Faculty & Staff

Robert C. Whitaker, MD, MPH
Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics

Robert C. Whitaker, MD, MPH, is Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. His research interests are in the childhood antecedents of adult chronic disease.  He has conducted much of his research on childhood obesity.  This has included studies on the epidemiology of childhood obesity, parent-child feeding interaction, and obesity prevention strategies in low-income preschool children.  He served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committees on the Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth.  More recently, his work has also focused on the determinants of social and emotional wellbeing in children.

Prior to joining Temple University, Dr. Whitaker was a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and was a Senior Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University.  He has held previous faculty positions in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.  He is a graduate of Williams College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Washington where he later received his Master of Public Health and was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

Education:

1979-1983 BA, Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
1983-1987 MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
1990-1992 MPH, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle, WA

Concentration:
Obesity
Pediatrics
Nutrition
Physical Activity
Mental Health