Jennifer Kraschnewski, MD, MPH, named vice dean for research, clinical and translational science
Penn State College of Medicine has appointed Jennifer Kraschnewski, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, pediatrics and public health sciences, as vice dean for research, clinical and translational science within the Office of Research, Graduate Studies and Innovation, effective July 1, 2026.
In this role, Dr. Kraschnewski will oversee the College’s clinical and translational research portfolio and help guide strategy and growth across the institution’s research enterprise while fostering partnerships that advance impact and patient outcomes.
“Research and innovation are foundational to our mission and to the future of healthcare,” said Karen Kim, MD, MS, dean of Penn State College of Medicine. “Dr. Kraschnewski brings deep institutional knowledge, a collaborative leadership style and an exceptional record of advancing clinical and translational science. Her experience building partnerships across research, education and patient care will help strengthen our ability to translate discoveries into meaningful impact for patients and communities.”
A member of the Penn State community since 2009, Dr. Kraschnewski is a clinician-investigator and currently serves as director of the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), supported through funding from the National Institutes of Health. She has guided the CTSI vision to serve as the cornerstone of clinical and translational science through interdisciplinary research across Penn State, with an emphasis on promoting rural health. Dr. Kraschnewski was also recently recognized as an inaugural Fellow of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science, a nonprofit membership association of translational scientists from the nation’s leading academic medical centers.
Dr. Kraschnewski’s research and leadership have focused on translational science, rural health and community-engagement. She serves as principal investigator (PI) for Penn State Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes), a tele-mentoring program designed to disseminate clinical guidelines and best practices from the academic setting into rural health and community practices. Since its launch in 2018, Project ECHO has trained more than 5,000 care providers across 66 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and has secured more than $41 million in grant funding from federal, state and philanthropic sources. Dr. Kraschnewski is also the PI for a five-year, $5 million Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) grant to provide the Hispanic communities of central Pennsylvania with evidence-based tools to improve their health and prevent chronic diseases via community-led, culturally tailored interventions. Over the course of her career, she has disseminated her research in over 170 national/international presentations and 155 peer-reviewed publications.
In addition to her research leadership, Dr. Kraschnewski remains active in clinical education, teaching internal medicine resident physicians while caring for patients in the primary care setting. She was instrumental in building the College of Medicine’s MD/MPH program, provides strategic oversight of CTSI’s T and K programs to develop graduate students and early career translational scientists, and remains active in many institutional initiatives such as strategic planning, team science, and artificial intelligence and clinical informatics.
Dr. Kraschnewski succeeds the previous research leadership structure overseen by Leslie Parent, MD, who served as vice dean for research and graduate studies.
Throughout her tenure, Dr. Parent played an important role in advancing the College’s research portfolio, supporting graduate education and helping position the College of Medicine for continued growth in research and innovation.
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