Monica Peek, MD, MPH

2016 Senior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Monica Peek is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago where she provides clinical care, teaches and does health services research in the area of health disparities. She received her medical degree and master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins University, and completed her residency training at Stanford University Hospital. She then worked for the National Health Service Corps for two years at a community health center for the medically underserved in Ohio before relocating to Chicago.

As a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) program office Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, Dr. Peek led the systematic review of health care interventions to reduce disparities in diabetes care and outcomes. She has been funded by RWJF and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to explore racial differences in patient/provider communication and to pilot patient-empowerment interventions to enhance such communication among blacks with diabetes. She is the Co-Principal Investigator of grants from the Merck Company Foundation and NIH/NIDDK to improve diabetes care and outcomes among residents on the South Side of Chicago, a predominantly African-American working class community with significant disparities in diabetes health outcomes such as lower extremity amputations. Dr. Peek was part of the NIDDK strategic planning committee whose 2010 report “Advances and Emerging Opportunities in Diabetes Research” set forth the diabetes research agenda for the next 5-10 years.

Dr. Peek also does research on the development and evaluation of community-based, culturally-tailored interventions to promote healthy behaviors and preventive care, including women’s health (i.e. breast cancer screening), physical activity and diabetes self-management.