Eliana Perrin

MD, MPH

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor

Eliana Perrin, a nationally recognized leader in patient-oriented primary care, childhood obesity, and health disparities research, is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor with appointments at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Medicine (Department of Pediatrics).

Dr. Perrin has developed, tested, and disseminated many tools to help pediatricians prevent and treat obesity. Her research focuses on what pediatricians can do during well-child checks to support parents in helping children grow up healthy, and her groundbreaking work has had a broad impact on an epidemic that affects 1 in 3 children in the United States.

Dr. Perrin has spanned qualitative and quantitative methods and topics—from inflammatory markers in neonates to developing and testing color-coded growth charts to the influence of messages in children’s movies—to understand the many facets of childhood obesity and health correlates, particularly focusing on disadvantaged communities.

She founded Duke University’s Center for Childhood Obesity Research and, with colleagues, created, led, and researched “Greenlight,” a low-literacy primary care program to prevent obesity in young children, starting at infancy. Dr. Perrin joined Johns Hopkins University in 2021.

JHU Center Affiliation:
Hopkins H ousing & Health Collaborative
Hopkins Population Center

Full CV

[email protected]

@ElianaPerrin

Specialties and Expertise

Adolescent/Young Adult Care
Cardiovascular
Care Coordination
Community
Diabetes
Disparities
Diversity
Equity
Family
Health Behavior
Health Technology
Newborns
Obesity
Parenting
Pediatrics
Primary Care
Public Health
Qualitative Research
Research Design
Resilience/Stress Coping
Social Determinants of Health

Publications

Sanders LM, Perrin EM, Yin HS, Delamater AM, Flower KB, Bian A, Schildcrout JS, Rothman RL; Greenlight Study Team (2021). A health-literacy intervention for early childhood obesity prevention: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. May; 147 (5):e2020049866.

Nowinski CJ, DeWalt DA, Carter AS, Chacko A, Gross HE, Perrin EM, Krug CW, Holl JL, Gershon RC (2021). Recommendations for assessment of social, emotional, and behavioral health for the National Children’s Study. Front Pediatr. May 4;9:624524.

Duh-Leong C, Yin HS, Yi SS, Chen SL, Mui A, Perrin EM, Zhao Q, Gross RS (2021). Material hardship and stress from COVID-19 in Immigrant Chinese American Families with Infants. J Immigr Minor Health. Sep 7:1-10. doi: 10.1007/s10903-021-01267-8. Online ahead of print.

White MJ, Schechter JC, Neely B, Reyes C, Maguire RL, Perrin EM, Ksinan AJ, Kollins SH, Fuemmeler BF (2021). Parenting stress, child weight-related behaviors, and child weight status. Child Obes. Sep 24. doi: 10.1089/chi.2021.0098. Online ahead of print.

Gerhart JG, Carreño FO, Edginton AN, Sinha J, Perrin EM, Kumar KR, Rikhi A, Hornik CP, Harris V, Ganguly S, Cohen-Wolkowiez M, Gonzalez D (2021). Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act—Pediatric Trials Network Steering Committee. Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Population of Children with Obesity for Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2021 Oct 7. doi: 10.1007/s40262-021-01072-4. Online ahead of print.

2021 Presidential Award, as part of the LATIN-19 Team, Duke University

2018 Denny, Katz, Simon, Tingelstad Academic Service Award, presented by the North Carolina Pediatrics Society

2016 Two abstracts won out of only 10 “Best Abstracts” in Pediatric Section at The Obesity Society national meeting

2016 Orr Lecture and Visiting Professorship, Stanford University

2014 Annual John C. Robinson Primary Care Awardee Lecturer, Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children

2013-14 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Award for Scholarly and Artistic Achievement—awarded in 2013 with honorary lecture in 2014

2013 Participant (competitive selection) in AAMC Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar

2013 Elected to membership in the Society for Pediatric Research

2011-12 Selected for, and completed, the Academic Leadership Program run by the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for the Arts and Humanities. One of eight tenured faculty members chosen from across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to receive leadership training and support

2011 WCHL’s “Village Pride Award Hometown Hero” for work on childhood obesity

2011 Sabry Woolly Award for Best Oral Presentation, Health Literacy Annual Research Conference (HARC), Chicago, IL

2011 American Academy of Pediatrics Special Achievement Award for Distinguished Service and Dedication to the Mission and Goals of the Academy (chosen for leadership in addressing pediatric obesity)

2010 Selected for, and completed, the UNC School of Medicine Fall 2010 Faculty Leadership Initiative

2009-present Included in Best Doctors of America databases

2008 Participant (competitive selection) in Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Strategies for Translating Research to Public Policy

2008 Participant (competitive selection) in AAMC Early Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar

2005-present Listed in “Guide to America’s Top Pediatricians”

2005 Article (in Journal of Pediatrics) honored as one of the 10 best pediatric articles of 2004 by Contemporary Pediatrics

1999 Second Prize, 3rd Annual Poetry Contest, UCSF-Stanford

1999 Norman Schlossberger Education Award in Adolescent Medicine for the Stanford pediatrics resident with the most promise in adolescent medicine

1997 Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Award, to the woman who graduates 1st in her medical school class at the University of Rochester

1997 A.O.A. (Honor Medical Society) Induction

1996-97 Atwater Scholarship, awarded by the George Washington Corner Society for the History of Medicine to the best presentation on medical history

1996 National Essay Contest – “It’s Nice ‘n’ Easy to Care”- 2nd Prize, awarded prize money for tuition and donation to children’s welfare advocacy organizations

1993 Lucretia Mott Fellowship, awarded by Swarthmore College for pursuit of advanced study

1992 Joel Dean Undergraduate Research Fellowship for Social Sciences Research which provided funding for a psychology project on adolescent friendship patterns

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