Prajakta Yeragi, MD, FAAP

Biography

Prajakta Yeragi, MD, FAAP, is an assistant professor of pediatrics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, where she also serves as affiliated faculty with the Center for Health Equity at the School of Public Health at UTHealth Houston. A board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Yeragi is a passionate clinician, educator, and child health advocate whose work lies at the intersection of clinical care, public health, and policy.

Dr. Yeragi earned her MBBS from Terna Medical College in Mumbai, India, and completed her Pediatrics Residency at New York Medical College–Metropolitan Hospital Center. She joined UTHealth Houston in 2019 and has since held clinical appointments at Memorial Hermann Hospital–Texas Medical Center and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital.

She serves on the McGovern Medical School Curriculum Committee and is an active member of both the Curriculum Review and Clinical Education Subcommittees. In these roles, she contributes to the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the medical school curriculum. She is also the co-director of the primary care career focus track for medical students. She has received multiple honors for her contributions to teaching, including the McGovern Medical School Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the Champions of Learning Environment Award for consecutive years.

Her educational leadership also includes directing the pediatric resident leadership track on advocacy. Additionally, she serves on the Clinical Core Competency (CCC) Committee for the general pediatrics residency program, where she evaluates resident performance and supports their academic progression.

Dr. Yeragi is a leading voice in child nutrition and obesity prevention research. She is a principal and co-investigator on several quality improvement and research initiatives, most notably the UT Physicians Brighter Bites Produce Rx Program, a nationally recognized randomized controlled trial that evaluates the impact of produce prescriptions on dietary behavior and obesity-related outcomes in children. Her work addresses food insecurity and childhood nutrition and has been presented at major national and international conferences, including the Pediatric Academic Societies, the American Public Health Association, and the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Dr Yeragi has also received a $ 1 million grant from the Humana Foundation to expand the UT Physicians Brighter Bites Produce Rx program.

In recognition of her commitment to community pediatrics and advocacy, Dr. Yeragi was awarded the prestigious AAP Leonard P. Rome CATCH Visiting Professorship Grant — a competitive grant given to only five pediatric residency programs each year.