Dr. Kofi Essel

Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified community pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital(CNH) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Essel serves as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, the Director of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Culinary Medicine Program, the Director of the GWU Community/Urban Health Scholarly Concentration, and the Director of the GWU Clinical Public Health Summit on Obesity.

Dr. Essel has dedicated his career to advocacy/research around healthcare training, health disparities, and community engagement, with expertise and national recognition in the areas of addressing obesity and food insecurity in families. Dr. Essel sits on the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Obesity Solutions Lived Experience Innovation Collaborative and was nationally recognized by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for helping to create an innovative curriculum to enhance pediatric resident trainee skills on obesity management. He also co-authored a national toolkit for pediatric providers to address food insecurity in their clinical settings with the AAP and the Food Research & Action Center. He is the Principal Investigator of a large multidisciplinary population health initiative that aims to strengthen community-clinical ties to address diet related chronic diseases in historically marginalized settings in Washington, D.C. Dr. Essel has received numerous local/national awards for his professional practice, in addition to being selected for the Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum.

Dr. Essel earned a BS from Emory University with a focus on Human Biology and Anthropology, and earned his Medical Degree and Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from GWU. He completed pediatric residency and General Academic Pediatric fellowship training at Children’s National Hospital.