Managed Healthcare Executive: Emerging Industry Leaders, Dr. Jennifer Watts
By Karen Appold
Jennifer Watts, M.D., M.P.H., chief emergency management medical officer, director of global health and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, a children’s hospital in Kansas City, Missouri is one of the 10 up-and-coming healthcare leaders featured in the annual Managed Healthcare Executive feature.
Jennifer Watts, M.D., M.P.H.
I am Kansas City-born and raised. I attended Rockhurst University in Kansas City and then St. Louis University School of Medicine. I returned to Kansas City for a pediatrics residency and then a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship.
While I completed all my training in Missouri, I fell in love with global health work and have worked all over the world. In fact, because of this, I created the Global Health Program at Children’s Mercy Kansas City in 2011 and have trained more than 100 pediatric physicians to work in the global health area.
I have also served as the pediatric chief medical officer for the Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team, which is where my passion for disaster medicine grew. This became extremely helpful when COVID-19 entered the United States. I assisted the organization and region on pediatric disaster management in response to the pandemic. During this time, I was appointed chief emergency management medical officer and helped redesign and build emergency management at Children’s Mercy. We currently have a team of five members and are working to drive the organization in emergency preparedness and response locally, regionally and nationally.
Read the full Q&A with Dr. Watts via Managed Healthcare Executive