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Maya Indira Ragavan, MD, MPH, MS

  • Associate Vice Chair of Diversity Equity and Inclusion Research, Department of Pediatrics
  • Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Maya Ragavan is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of General Academic Pediatrics. She completed her medical school from Northwestern University, pediatric residency from Stanford Children's Hospital, and a general academic pediatric fellowship from Boston Medical Center. Her research interests focus on preventing intimate partner violence (IPV), specifically by supporting IPV survivors in pediatric healthcare settings and examining the impact of cultural and structural racism on IPV survivors and their families. She also does work focused on engaging parents in supporting their adolescent-age children in developing healthy romantic relationships. She is deeply passionate about stakeholder involvement and the majority of her research is conducted in partnership with community-based organizations. She also is interested in language equity in research, and focuses her work on non-English speaking communities. 

Ragavan is currently funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Scholars KL2 where she has developed an innovative community-academic collaboration to design a parent-adolescent dating violence prevention program for Hispanic and Latino adolescents and their parents. She also is PI or co-I on a number of community-partnered projects including developing a youth research advisory board for Latinx youth, understanding the COVID-19 vaccine experience of immigrant and refugee communities, and examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IPV survivors.  Ragavan also practices general pediatrics at the Primary Care Center in Oakland and with the Salud Para Niños program.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013-Present 
  • Academic Pediatrics Societies, 2014-Present 
  • Massachusetts Medical Society, 2016-2019 

Education & Training

  • BA, Psychology, Northwestern University, 2007
  • MD, Northwestern University, 2013
  • MPH, Northwestern University, 2013
  • Residency in Pediatrics, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, 2013-2016
  • Fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, 2016-2019

Selected Publications

Ragavan MI, Cowden J. Bilingual and bicultural research teams: Unpacking the complexities. Health Equity. 2020; 4(1): 243-246.

Ragavan MI, Culyba AJ, Muhammad FL, Miller E. Supporting adolescents and young adults exposed to or experiencing violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2020; 67(1): 18-20. 

Ragavan MI, Garcia R, Berger R, Miller E. Supporting intimate partner violence survivors and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatrics. 2020, 146 (3) e20201276

Ragavan MI, Zenni E, Turner T, Klein M. Academic general pediatrics hiring practices and completion of AGP fellowships. Academic Pediatrics. In press

Szoko N, Ragavan MI, Khetapal SK, Culyba AJ. Association of protective factors with vaping and other tobacco use among high school students. Pediatrics. In press

Khetapal SK; Szoko N, Ragavan MI, Culyba AJ. Future orientation as a cross-cutting protective factor against multiple forms of violence. Journal of Pediatrics. In-press

Khetarpal SK*, Szoko N, Culyba AJ, Shaw D, & Ragavan MI. The role of parental monitoring as a protective factor against youth violence victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. In-press

Scott T, Gutschow B, Ragavan MI, Massart M, Ho K, Ripper L, Muthama V, Miller M, Bey J, Abernathy P. A community partnered approach to promoting COVID-19 vaccine equity. Health Promotion Practice. In-press

Gutschow B, Gray B, Ragavan MI, Sheffield P, Philipsborn R, Jee SH. The intersection of pediatrics, climate change, and structural racism: Ensuring health equity through climate justice. Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care. In-press

Ragavan MI, Barral R, Randell KA. Addressing Adolescent Relationship Abuse in the Context of Reproductive Health Care. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine. In-press

Ragavan MI, Risser L, Duplessis V, DeGue S, Villaveces A, Hurley T, Chang J, Miller, E. Randell KA. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the needs and lived experiences of intimate partner violence survivors in the United States: Advocate perspectives. Violence Against Women. In-press

Academic and Research Interests

  • Intimate partner violence
  • Adolescent relationship abuse
  • Cultural and structural racism
  • Community-based participatory research
  • Immigrant health
  • Language equity
  • Intervention development
  • Qualitative research

Research Grants

Dean's Faculty Advancement Award, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2021-2023.

University of Pittsburgh Momentum Grant, Developing a Latinx Youth Research Advisory Board to Address and Dismantle Structural Inequities in Emerging Latinx communities (PI), 2021-2022.