Notable Alums

LaQuandra

Specialty: Family Medicine

Graduation Year: 2003

LaQuandra Nesbitt

LaQuandra Nesbitt, M.D. ’03, M.P.H., is a board-certified family physician and director of the District of Columbia Department of Health.

Before receiving her medical degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, Dr. Nesbitt received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Michigan. She also received a master’s of Public Health degree in Health Care Management and Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Nesbitt completed an internship in Family Medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University, a Family Medicine residency at the University of Maryland’s Department of Family Medicine — where she served as chief resident — and the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.

She served at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as an assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine, and as senior coordinator for Health Disparities and Policy Research Initiatives in the Office of Policy & Planning; and at the District of Columbia Department of Health, where she served separate terms as senior deputy director for the Community Health Administration, and senior deputy director for the Center for Policy, Planning and Evaluation. More recently she served as director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness in Kentucky. In January 2015, Dr. Nesbitt returned to the D.C. Department of Health as director.

Dr. Nesbitt’s academic interests include health equity, workforce diversity, improving access to care for the uninsured and underinsured through policy and health services research, and improving population health through multi-sector partnerships and collaboration.

She is a published author and served on the editorial team for “Population Health: Management, Policy, and Technology.”

Among other honors, Dr. Nesbitt received the WSU School of Medicine’s Recent Alumni Award in 2014.