KIMBERLY AVILA EDWARDS, M.D.
Kimberly Avila Edwards is influencing children’s health at every level, from Austin pediatric clinics to the United States Congress. All 8 million kids living in Texas (and more beyond) stand to benefit.
One in five people under the age of 18, or an estimated 14.4 million children in the U.S., are considered overweight. Type 2 diabetes, increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and joint issues were all considered adult diseases at one time — but over the past 30 years, have become pervasive issues in children’s health.
This year saw the first clinical guidelines for pediatricians to follow to address the obesity epidemic, released by the American Academy of Pediatrics. A key contributor on those guidelines, Kimberly Avila Edwards, M.D., nods to the complexity of a chronic condition like obesity — and its roots in social drivers of health — as a hurdle to helping families understand its stakes.
"Obesity should not be considered a personal choice or a failure of personal behaviors. Weight bias and stigma are a barrier to treatment, and it’s important that we address all children equally, not just those who are already overweight,” says Avila Edwards, associate professor and associate chair for advocacy in Dell Med’s Department of Pediatrics. “It becomes about sharing information with families, individualizing treatment, and making patients and families partners in treatment so that children can lead full, healthy lives as adults."
It’s just one area of focus for Avila Edwards, a nationally recognized leader in children’s health advocacy and longtime community physician in Texas’ capital city. Apart from her time spent in private practice as a general pediatrician, Avila Edwards advocates in all spaces that impact kids, from congressional testimony on the health needs of immigrant children to statewide legislative committees setting policies for childhood vaccinations and more.
A North Star for Texas Kids
Childhood obesity was just the beginning of Avila Edwards’ advocacy journey. Harvard-educated and trained in Texas, Avila Edwards was the youngest and first Latina/o/x woman elected president of the Texas Pediatric Society, the Texas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
These days, she's focused on leading the Pediatric Advocacy Committee at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Drawing together nearly 100 experts across five pillars of work, the committee works on integrating advocacy into value-based clinical care frameworks, such as their current partnerships with the Comprehensive Care Clinic and Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease. The idea is to start with partnerships in Central Texas and implement effective advocacy structures nationally for widespread change, from vaccine best practices to firearm injury prevention.
Last year, the committee tackled the ongoing opioid and fentanyl crisis in partnership with the Travis and Hays counties sheriff’s offices. Travis County leads the state in fentanyl-related deaths — in 2022, a record 245 residents died. But children are typically not addressed when developing new policies or guidelines in drug-related matters, so the committee provided input for an awareness campaign on talking to children about handling medicines safely and appropriately.
“Children are a quarter of our population. They are 100% of our future, and they have no voice,” says Avila Edwards. “Advocacy is doing what you need to do, at every level of the socioecological model that influences children — the individual, the family, the community and the societal, which includes state and federal levels — so that every single child can experience optimal health and safety.”