Rate My Professor Ann Kellams

Ann Kellams, MD, is a Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, specializing in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude as a Dean’s Honored Graduate from the University of Texas at Austin and her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. After completing her pediatric residency at the University of North Carolina Medical Center, she has practiced general pediatrics since 1995, initially in private practice in the Shenandoah Valley for nine years, where she rounded on newborns and pediatric patients in hospital and clinic settings. In 2004, she began teaching "The Healer’s Art" course for medical students at UVA. She joined the UVA Department of Pediatrics faculty in 2006 as Medical Director of the Newborn service on the maternity unit. In 2007, she became an international board-certified lactation consultant. In 2011, she founded and began directing UVA’s Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine program, which offers inpatient and outpatient consultations with a physician and lactation consultant. She advanced to Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in 2018.

Dr. Kellams is board-certified in pediatrics and was among the first 103 physicians in North America certified by the North American Board of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine in 2024. Her research interests center on breastfeeding practices, lactation medicine, infant sleep location, and newborn care. Key publications include "ABM clinical protocol #3: supplementary feedings in the healthy term breastfed neonate, revised 2017" in Breastfeeding Medicine (260 citations), "Breastfeeding: What are the barriers? Why women struggle to achieve their goals" in Journal of Women’s Health (2016, 195 citations), "Evidence-based updates on the first week of exclusive breastfeeding among infants ≥35 weeks" in Pediatrics (2020, 119 citations), "Infant sleep location and breastfeeding practices in the United States, 2011–2014" in Academic Pediatrics (2016, 107 citations), and "The effect of nursing quality improvement and mobile health interventions on infant sleep practices: a randomized clinical trial" in JAMA (2017, 94 citations). She was inducted into the American Pediatric Society in 2022 and honored as Woman of the Month in August 2024 by UVA’s Committee on Women in Medicine and Science. Dr. Kellams provides expertise to support families in meeting their parenting and breastfeeding goals.