DeWayne Pursley, MD, MPH, is chief of the Department of Neonatology and director of the Klarman Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). He is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and associate clinical chief of the Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) Division of Newborn Medicine. 

A graduate of Stanford University, Dr. Pursley earned his medical degree at HMS, and his master’s in public health with a concentration in health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Pursley trained in pediatrics at BCH, remaining for a fourth year as chief resident, and then completed a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at BIDMC, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and BCH. A member of the American Pediatric Society (APS), his scholarship and clinical work have focused on performance improvement, resource utilization, and neonatal health equity. 

Dr. Pursley currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the American Board of Pediatrics for which he previously served as chair of its Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Sub-board. He chairs the Equity and Diversity Advisory Board of the Vermont-Oxford Network, a quality collaborative of more than 1400 NICUs worldwide. He serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) steering committee of the NICU Verification Program, which is establishing national standards for risk appropriate NICU care, and recently ended a term on the AAP National Nominating Committee. Active in the APS, Dr. Pursley has served on its Pediatric Policy Council and Advocacy Committee, and remains on the executive committee of the New Century Scholars mentoring program. He has previously served as a member of the NIH Advisory Council for Child Health and Human Development, as chair of the AAP Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Section, as co-chair of the AAP Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, and as a member of the Maternal-Child Health Governance Board of the American Hospital Association. 

At HMS Dr. Pursley recently served as co-chair of the Task Force on Valuing Advocacy, Equity, and Social Justice and currently serves as chair of the HMS Financial Aid Committee and as a member of the HMS Promotion and Review Board. He is the 2022 recipient of the HMS Alumni Council Distinguished Service Award and has previously been recognized by HMS with the Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Institutional Service, the Excellence in Mentoring Award, the Dean’s Community Service Award, and the Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award. He has also previously been honored with the March of Dimes Massachusetts Chapter Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award and the BIDMC Daniel J. Jick Excellence in Leadership Award.