Tumaini Rucker Coker, M.D., M.B.A.
Member
Dr. Coker, M.D., M.B.A., is division head 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 for Seattle Children’s Center for Health Outcomes and currently serves as the co-director of a child health research fellowship at University of Washington, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Coker has practiced primary care for 20 years, caring for infants, children, and adolescents, and teaches medical students and residents at Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic.
Dr. Coker’s research focuses on community-partnered pediatric primary care delivery design to eliminate health and healthcare disparities for children and families in low-resource 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 identify and address disparities in behavioral health for Black and Hispanic/Latino children, focusing on delivery system interventions needed to improve access and utilization of care.
Dr. Coker’s 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. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Coker is a member of the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Primary Care and serves as a member of the expert advisory panel for the latest update to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Bright Futures National Preventive Care Guidelines. She also chaired the National Academies’ Committee on the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families. She has received numerous awards for her clinical and research expertise, including AcademyHealth’s Nemours Child Health Services Research Award and the Academic Pediatric Association’s George Armstrong Lecture award.
Dr. Coker earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Stanford University, an M.B.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management, and her M.D. at the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Dr. Coker completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 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.
Dr. Coker was appointed to the Task Force due to her particular expertise in health promotion and primary care, with a focus on improving the delivery of care to underserved children and families, as well as her experience implementing evidence-based recommendations in clinical practice. She joined the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2022.
Dr. Coker’s research focuses on community-partnered pediatric primary care delivery design to eliminate health and healthcare disparities for children and families in low-resource 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 identify and address disparities in behavioral health for Black and Hispanic/Latino children, focusing on delivery system interventions needed to improve access and utilization of care.
Dr. Coker’s 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. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Coker is a member of the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Primary Care and serves as a member of the expert advisory panel for the latest update to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Bright Futures National Preventive Care Guidelines. She also chaired the National Academies’ Committee on the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families. She has received numerous awards for her clinical and research expertise, including AcademyHealth’s Nemours Child Health Services Research Award and the Academic Pediatric Association’s George Armstrong Lecture award.
Dr. Coker earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Stanford University, an M.B.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management, and her M.D. at the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Dr. Coker completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 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.
Dr. Coker was appointed to the Task Force due to her particular expertise in health promotion and primary care, with a focus on improving the delivery of care to underserved children and families, as well as her experience implementing evidence-based recommendations in clinical practice. She joined the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2022.