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Elsie Taveras Joins NICHQ Board of Directors
Well-known pediatrician and childhood obesity researcher Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, has been elected to the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) Board of Directors. She brings extensive experience and passion for understanding social determinants of health and developing interventions across the life course to prevent obesity and chronic diseases, especially in underserved populations.
“Elsie’s experience will be invaluable as we focus more of NICHQ’s work on addressing social determinants of health and eliminating health disparities to meet our mission and 2020 strategic plan,” says NICHQ CEO Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, FAAP. “We are thrilled that Elsie is joining our board.”
Taveras is the chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and the executive director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. The national center is devoted to catalyzing and spreading innovative solutions to real world community health problems, executing those solutions locally, and making them scalable and ready to spread nationally to improve health outcomes for disadvantaged populations. Taveras is also professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In her research, Taveras conducts observational studies to identify and quantify interventions and risk factors for health promotion and disease prevention. She has published over 150 research studies and served on committees for the National Academy of Medicine to develop recommendations for prevention of obesity in early life and for evaluating the progress of national obesity prevention efforts. Her work in early life origins of childhood obesity was cited by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of the most influential studies of 2010 and was included in the White House Task Force Report on Childhood Obesity in May 2010. In 2016, Taveras received the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Health for her extensive work improving health and healthcare in community-based settings.
“I am ecstatic to join the NICHQ Board of Directors,” says Taveras. “NICHQ’s mission to drive sustainable change in the complex and diverse health issues facing children and families is closely aligned with my own mission as a pediatrician and researcher. I look forward to working with the board to address the disparities and social determinants that affect children’s health.”
Taveras received her bachelor’s degree and medical degree from New York University. She also holds a master’s degree in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Read more about all the members of NICHQ’s Board of Directors.
