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Maya Indira Ragavan, MD, MPH, MS

  • Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Public Health, and Clinical and Translational Science

Maya Ragavan is an associate 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 uplifting community voices through research 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 communities who speak languages other than English. Ragavan is currently funded by the NIH, Office of Violence Against Women, and PCORI to develop and test novel interventions to support perinatal IPV survivors and prevent dating violence.  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 Association, 2014-Present 
  • Society of Pediatric Research, 2022-Present
  • Public Policy and Advocacy Care, Academic Pediatric Association, 2023-2026 

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

Chen A, Demaestri S, Schweiberger K, Sidani J, Wolynn R, Chaves-Gnecco D, Hernandez R, Rothenberger S, Mickievicz E, Cowden JD, Ragavan MI. Inclusion of Non-English-Speaking Participants in Pediatric Health Research: A Review. JAMA Pediatr. 2022 Oct 31. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.3828. 

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

Tiffany-Appleton S,  Mickievicz E, Ortiz Y, Migliori O, Randell KA, Rothman EF, Chaves-Gnecco D, Rosen D, Miller E, Ragavan MI. Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention in Pediatric Primary Care: Provider, Adolescent, and Parent Perspectives. Acad Pediatr. 2022 Dec 27:S1876-2859(22)00633-7. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2022.12.005

Huerta C, Gutschow B, Bañales J, Boyzo H, Jenkins V, Document P, Taverno SE, Goodkind S, Ragavan MI. Developing a Youth Participatory Action Research Program for Latine Youth in an Emerging Community. Health Promot Pract. 2023 May 22:15248399231176248. doi: 10.1177/15248399231176248. 

Scott SE, Lavage DR, Risser L, Gonzalez Bockinski S, Miller E, Ragavan MI. Economic Abuse and Help-Seeking Intentions Among Adolescents. J Interpers Violence. 2023 Aug 20:8862605231194640. doi: 10.1177/08862605231194640. 

Konuthula D, de Abril Cameron F, Jonassaint N, Ufomata E, Torres O, Essien UR, Hamm ME, Merlin J, Ragavan MI. Perspectives on Anti-Black Racism and Mitigation Strategies Among Faculty Experts at Academic Medical Centers. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Apr 1;5(4):e228534. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.8534

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

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute PINCH grant, Engaging Together for Healthy Relationships, 2023-2024

NICHD K23 Developing an adolescent relationship abuse prevention intervention for Hispanic immigrant families (PI), 2022-2025

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.