Messiah Sarah E

I am a perinatal/pediatric and life course epidemiologist and a tenured Professor of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences in the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center. I am also an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the McGovern Medical School and a voluntary Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. I am the inaugural Director of the Center for Pediatric Population Health based in Dallas, TX. The center’s vision is to improve the health of pediatric populations through state-of-the-art health promotion research and implementation science. This new center will create a healthier future for pediatric populations by making existing clinical and community health programs more evidence-based, and by extending program reach to even more families locally and beyond. I have focused my career on two main areas of research: (1) the epidemiological investigation of childhood obesity and cardiometabolic disease risk factors with emphasis on ethnic and racial disparities; and (2) the implementation of evidence-based practices into clinical and community-based settings to promote healthy weight throughout the life course. I have authored or edited 2 books, 11 chapters, over 200 original research papers, and 250 scientific abstracts. My research has been consistently funded by federal (NIH, USDA, CDC, HSRA) and private (Thrasher, Aetna) sources my entire academic career. I am a top cited expert in obesity with an H index of 30 and an i10-index of 101. It is equally important to me that with my leadership position I focus on team building and supporting and mentoring the careers of up-and-coming junior and mid-career faculty, as well as graduate students and medical fellows (I have mentored over 100 students/trainees). The center has ambition to develop national and international reach in maternal/child health and health disparities research so that it becomes a world-renowned destination for public health and clinical/medical students, trainees, fellows, and professional scholars.