Kristen A. Feemster, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FAAP
Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of Research for the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Medical Director of the Philadelphia Department of Health Immunization Program
Dr. Feemster is an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [CHOP], a core faculty member of the Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, and at the Policy Lab at CHOP, and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As faculty for the Global Health program at CHOP, she works with projects in both Botswana and the Dominican Republic as a researcher and mentor.
Dr. Feemster completed her undergraduate work at Yale University and 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 degree in Health Policy Research then returned to CHOP for pediatric infectious diseases training. She joined the faculty in her current position in 2010. During this time she has studied and worked in Brazil and Mali.
Dr. Feemster’s research interests include immunization delivery, domestic and international vaccine policy and infectious diseases surveillance. She is especially interested in understanding the role of community and household characteristics in infectious disease transmission to inform the development of effective policies related to the prevention of pediatric infectious diseases. Ongoing work includes vaccine acceptance among parents and immunization providers in Botswana and the Dominican Republic, neighborhood factors associated with the incidence of pneumococcal infection and influenza and healthcare associated respiratory infection in the pediatric ambulatory setting.
