@elsiemt

Chief, General Academic Pediatrics, MassGeneral Hospital for Children

Dr. Elsie Taveras is Chief of General Academic Pediatrics and Executive Director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. A board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Taveras has also founded and directed childhood obesity clinical programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital. She currently leads a research team dedicated to studying obesity, including epidemiological analyses of risk factors for childhood obesity across the life course, with an emphasis on racial/ethnic disparities, and translating epidemiological evidence into clinical and public health innovations to prevent and manage obesity and obesity-related conditions. As Executive Director of the Kraft Center, she leads the development and implementation of innovative solutions to address some of our most pressing community and population health challenges. Chief among these are the opioid epidemic facing the nation and tackling the social determinants that lead to inequalities in health and health care. She also develops programs to promote leadership and training in community health, particularly for underrepresented minority students and those committed to serving medically underserved communities. She earned her bachelor degree and MD from New York University and received her master’s in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Elsie is a Fellow of the second class of the Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.