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Jennifer Baldwin

Jennifer L. Baldwin, MD, MPH, MA, FAAP

Core Faculty

Professional Statement

Jennifer L. Baldwin, MD, MPH, MA, FAAP is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a physician at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. With specialized expertise in caring for children with medical complexity, she practices at the hospital’s Complex Care Center within the Division of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, where she is dedicated to partnering with families to achieve family-directed goals across medical, educational, and community settings.

Dr. Baldwin earned her Master of Arts in Medical Anthropology and her Master of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to complete her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, before completing her residency training in pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Her multidisciplinary credentials reflect a career-long commitment to understanding how social, cultural, historical, and structural forces shape health and illness, and the practice of medicine itself. Her scholarly interests encompass disability studies, the history of science and medicine, feminist ethics, disability studies, biopolitics, trauma theory, critical neuroscience, and clinical knowledge-making. These intellectual commitments inform both her clinical work and her broader engagement with questions of how medical institutions produce knowledge, allocate care, and mediate the relationship between individuals and larger publics and social institutions, including the state.

Her master’s research examined disability rights movements in Nepal and northern India, while her doctoral research — conducted with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — employed ethnographic methodologies to investigate how veterans and VA clinicians understood and managed mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the signature injuries of the US conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That research revealed the VA’s management of war-acquired injuries to be a highly orchestrated performance of care and state responsibility, reflecting a broader politics of care that shapes the meaning of combat injury for veterans and the body politic, alike.

These scholarly foundations animate Dr. Baldwin’s clinical practice and her work as a medical educator. She co-leads the Pediatric Resident Communication course, and serves as a Longitudinal Educator and member of the instructional team for the Social Medicine Thread at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In each role, her commitments to social medicine, structural competency, anti-abelism, and trauma-informed care and education translate directly into her approach to serving medically complex children and their families, and her ongoing contributions to medical education.

Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Division of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care School of Medicine
  • Core Faculty Institute for Bioethics
  • Faculty Co-Lead Pediatric Resident Communication Course
  • Longitudinal Educator School of Medicine

Education and Training

  • Pediatric Residency, University of Pittsburgh, 2022
  • MD, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2019
  • MA, Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 2006
  • MPH, Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 2006
  • BS, Biology, Muhlenberg College, 2002

Professional Interests in Bioethics

Representative Publications

  1. Ehrenberger, K, D Mendoza-Cervantes, JL Baldwin. (2026) (accepted). The New Normal: Structural Ableism and Healthcare Transition for Medically Complex Patients. Journal of General Internal Medicine.

  2. Baldwin, JL. J Crowder, J Karlin, C Sufrin, A Chary, I Kalofonos, A Reddy, M Munyikwa, O Behrouz, M Dudgeon, W “MD-PhD perspectives” in Navigating Anthropological Identities in the Health Sciences. Eds. J Crowder, I Martinez, and C Wentworth. (Berghan) (in press)

  3. Baldwin, JL. (2016). The Politics of Care: VA Care for Combat Head Injuries during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. ACOMA: International Journal of North American Studies. 11: 25-41. (in Italian)

  4. Kohrt, BA, DJ Hruschka, CM Worthman, RD Kunz, JL Baldwin, N Upadhaya, NR Acharya, S Koirala, SB Thapa, WA. Tol, MJD Jordans, N Robkin, VD Sharma, MK Nepal. (2012). Political Violence and Mental Health in Nepal: Prospective Study. British Journal of Psychiatry. 201: 268-275.

Awards and Honors

  • Educator and Professionalism Accolade, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2025
  • Child Development Unit Award, Pediatric Residency, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 2022
  • Susan K. Makoroff Award, Pediatric Residency, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 2022
  • National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2015
  • Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies Graduate Fellow, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2015
  • Network for Neuro-Cultures INTERSECT Program Graduate Fellow, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2013
  • Hazel I. Craig Research Fellowship, UIUC College of Medicine, 2011
  • International Forum of U.S. Studies Graduate Fellow, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2010
  • O’Morchoe Leadership Fellowship, College of Medicine University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2009 and 2014
  • Anthropology Summer Research Grant, Anthropology, UIUC, 2009
  • Clinton Institute of American Studies Graduate Fellow, University College, Dublin, Ireland, 2009
  • Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Graduate Fellow, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2009
  • Joseph Casagrande Award for Best Research Proposal, Anthropology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2009
  • Goodman Fellow, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2007
  • Miller Fellowship, Anthropology Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2006
  • Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society, University of Pittsburgh, 2006
  • Leadership Education in Neuro-developmental Disabilities (LEND) Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, 2005
  • Indian Pacific Center Graduate Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2005
  • Women’s Studies Graduate Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2005
  • Department of Anthropology Pre-dissertation Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2004
  • Stanley Prostrednik Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2004
  • Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2004
  • Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Nepali Language, Cornell University, 2003
  • Presidential Award for Outstanding Potential for Post-Graduate Scholarship, Muhlenberg College, 2001
  • Alpha Epsilon Delta, National Pre-Health Honor Society, 2000
  • Muhlenberg College Summer Research Grant, Muhlenberg College, 2000
  • Dana Scholars Honors Program, Muhlenberg College, 1998-2002
  • Presidential Scholarship, Muhlenberg College, 1998-2002