Dr. JoAnna Leyenaar, MD PhD, MPH, is a Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy & Clinical Practice at Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College. She serves as Vice-Chair of Research for the Department of Pediatrics at Dartmouth Health Children’s, works clinically as a pediatric hospitalist, and is a passionate and productive clinician scientist.  Board-certified in Pediatrics as well as Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Dr. Leyenaar provides clinical care for children with diverse medical and surgical conditions and is dedicated to improving systems of care for children and their families. Her research foci include: (i) improving transitions of care into the hospital and home following hospital discharge, (ii) addressing urban-rural disparities in healthcare quality for children with medical complexity, and (iii) integrating mental healthcare in pediatric medicine.

Dr. Leyenaar is nationally recognized for her expertise in leading qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. Her work applying advanced statistical methods to health systems data has been recognized as the Best of Research, Innovation and Vignettes by the Society of Hospital Medicine, while her work to improve hospital-to-home transitions for children has been recognized by both the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine Research Award and the Academic Pediatric Association’s Young Investigator Award.  She is currently Principal Investigator of 4 federally funded multi-center studies, together comprising 8.4 million dollars in federal funding. She is actively mentoring several junior faculty, two of whom recently received NIH K-awards, and she has co-authored 15 peer-reviewed manuscripts with her trainees since 2018 (in addition to many more with her research team). She frequently shares her expertise in applied qualitative research and the importance of mentorship to career development at regional and national conferences. Most recently, Dr. Leyenaar was awarded the 2023 American Academy of Pediatrics Award for Outstanding Research in Pediatric Hospital Medicine.