Michelle White, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics with appointments in the Division of Hospital Medicine and the Duke Center for Childhood Obesity Research, has been named associate director of the Duke Pediatric Research Scholars Program for Physician-Scientist Development (DPRS), effective May 1, 2021.
White is a graduate of Yale University, Duke University School of Medicine and the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The focus of her research is place and child health equity, with particular emphasis on child obesity. Her work integrates geography with qualitative methodologies to describe the effect of built, social and perceived environmental factors on health behaviors and outcomes with the goal of translating this work into place-based interventions. Notably, White received a 2018 Young Investigator Award from the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) to assess the effects of changes in the Durham recreational environment on child BMI over time. She was also selected by the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) for the 2020 cohort of the Young Investigator Coaching Program.
“Dr. White’s impressive strengths and experience make her an ideal leader for the Duke Pediatric Research Scholars Program, and we are fortunate that she will be serving in this new role in partnership with Dr. Andrew Landstrom, who was recently named director of the program,” said Ann M. Reed, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief of Duke Children’s.
The Duke Pediatric Research Scholars Program for Physician-Scientist Development (DPRS) is dedicated to training young physician-scientists and preparing them for successful careers in academic medicine. The program focuses on the period from the completion of the MD, MD/PhD, or DO/PhD degree through residency and fellowship training, with the goal of achieving a full-time academic appointment as an investigator. The DPRS combines the intensive clinical training environment of Duke Children’s with the rigorous scientific training of the world-renowned laboratories at Duke University.