Seattle Children's Research Institute homepage

Tumaini Coker

Principal Investigator- Supervisor

Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development

Orcid identifier0000-0002-5111-6527
  • Principal Investigator- Supervisor
    Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development

BIOGRAPHY

Tumaini Rucker Coker, MD, MBA, is Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s. She is the former and founding Research Director of the Health Equity Research Program at Seattle Children’s Center for Health Outcomes, and currently serves as the Co-Director of the University of Washington’s NIH-funded Child Health Equity Research Fellowship.

 

Dr. Coker's research focuses on community-partnered pediatric primary care delivery design to promote health equity and eliminate health and healthcare disparities for Black and Latinx children and families in low-income communities. Her primary research is in partnership with community clinics and the parents they serve, and has focused on the design, implementation, and testing of new models of care that integrate community health workers into the delivery of early childhood preventive care. Dr. Coker has also conducted research to elucidate inequities in behavioral health for Black and Latinx children, with a focus on delivery system interventions needed to improve access and utilization of care. Her research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. Dr. Coker served as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Bright Futures 4th edition National Preventive Care Guidelines Expert Panel. She is currently chair for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Addressing the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families, and is a member of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

Dr. Coker teaches medical students and residents at Seattle Children's Odessa Brown Children's Clinic.

 

Dr. Coker earned her bachelor degree in Psychology at Stanford University, a masters in business administration at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and her medical degree at the Drew/UCLA Medical Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Chicago. Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine, she was a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at UCLA for 10 years.

SEATTLE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH INSTITUTE APPOINTMENTS

  • Principal Investigator
    Seattle Children's Research Institute, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle, United StatesSep 2016 - present

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Professor
    University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics - Division of General Pediatrics, Seattle, United StatesJul 2022 - present
  • Division Head of General Pediatrics
    University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, United StatesJan 2021 - present
  • Associate Professor
    David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, United StatesJul 2015 - Oct 2016

DEGREES

  • MBA
    The Anderson School at the University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United StatesSep 1999 - Jun 2001
  • M.D.
    Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, United StatesAug 1996 - Jun 2001
  • B.A. - Psychology
    Stanford University, Stanford, United StatesSep 1991 - Jun 1995

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

  • Fellow
    University of Chicago, The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Chicago, United StatesJul 2004 - Jun 2006
  • Resident
    Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Los Angeles, United StatesJul 2001 - Jun 2004

SEATTLE CHILDREN'S AFFILIATION(S)

  • Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development