Juan Carlos Salazar, MD, MPH, is Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and System Pediatrician-in-chief for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Prior to joining VUMC, Dr. Salazar was Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Physician in Chief for Connecticut Children’s.  Dr. Salazar has been nationally and internationally recognized for both his outstanding clinical care, national and international advocacy efforts, and his innovative global health research work. Dr. Salazar has received several National Institutes of Health grants to study the human innate immune response to Borrelia burgdorferi and Treponema pallidum, the causative agents of Lyme disease and syphilis respectively.  He is currently funded by the NIH to develop a first of its kind syphilis vaccine. The NIH funded project includes investigators in China, Malawi, Cali, Colombia and the US. In 2021 his team received funding from the National Institutes Child Health and Development Institute (NICHD) to study the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and the multi-inflammatory syndrome associated to COVID-19 in children and young adults.  He is a co-investigator in the NIH funded RECOVER COVID-19 long term follow up study and serves as Chair of RECOVER’s Ancillary Studies Oversight Committee.  He has served as a reviewer for multiple study sections at the NIH.  He recently served as a standing member of the prestigious human bacterial host interactions (BHI) study section at NIAID (2022-25).  He has published over 130 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, and has been widely featured in the national media, including CNN, PBS, CNBC, Univision, and Telemundo. 

Dr. Salazar also directed the Pediatric and Youth HIV program at Connecticut Children’s for 27 years. His team promoted and facilitated regional STD and HIV-prevention programs for at-risk youth. Dr. Salazar was the recipient of three different Ryan White Care Act federal funds to coordinate and provide statewide HIV treatment and prevention services for women, infants, children and youth. He has conducted several NIH and pharmaceutical industry sponsored pediatric and adolescent HIV clinical trials and long-term follow-up studies.

He earned his medical degree from the Universidad Javeriana, in Bogota, Colombia, and his MPH from the University of Minnesota respectively. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where he also served as chief resident, and a post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Minnesota.  He is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases, is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society of America (PIDSA).  Dr. Salazar has received several meritorious awards throughout his career, recognizing his teaching and expert clinical care, academic achievements and outstanding accomplishments in community advocacy, medical education and pediatric and global research.