Esa M Davis

Esa Matius Davis is an American physician who is a professor and Associate Vice President for Community Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. She specializes in maternal health inequities and the perinatal determinants of obesity. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2025.

Early life and education Davis studied biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She moved to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she completed her medical degree, with a residency at Overlook Medical Center. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. She eventually completed a master's of public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Research and career Davis moved to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2023. Davis investigates the perinatal determinants of obesity and develops new strategies to improve women's health. She developed screening strategies to identify gestational diabetes, and has developed epidemiological approaches to understand maternal health disparities.

In 2021, Davis was appointed to the United States Preventive Services Task Force in recognition of her expertise in clinical prevention and health promotion. In 2025, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Selected publications