We are pleased to announce the appointment of Kao-Ping Chua, MD, PhD, as Director of the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center, effective April 15, 2025.
Dr. Chua received his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University and his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He completed his pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and obtained a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University in 2015. He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2015 and moved to the University of Michigan in 2017. Dr. Chua is currently Associate Professor of Pediatrics, with tenure, Co-Director of CHEAR Fellowship Programs, and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health.
Dr. Chua’s NIH-funded research focuses on slowing the U.S. opioid epidemic, improving the affordability of health care, reducing the use of low-value care, and identifying emerging trends in pediatric health care utilization. His studies have been published in journals such as NEJM, JAMA, BMJ, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Pediatrics, and Pediatrics, and have been covered by national media outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. He is the recipient of the 2017 Academic Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award and the 2024 Nemours Child Health Services Research Award.
In June, the University of Michigan Board of Regents officially approved Dr. Chua’s appointment as the Marilyn Fisher Blanch Research Professor of Child Health Policy in the Medical School. His term began June 1, 2025, and runs through August 31, 2029.
In a recent conversation with the CHEAR Communications Team, Dr. Chua outlined his plans to elevate CHEAR’s visibility, empower faculty through structured mentorship, and spotlight our research on a national stage. Read the full feature here →
Thank you to Dr. Jeremy Adler for serving as Interim Director of CHEAR since July 2023.
