Kristen Harris Nwanyanwu, MD, MBA, MHS
Associate Director, Community Engagement
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science; Associate Director of Community Engaged Research and Participant Recruitment, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI)
Dr. Kristen Nwanyanwu is a vitreoretinal surgeon and national expert in diabetic retinopathy who graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan. Her degrees in African-American Studies and Biochemistry became the foundation for her career as a health disparities researcher. At the University of Pennsylvania, she earned her medical degree and MBA from the Wharton School. She is a board-certified ophthalmologist and a practicing vitreoretinal surgeon. She completed residency at the University of Michigan and vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After joining the Yale faculty, she was selected for the YCCI Junior Faculty Scholars Program through which she completed her Master of Health Science.
Dr. Nwanyanwu’s work engages communities not often served in the development of interventions to decrease preventable blindness from diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Nwanyanwu has assembled a team with expertise in health equity, research, biostatistics, and translational research, and mixed methodologies to address diabetic retinopathy. She supports the implementation science for the Community health Accelerator (CHEA), the Equitable Breakthroughs in Medicine Development (EQBMed) Partnership.