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Kristen Feemster MD, MPH, MSHP

Faculty Scholar

Kristen A. Feemster is a faculty scholar at PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), an adjunct associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, research director for the Vaccine Education Center at CHOP and medical director of the Immunization Program and Acute Communicable Diseases at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Dr. Feemster’s portfolio reflects a longstanding interest in public health and a commitment to improve outcomes for children by addressing contextual factors that may impact disease risk and access to health services. This has resulted in two complimentary foci: 1) understanding how environmental factors, social networks, and community systems affect the epidemiology of infectious diseases; and 2) evaluating policies related to the prevention of pediatric infectious diseases, specifically vaccine policies. Her current research includes vaccine acceptance among parents and immunization providers in the U.S. and internationally, community-based interventions to improve vaccine uptake, neighborhood factors associated with the incidence of pertussis and influenza, and health-care associated respiratory infection in the pediatric ambulatory setting. This body of work has also demonstrated the importance of understanding the drivers of health-related behaviors and adoption of new recommendations to ensure effective policy implementation. 

At Penn and CHOP, Dr. Feemster is affiliated with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, PolicyLab, Clinical Futures and Global Health programs at CHOP. She serves as a technical advisor for an American Academy of Pediatrics global immunization advocacy initiative and is past-chair of the Advisory Commission for Childhood Vaccines that advises the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. In the community, she serves on the boards of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Immunization Coalitions.

Dr. Feemster received her MD and an MPH in population and family health from Columbia University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in New York City. She completed pediatric residency at CHOP then pursued a dual fellowship training program in health services research and pediatric infectious diseases: she was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Clinical Scholars Program at Penn, completing a master of science in health policy research then returned to CHOP for pediatric infectious diseases training. She joined the faculty in 2010.