TEAM UP is excited to announce that Megan H. Bair-Merritt, MD, MSCE, TEAM UP’s Evaluation Co-Director, has been named Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) first Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Bair-Merritt will provide strategic leadership for BMC’s research efforts across the academic medical center, which ranges across the translational spectrum, from basic science to clinical research to population and community health.
As CSO, Dr. Bair-Merritt will be responsible for developing and implementing an innovative, robust, and cohesive strategic vision for advancing BMC’s research agenda focused on research sustainability and growth. Dr. Bair-Merritt’s leadership and vision will help BMC lead world-class, interdisciplinary research that tackles some of the toughest health challenges, all while advancing health and racial equity and elevating strategies to ethically engage diverse patients and communities in research. Additionally, as CSO, Dr. Bair-Merritt will further organize BMC’s research program to better engage with funding sources and industry.
TEAM UP will greatly miss Dr. Bair-Merritt’s dedication to clinical care, equity, and research, particularly for children in structurally marginalized communities like those served by TEAM UP health centers. Dr. Bair-Merritt, a board-certified pediatrician with extensive training in epidemiologic methods, has been an integral part of TEAM UP leadership since its inception in 2015.
In addition to her work with TEAM UP, Dr. Bair-Merritt currently serves as an attending physician in the Department of Pediatrics, acting division chief of general academic pediatrics, and executive director of BMC Pediatrics’ Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family. At Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, she serves as a professor of pediatrics; multi-PI of Boston University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI); and chair of women’s leadership through the Boston University Medical Group’s Office of Equity, Vitality, and Inclusion.
We look forward to watching Dr. Bair-Merritt’s work on a larger scale. Congratulations!