Associate Professor
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
Jessica Pittman, MD MPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Pulmonology at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). She graduated from Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) in 1998, and earned her M.D. from WUSM (St. Louis, MO) in 2004. She received her training in pediatrics at Seattle Children's Hospital (University of Washington Pediatrics Residency, Seattle, WA) before moving to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) for her fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology, where she also received a Master's in Public Health in Epidemiology. Dr. Pittman remained on faculty at the University of North Carolina as an Assistant Professor and served as Director of the UNC Infant and Preschool Pulmonary Function Laboratory before joining the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine in 2014, where she is now an Associate Professor. Her roles at Washington University School of Medicine include Co-Director of the WUSM/SLCH Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Development Center, Associate Program Director for Diversity and Inclusion for the WUSM/SLCH Pediatric Residency Program, Coach for the WUSM Gateway Curriculum, and DEI Faculty Leader through the WUSM Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She previously served as Medical Director of the St. Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH) Pulmonary Function Laboratory from 2014 - 2021.
Dr. Pittman's clinical interests include early childhood lung disease, cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia, as well as pulmonary function testing, including multiple breath washout (MBW) testing. Dr. Pittman's primary research interest is improving the diagnosis and detection of early lung disease in infancy and early childhood through the use of novel outcome measures. She is a past recipient of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Leroy Matthews Physician/Scientist Award (2010 - 2012), a WUSM Omics of Inflammatory Airways Disease K12 Award (2014 - 2016), a WUSM Children's Discovery Institute Award (2015 - 2018) and a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Clinical Research Scholars Program Award (2016 - 2019). She served as the Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Development Network Center for Infant and Preschool Pulmonary Function Testing from 2019 - 2020, and was Associate Director from 2011 - 2018. Dr. Pittman has participated in research studies involving children with cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia, including several multi-center NIH- and TDN/CFF-funded studies. She is currently involved with several longitudinal studies of children with CF in partnership with the CFF Therapeutics Development Network, and recently assumed PI roles for two studies through Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Pittman assumed the role of Associate Program Director for Diversity and Inclusion for the WUSM/SLCH Pediatric Residency Program in 2018, and has broadened her role in education and diversity/equity/inclusion work since. She co-founded the SLCH/WUSM Taskforce on Teamwork and Cultural Competency (T2C2), an inter-professional group dedicated to improving patient and staff experiences throughout Children's Hospital, with a focus on issues related to teamwork and diversity/inclusion. She then began working with the WUSM Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion under Dr. Sherree Wilson, and formally joined the office in 2020 as a DEI Faculty Leader. In the WUSM ODEI Dr. Pittman serves as co-lead for the WUSM ODEI Understanding Systemic Racism Curriculum, a comprehensive, campus-wide curriculum in anti-racism, and lead for the DEI Liaison Group. Dr. Pittman became a medical student coach for the new WUSM Gateway curriculum in 2020. She now serves on several committees related to diversity/equity/inclusion work and education across WUSM and SLCH. She teaches curricula related to implicit bias, structural racism, anti-racist practice, and cultural humility across campus for medical providers at all levels of training. Dr. Pittman now also serves as an Assistant Subcommittee Chair for the WUSM Committee on Admissions.