Drew Harris, MD

Originally from the Philadelphia area, Drew did his medical school training at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by his internal medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta, including a chief resident year at Grady Memorial Hospital. Prior to pulmonary and critical care fellowship training at Yale University, Drew spent 2 years working within the Indian Health Service caring for an impoverished Navajo & Hopi community in northern Arizona. He is currently on faculty at the University of Virginia with a joint appointment in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health Sciences.  He is medical director of the adult asthma program in the pulmonary division, and also attends in the Medical ICU & pulmonary consult services.  In addition, Drew spends a few days a month in rural, southwest Virginia working in a black lung clinic.

Drew’s research training and focus is in pulmonary health disparities. He has developed a community-based participatory research program, Common Cause: A medical legal partnership.  Common Cause brings together a diverse team of stakeholders from the UVA Law School, the UVA Health System and the Legal Aid Justice Center (A community organization which provides free civil legal services to the poor of Central Virginia).  Through this partnership, a collaborative, innovative system is now in place to address barriers towards assessment and mitigation of social and environmental exposures that impact asthma disparities in Central Virginia.  During the MTIS award period, Drew will be implementing and evaluating the common cause MLP to determine the impact of this multidisciplinary intervention on asthma outcomes.

When not pursuing his academic interests, Drew is likely to found in Shenandoah National Park hiking & camping with his wife (Amy) and 2 boys (Reece and Nolan).