Kristine Schmitz, MD, FAAP, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Population Health, Quality, and Implementation Sciences (PopQuIS) in the Department of Pediatrics at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Schmitz received her medical degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, and completed her pediatric residency at Inova Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. She is an academic general pediatrician with experience in clinical services and program development and implementation for socially complex families.

Prior to joining Rutgers faculty, Dr. Schmitz was an Assistant Professor at Drexel College of Medicine and the Medical Director of the Center for Collaborative Primary Care at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Dr. Schmitz established the Center for Collaborative Primary Care, which provides trauma- and resilience-informed, multidisciplinary care to families experiencing high social risk. Before working at St. Christopher’s, Dr. Schmitz was an Assistant Professor at George Washington University and served as the Medical Director for the Healthy Generations Program at Children’s National Hospital, a medical home for teen parents and their children.

Dr. Schmitz’s research interests focus on promoting child health and well-being through understanding social and systemic factors impacting the health of families and communities. She is particularly interested in the intersection of parental mental health and childhood experiences of adverse childhood events (ACEs) with an emphasis on the mitigating impact of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and other resilience-drive protective factors. Her recently awarded New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS) Institutional KL2 Career Development Award will investigate associations between father’s mental health and their children’s health and behavioral outcomes.