Illinois LEND Welcomes New Director

May 2, 2013

Illinois LEND is proud to welcome Kruti Acharya, MD, as its new director. Dr. Acharya earned her doctorate of medicine at Boston University. She is board certified in internal medicine, pediatrics and developmental and behavioral pediatrics. She most recently worked as an attending physician at Northshore University Health System's Neurodevelopmental Disorders Clinic and the University of Chicago Primary Care Group Combined Medical-Pediatrics Clinic. She was also an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine and a faculty member at the MacLean Center of Clinical Medical Ethics both at the University of Chicago.

Some of her recent publications have been about pediatricians' attitudes towards newborn screenings for fragile X, African American women's awareness and attitudes about prenatal and neonatal genetic testing, bioethics and intellectual disability, and misperceptions and reality about Down Syndrome and prenatal testing. Dr. Acharya's professional interests include developmental and behavioral pediatrics, and adolescents and young adults with disabilities. She is also specifically interested in the ethics and policy implications of Fragile X and intellectual disability across the lifespan.