Seminar Announcement
“Childhood Obesity Disparities: The Importance
of Prevention in Early Life”
Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Chief, Division of General Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Population Health Management
Massachusetts General Hospital
Monday, January 12, 2015 from 4:00 – 5:00 PM
108 Mueller Building
Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H. is Chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and Director of
Pediatric Population Health Management at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also Associate
Professor of Pediatrics and Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her BS and MD
degrees from New York University. After receiving her MD, she did her internship, residency, and chief
residency, at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics. Dr. Taveras also holds a Master’s in
Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Taveras is a Pediatrician and a childhood obesity researcher. Her main focus of research is
understanding determinants of obesity in women and children and developing interventions across the
lifecourse to prevent obesity, especially in underserved populations. Her work spans the spectrum of
observational studies and interventions—to identify and quantify risk factors— to modify these risk factors
for health promotion and disease prevention. She has published over 100 research studies and served on
Committees for the Institutes of Medicine to develop recommendations for prevention of obesity in early
life and for evaluating the progress of national obesity prevention efforts. Her work has been cited by The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of the most influential studies of 2010 and was cited in the White
House Task Force Report on Childhood Obesity in May 2010.
Hosted by:
Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences and
Penn State Childhood Obesity Prevention Training Program
Contact: Jane Prestash (jlb114@psu.edu or 814-863-2884)