Tumaini Rucker Coker, M.D., M.B.A.

Dr. Coker is assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and natural scientist at RAND. Dr. Coker's research has focused on delivery system redesign for child and adolescent preventive health services, as well as racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health and health care. She investigates innovative models of health care delivery within the context of the patient-centered medical home to improve the quality of primary care services delivered to children in low-income communities. She is currently directing two separate federally funded studies to design and pilot-test new models of preventive care delivery for low-income families with young children. The first study is in collaboration with a community health center in Los Angeles, and the second is in partnership with one of the largest public health plans in the United States. Dr. Coker's work has also focused on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in family-centered care, the health and health care of homeless children, perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and its effects on child mental health, racial/ethnic disparities in mental health care utilization, and the health and health care of LGBT youth.

Her work has been published in various journals including JAMA, Pediatrics, and the American Journal of Public Health, and has been covered by mainstream media outlets including CNN, USA Today, and NBC. She is a recipient of several awards, including the 2011 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Herbert W. Nickens Faculty Fellowship, a national award that recognizes one outstanding junior faculty member who has demonstrated leadership in the United States in addressing inequities in health care; educational, societal, and health care needs of minorities; and a commitment to a career in academic medicine.Dr. Coker completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University and received an M.B.A. at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.  She received an M.D. at the Drew/UCLA Medical Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and completed a pediatric residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Coker was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Chicago from 2004-2006. She supervises residents and medical students in general pediatrics at UCLA.