FPG Faculty Fellow Kori Flower, MD, MS, MPH, a professor of pediatrics and division chief of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, has provided medical care to children and families for more than 25 years. Her career has been dedicated to addressing high prevalence child health problems, and improving healthcare delivery to reduce health disparities, particularly in early childhood. 

As part of our FPG Faculty Fellow profile series, we recently spoke with Dr. Flower to learn about her professional journey, what keeps her motivated, what she’s working on now, and what being a faculty fellow at FPG means to her. Here’s what she had to say.

Tell us about your professional journey—what led you to the work you do?

I attended Cornell University as an undergraduate and while there, had the opportunity to design and carry out a small project to understand breastfeeding in London. This catalyzed my interest in maternal and child health and motivated me to understand social and cultural influences on health behavior. I then went on to the Joint Medical Program between the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco. This was a unique combined MD/MS program that focused on understanding the social context of health care. While at UCSF, I developed a passion for pediatrics, and then came to UNC, where I completed my pediatric residency and MPH degrees. At that time, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UNC offered an ideal research training fellowship that enabled me to gain research skills in child health. Since then, my career has been dedicated to addressing high prevalence child health problems, and improving healthcare delivery to reduce health disparities, particularly in early childhood. 

What are you working on right now?

Currently I am excited to be embarking on a follow-up study of the Greenlight Plus study. I'm one of the Co-Principal Investigators for the Greenlight Plus study, which is a six-institution randomized controlled trial of an obesity prevention program for children from birth to age 2 and their parents. In 2024, we published our trial findings and were able to demonstrate that the Greenlight Plus intervention reduced the prevalence of obesity at age 2 years by about half. With funding from PCORI, we are now following up this large cohort of 900 children and parents to see if these results are sustained as children are older.

In partnership with our colleagues at Duke and NC DHHS, I am also working on approaches to support kindergarten readiness through NC InCK. 

What keeps you motivated in your work?

I'm fortunate to have provided medical care to children and families for more than 25 years, and each child and family I see motivates me to address the challenges they face and continue to work to improve health and health care. 

What do you find most challenging about your work?

As Division Chief of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, I'm always striving to balance the needs of leading this large and exciting division at UNC, with patient care and research. 

What do you most enjoy about your work?

While having multiple roles is challenging, for me, the diversity of roles that includes getting to counsel families directly and also help generate new research that improves their care, is really stimulating. 

What does being an FPG faculty fellow mean to you?

Since I'm a pediatrician, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with other FPG fellows, as they bring backgrounds and skills that are very different from my own. FPG is a great source of common ground and connection for those of us across the campus who are working on child health and development, and it helps to prioritize children's issues within the larger UNC context. I've been fortunate to partner with other FPG faculty fellows like Betsy Crais and Becky Pretzel on a HRSA-funded project to improve identification and follow up of developmental delay.

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