Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD
Senior Research Scientist, New York Academy of Medicine. Founder and Co-Chair, NYAM Women’s Health Research & Wellbeing Workgroup.
Danielle Laraque-Arena is a Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Academy of Medicine, focusing on health equity and health disparities. She is President and Professor Emerita of SUNY Upstate Medical University; Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Columbia University; Associate Director of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, a national program modelled after the Nova award winning program, at the Harlem Hospital Injury Prevention Program; and is honored to have joined the board of directors of Prevent Child Abuse America in 2019.
Dr. Laraque-Arena completed her medical studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, obtaining a BS in Chemistry. Her internship and residency were completed at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania (CHOP, 1981–84), where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow in General Academic Pediatrics. She is an academic pediatrician who is sub-boarded in child abuse pediatrics and has founded three child protection teams.
Following her training at CHOP, she was a faculty member at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University and Harlem Hospital Center, where she rose to the rank of Associate Professor and Director of the Harlem Pediatric Resource Center. She then accepted the position as Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, during which time she was promoted to the position of tenured Professor of Pediatrics and received the Endowed Chair as the first Debra & Leon Black Professor of Pediatrics and became Vice Chair for Public Policy and Advocacy. Subsequently, she accepted the position of Chair and Vice President of the Maimonides Children’s Hospital of Brooklyn and Professor of Pediatrics at Yeshiva University. In 2015, she was appointed President of SUNY, Upstate Medical University. She joined the New York Academy of Medicine as a Senior Scholar in 2019.
Dr. Laraque-Arena has trained countless fellows in General Academic Pediatrics, General Internal Medicine, Environmental Health, and Child Abuse Pediatrics and mentored numerous faculty, students, and other trainees. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous other review articles, chapters, educational materials. She now serves on the Editorial Board of Pediatric Medicine, Shanghai, China. Dr. Laraque-Arena has received numerous awards including the BEAR Award for Leadership from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Job Lewis Smith Award, a national award given for outstanding service in community pediatrics encompassing service to children. Dr. Laraque-Arena is the Past President of the Academic Pediatric Association. She was the 2001 United States Public Health Service Primary Care Policy Fellow and the New York State American Academy of Pediatrics District II Chair and a member of the AAP board of directors.