Biography

Kyung (Kay) Rhee, MD, MS, MA, is a Professor and Vice Chair of Health Equity in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She is also the Chief of the Division of Child and Community Health and the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. She serves as the Medical Director of the Medical Behavioral (Eating Disorder) Unit and the Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in Human Biology and Sociology, respectively, from Stanford University, and her M.D. from Temple University Medical School. She also received her M.S. in Epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Rhee’s work focuses on identifying novel targets of obesity prevention and treatment at the biological, behavioral, cognitive, and family levels. Her work has expanded to include social determinants of health targets, particularly nutrition security, and she directs several large nutrition incentive programs for children and families.

She served as a member of the joint CDC, NIH, RWJF-sponsored National Collaborative for Childhood Obesity Research and is currently on the editorial board of Childhood Obesity. She is involved in several national research consortia and is currently an Associate Director of the Coordinating Center of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study and an MPI of one of the RECOVER hub sites.

Her research focuses on the impact of individual, family-level, and social factors on pediatric health outcomes.