Shari Barkin, M.D., MSHS, director of the Division of General Pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been elected to serve as vice president of the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), with succession to the presidency in 2016.
Barkin, the William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Medicine, will serve a four-year leadership term beginning in May.
The SPR provides a forum for young investigators to exchange ideas, encourages research that benefits the well-being of children and allows researchers across the country the opportunity to present their work.
“This is an outstanding accomplishment and a wonderful and well-deserved opportunity for Shari,” said Steven A. Webber, MBChB, MRCP, James C. Overall Professor and chair of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital. “The goal of the Society for Pediatric Research is to foster the research and career development of investigators engaged in the health and well-being of children and youth. It is one of the world’s premier pediatric research societies. Please join me in congratulating Shari.”
Barkin’s election to the SPR post adds to her long list of accomplishments, numerous awards and appointments with various organizations. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and State of Tennessee, among others. Currently, she leads a seven-year randomized-controlled trial to prevent childhood obesity and serves as the chair of the NIH’s Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium.
“I am extremely honored to have been elected to the SPR leadership,” said Barkin, professor of Pediatrics and director of Pediatric Obesity Research. “This is a critical time in pediatric research to develop an integrated vision for how to respond to the rapid innovations and scientific discoveries that can advance childhood research and health outcomes.”
Barkin joined Vanderbilt’s Department of Pediatrics in 2006. She earned her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. She completed her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Then she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA, after which she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research at UCLA’s Health Services Research Center in California. There she received a master’s degree in Science and Health Services.
Before coming to Vanderbilt, she served as an associate professor of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine, Brenner Children’s Hospital.
