nutrition during pregnancy, including the Institute of Medicine Committee to Reevaluate Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines, the National Academies of Medicine Committee on Scoping Existing Guidelines for Feeding Recommendations for Infants and Young Children Under Age 2, and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services Pregnancy Working Group that provided evidence for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. My research has been used in 9 reports of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, as well as key recommendations, practice guidelines or action statements from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the U.S. Preventive Task Force, and the American Public Health Association, along with international agencies, including the World Health Organization. I also host a podcast called "Shiny Epi People," the goal of which is to humanize epidemiologists and other public health professionals. Guests from diverse backgrounds share personal or professional barriers, losses, anxieties, triumphs, and lessons learned. Vulnerability, empathy, joy, and laughter are priorities. The 64 published episodes have been downloaded over 100,000 times.
1998 | B.S.P.H. Summa Cum Laude with Highest Honors, Nutrition | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1998 | Dietetic Internship | University of North Carolina Hospitals
1999 | M.P.H., Nutrition | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2002 | Ph.D., Nutrition; Epidemiology Minor | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2002-2004 | Postdoctoral Fellowship (reproductive biology) | Magee-Womens Research Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
EPIDEM 2921: Grant Writing, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health. Primary Instructor.
See a full list of publications from My Bibliography
- Bodnar LM, Johansson K, Himes KP, Khodyakov D, Abrams B, Parisi SM, Hutcheon JA. Gestational weight gain below recommendations and adverse maternal and child health outcomes for pregnancies with overweight or obesity: a US cohort study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in press.
- Bodnar LM, Johansson K, Himes KP, Khodyakov D, Abrams B, Parisi SM, Hutcheon JA. Do current pregnancy weight gain guidelines balance risks of adverse maternal and child health in a United States cohort? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2024 Feb;119(2):527-536. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.10.015. Epub 2023 Dec 29. PMID: 38182445. PMCID: PMC10884606.
- Bodnar LM, Kirkpatrick SI, Parisi SM, Jin Q, Naimi AI. Periconceptional Dietary Patterns and Adverse Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes. The Journal of Nutrition 2024 Feb;154(2):680-690. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.12.013. Epub 2023 Dec 19. PMID: 38122847. PMCID: PMC10900249.
- Bodnar LM, Cartus AR, Kennedy EH, Kirkpatrick SI, Parisi SM, Himes KP, Parker CB, Grobman WA, Simhan HN, Silver RM, Wing DA, Perry S, Naimi AI. A Doubly Robust Machine Learning-Based Approach to Evaluate Body Mass Index as a Modifier of the Association Between Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Preeclampsia. American Journal of Epidemiology 2022 Jul 23;191(8):1396-1406. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwac062. PMID: 35355047; PMCID: PMC9614933.
- Bodnar LM, Jimenez EY, Baker SS. Plant-Based Beverages in the Diets of Infants and Young Children. JAMA Pediatrics 2021 Jun 1;175(6):555-556. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5840. PMID: 33616636; PMCID: PMC9039802.
- Bodnar LM, Cartus AR, Kirkpatrick SI, Himes KP, Kennedy EH, Simhan HN, Grobman WA, Duffy JY, Silver RM, Parry S, Naimi AI. Machine learning as a strategy to account for dietary synergy: an illustration based on dietary intake and adverse pregnancy outcomes. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2020 Jun 1;111(6):1235-1243. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa027. PMID: 32108865; PMCID: PMC7266693.
- Hutcheon JA, Bodnar LM. Good Practices for Observational Studies of Maternal Weight and Weight Gain in Pregnancy. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2018 Mar;32(2):152-160. doi: 10.1111/ppe.12439. Epub 2018 Jan 18. PMID: 29345321; PMCID: PMC5902633.
- Hutcheon JA, Bodnar LM. A systematic approach for establishing the range of recommended weight gain in pregnancy. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2014 Aug;100(2):701-7. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.085258. Epub 2014 Jun 25. PMID: 24965305; PMCID: PMC4095666.
- Lash TL, Abrams B, Bodnar LM. Comparison of bias analysis strategies applied to a large data set. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) 2014 Jul;25(4):576-82. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000000102. PMID: 24815306; PMCID: PMC4306386.
- Bodnar LM, Catov JM, Simhan HN, Holick MF, Powers RW, Roberts JM. Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of preeclampsia. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2007 Sep;92(9):3517-22. doi: 10.1210/jc.2007-0718. Epub 2007 May 29. PMID: 17535985; PMCID: PMC4288954.
