Carley Riley Receives Uma R. Kotagal Changemaker Award
Post Date: August 16, 2024 | Publish Date:
Carley Riley, MD, MPP, MHS, is known for walking the talk when it comes to advocating for public health. For her efforts to help communities thrive, she has been named the first ever Cincinnati Children’s 2024 Uma R. Kotagal Changemaker Award recipient.
The award, given every two years, honors the legacy of Uma Kotagal, MBBS, MSc, a pioneer in quality improvement and child advocacy who retired from Cincinnati Children’s in 2021 after 46 years of service. At the time of her retirement, she was senior executive leader of Population and Community Health.
The award is designated for a junior or mid-career faculty member who is changing the conversation and pushing the envelope in her footsteps.
“Dr. Riley has such passion for improving child health,” said Tina Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, chair of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, and Cincinnati Children’s chief medical officer. “Behind all of her impressive work is a deep commitment to ensure that all children have excellent and equitable health outcomes and a true opportunity to achieve their full potential.”
Riley is an attending physician in the Division of Critical Care Medicine, the Community Systems faculty lead in the Michael Fisher Child Health Equity Center and director of the Mayerson Child Well-being Initiative.
Her research and areas of activism focus on social and environmental factors that promote optimal well-being for those in communities with disproportionately high rates of social hardships and adverse health outcomes. Co-producing research with families and community stakeholders, she aims to identify the most effective interventions that neighborhoods can make to promote their health.
“My long-term goal,” she says, “is to reduce the burden of health disparities, address the root causes and implications of suffering, and foster thriving by developing interventions using innovative science within cross-sector, community-healthcare collaborations that promote individual and collective health and well-being.”
Her work is described as values-driven, centered on those least fortunate, and innovative in creating novel methods for impact. Riley is also noted for her leadership, vision and ability to build collective will and efficacy.
As one mentor put it, “Her innovative ideas, superb and varied methodologic skills and personal conviction to reduce health inequities have quickly led to impactful scientific results, numerous publications, growing external funding, and national recognition. These attributes—along with her generosity, kindness, and sincere concern for others—have been key to her success as a respected leader, mature beyond her time in academic medicine.”
“She is a true changemaker utilizing a host of techniques to drive change: community based participatory research, improvement science, social network analysis, community organizing and policy analysis,” said Rich Falcone, MD, MPH, Cincinnati Children’s chief of staff. “On top of all this, she is an excellent clinician and a clinical and research mentor to many. Carley embodies the spirit of leading change that Uma taught so many of us over the years.”
Read more about Riley in our 2023 Research Annual Report:
A Deeper Commitment to Health Justice and Eliminating Health Inequities
Riley’s recent publications:
- Community-Led Interventions to Address Food Inequity.
- “When You Look at This Chart, That Is Not My Whole Life:” Caregiver Perspectives to Inform Improved Primary Care Practice and Outcomes.
- Partnering with Families and Communities to Improve Child Health and Health Equity.
- Association of Population Well-Being With Cardiovascular Outcomes.
- “We know what’s going on in our community:” A qualitative analysis identifying community assets that deter gun violence.
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