Dr. Chaya Merrill is an applied public health researcher within the Child Health Data Lab at Children’s National Hospital. In this role, she monitors, analyzes, and reports on the health of children and families in the Washington, D.C. region, using data to inform strategies that promote child health and well-being. Over her 16-year career at Children’s National Hospital, Dr. Merrill has led multi-institution, citywide community health needs assessments, as well as pediatric-specific assessments aimed at improving community understanding of child health. Most recently, she led a pediatric community health needs assessment that fulfilled the hospital’s community benefit requirements by examining geographic differences in child opportunity. In addition, she supports research and community-based initiatives funded by federal agencies and philanthropic partners. Dr. Merrill previously served as co-lead of the Community Engagement Module for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) at Children’s National. She holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and earned her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from The George Washington University in 2009.