Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital has recruited Dr. Lori D. Frasier, an internationally recognized expert on child abuse issues, to lead its new Division of Child Abuse Pediatrics. Frasier joins Penn State Hershey from The University of Utah School of Medicine, where she is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child Protection and Family Health. She also is the current chair of the American Board of Pediatrics’ Subboard on Child Abuse Pediatrics.
As chief of the Division of Child Abuse Pediatrics, Frasier will direct all Children’s Hospital clinical services related to child abuse and will report directly to the chair of pediatrics. She will work in close collaboration with Penn State Hershey Center for the Protection of Children on its various educational, research and advocacy initiatives related to child abuse and neglect.
The center is a part of Penn State’s Network on Child Protection and Well-Being, a university-wide initiative that promotes and supports interdisciplinary collaborations in research, education and evidence-based practice and policy that are aimed at combating child maltreatment.
Frasier’s appointment is effective Sept. 1. Already, she is working with Children’s Hospital and Center for the Protection of Children leadership to recruit additional child abuse specialists -- including a clinical child abuse psychologist and a second child abuse pediatrician -- and to launch a specialized clinic that will serve as a medical home for abused children in foster care. That clinic is expected to open in the coming months.
“Dr. Frasier’s expertise and experience on a wide range of issues related to child abuse will help us take our clinical child protection program to the next level and allow us to become the kind of national model we truly desire to be,” said Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, chair of pediatrics, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and medical director, Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. “We expect her leadership will impact the lives of not only patients of our Children’s Hospital, but of children throughout central Pennsylvania and beyond.”
Frasier's clinical expertise centers on the evaluation of child abuse and neglect, and she has a special clinical interest in medical conditions that mimic child abuse. Frasier also has been pioneering in the use of telemedicine to accurately diagnose physical and sexual abuse. She is the director of a statewide program funded by the Utah Attorney General's office that provides medical supervision of medical providers in Children’s Justice Centers throughout the state. She is prominently published in areas of child sexual abuse and abusive head trauma; has lectured extensively locally, nationally, and abroad; and is considered a leading international expert in the field of child abuse. She is board-certified in general pediatrics and child abuse pediatrics.
“I am enthusiastic about joining a superb team of dedicated clinicians and researchers at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital,” Frasier said. “My role will be to expand the clinical services to children, provide education to health care professionals and others in the recognition and management of child abuse, and to establish the Children’s Hospital as a nationally and internationally recognized center of clinical expertise and research in child abuse pediatrics.”
Frasier earned her medical degree from The University of Utah School of Medicine, then completed a pediatric residency and child abuse fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital. She has served on the faculties of the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri-Columbia. At Missouri she was head of the Child Protection Program and director of the Division of General Pediatrics. At University of Utah, she is program director for the newly accredited Fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics.