Tina Cheng, MD, receives American Academy of Pediatrics’ highest honor

Cheng’s selection reflects more than three decades of work in pediatrics spanning clinical care, research, education, advocacy and community engagement.  

Since 1983, Cheng has focused on improving health outcomes for children and families, with particular attention to health disparities and other factors that often originate in childhood but can shape an entire lifespan. For more than 15 years, she co-led the National Institutes of Health-funded DC-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities, which focuses on understanding and addressing disparities affecting children. She has built enduring, award-winning care delivery models and innovation centers.

Early in her career, Cheng founded the Generations Program at Children’s National Medical Center, a comprehensive, family-centered health care and support program for teen parents and their children. The program has served more than 2,000 young families, received recognition from the White House, and was designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an evidence-based program to prevent repeat teen pregnancy. While at Johns Hopkins, Cheng co-founded the Rales Center for the Integration of Health and Education, which works to fundamentally reimagine school health to improve student health and well-being and reduce health and educational inequality, and Centro SOL (Center for Health and Opportunity for Latinxs) to advance clinical care, research, education and advocacy in active partnership with Latino neighbors.

Cheng's work has also included national efforts to advance pediatric research and health policy, including successful public awareness campaigns and state and federal child health legislation. She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and has contributed to national initiatives addressing child health, mental health, health care delivery and lifelong health.

“Children are 21% of our population, but they are 100% of our future. Children are the message that we send to the future,” says Cheng. Since joining UC and Cincinnati Children's in 2020, she has led initiatives spanning clinical care, research, education and community health, including work in childhood mental and behavioral health and research innovation. She says she finds great fulfillment in caring for patients and families and in precepting trainees in the Pediatric Primary Care Clinics — both important perspectives in her work as a health care leader.

Cheng has also held leadership positions in several national pediatric organizations. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and president-elect of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs. She is a past president of the Academic Pediatric Association and past chair of the AAP Committee on Pediatric Research. She also has contributed to National Academies work on child health, including serving as co-chair of the 2024 consensus study Launching Lifelong Health. As a resident, she co-founded and was an early president of the AAP Section of Pediatric Trainees, the largest section of the AAP.