Merrian Jacqueline Brooks, DO, is an adolescent medicine specialist and pediatric global health expert. Currently, she is an attending physician and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at CHOP. Dr. Brooks also holds a joint affiliation with the Penn Center for Global Health, where she is the Director of Pediatrics and Research for the Botswana-UPenn Partnership. Her research time is spent primarily in Botswana, where she focuses on improving access to evidence-based behavioral interventions for youth in low- and middle-income countries. Specifically, her short-term goal is to develop and evaluate the Friendship Bench intervention. A theory-based, problem-solving therapy (PST) model that uses physical benches staffed by trained community health workers (lay counselors) to provide counseling sessions for patients with common mental illnesses. She is adapting and evaluating the Friendship Bench for adolescents at risk for HIV. She is also working to integrate mental health services into various community and clinical spaces using implementation science.
DO - Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and MS, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Pediatric Residency, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ
Adolescent Medicine Fellowship, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Pediatric Global Health Fellowship, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Gaborone, Botswana, Philadelphia, PA
Adolescent Medicine – American Board of PediatricsPediatrics – American Board of Pediatrics
Attending Physician
National Medical Association, 2015-Present
National Physician’s Alliance, 2014-Present
American Academy of Pediatrics, 2009-Present
American Public Health Association, 2007-Present