Shari L. Barkin, MD, MSHS

Dr. Shari Barkin, Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Chief of Academic General Pediatrics at the Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University (1986), her medical degree at University of Cincinnati (1991), and completed her pediatrics residency at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles (1994).

Her research has focused on examining the effectiveness of pediatric office-based interventions. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA and received a National Research Service Award from the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), completing a 4-year fellowship in Health Services Research. During this time she conducted both qualitative and quantitative research examining the role of the pediatric provider in office-based violence prevention. She was chosen as one of 15 generalists from across the country to be a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Faculty Scholar (2000-2005). She served as an NIH-funded PI for a national randomized controlled trial. This was the first such large-scale trial to test the effectiveness of anticipatory guidance in general pediatrics. In collaboration with the Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network (the largest primary care practice-based research network in the United States), this national NIH-funded study evaluated the effectiveness of an office-based violence prevention intervention and included almost 5,000 families in 41 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Currently, she serves as the PI for an NIH-funded study to evaluate the use of a recreation center as the extension of a doctor's office for the issue of childhood obesity for preadolescent Latino children. She is also the recipient of a Duke Endowment Grant that supported the building of the Collaborative to Strengthen Families and Neighborhoods - a learning lab to test a new model of community engagement that allows community and academic partners to develop and test meaningful interventions to improve child health outcomes. She is developing a network of these Collaboratives, with a second site in Nashville, in partnership with Metro Parks and Recreation. Building from her NIH studies, she has received a Tennessee State Implementation Grant to test the effect of a community-based family-centered pediatric obesity intervention program for Latino families with young children. She leads a group of pediatric obesity researchers to develop and test promising approaches to stem the tide of pediatric obesity.

More information on her work through the Nashville Collaborative can be found at: https://www.childrenshospitalvanderbilt.org/program/nashville-collaborative