A matching gift of up to $500,000 from California State University, Northridge alumnus Harvey Bookstein, and his wife Harriet, is enabling the university to expand its lactation program so it can train students to become nationally certified lactation counselors.

The gift has been paired with a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and supports the creation of the Lactation Counselor Pathway Program, which will provide the competency verification needed so students can pass the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice National Certified Lactation Counselor exam and successfully launch careers as lactation professionals.

“The gift from the Booksteins, matched by the grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will help recruit and train students from underserved communities to enter the workforce as certified lactation counselors,” said Merav Efrat, a professor of health sciences and founder of CSUN’s human lactation program in the College of Health and Human Development. “Equally important is that it allows us to expand our curriculum to enable students to complete specialized lactation competency training with simulated counseling scenarios. Students will gain real-world skills through experiential learning at local healthcare facilities.

“And why does this matter?” Efrat asked. “Because breastfeeding, no matter how long a parent chooses to do it, is critical to infant health. Yet many underserved communities face barriers, including a lack of support and trained professionals.”

Harvey Bookstein said he and his wife “have complete faith in Merav Efrat ability to help train CSUN students to become experts in helping women in lactation knowledge.”

“She has been an expert in this field of medical support,” he said. “She now can have more control over making sure that several individuals can be educated with this knowledge. We look forward to continuing to support her and the program with the success I know she will accomplish.”

The Booksteins have been longtime supporters of the university, generously giving to a number of programs across in the university, including the accounting and taxation programs CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. In 2017, the university renamed one of the buildings housing the business college in recognition of their support.

Efrat worked for several years to develop and continuously expand CSUN’s lactation curriculum to provide undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to complete course work in human lactation, as well as conduct research and gain practical experience implementing lactation education in the community.

In 2019, she launched a minor in human lactation in the College of Health and Human Development, the first program of its kind in the nation. The minor prepares students for careers as lactation educator and enables them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to educate and support breastfeeding families from the time the woman is pregnant to beyond the infant’s first year of life.

Just last month, the human lactation program celebrated a significant milestone, it has awarded more than 2,000 certificates to students and community members who completed its introductory prenatal lactation educator training and earned the distinction of certificated prenatal lactation educator.

For more information visit www.csun.edu/health-human-development/health-sciences/programs/lactation-education.