David J. Pettitt, M.D. is currently studying obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents in Santa Barbara County and is participating in a nationwide study of the epidemiology of diabetes in youth. He also consults nationwide on diabetes in pregnancy and on the risk factors for and treatment of type 2 diabetes in children. He has over 180 publications in these areas of research.
Dr. Pettitt earned his degree in medicine from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and did an internship in Pediatrics at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. He completed his Pediatric Residency at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson after which he joined the Indian Health Service. During the time he served as a Pediatrician for the Indian Health Service in New Mexico and Arizona, he developed an interest in childhood obesity and childhood type 2 diabetes, a condition that at that time was unique to Native Americans. This interest led Dr. Pettitt to a career in diabetes research, for 20 years he was the Assistant Chief of the Diabetes and Arthritis Epidemiology Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Pettitt’s fields of expertise in diabetes include type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents and the long-term effects of diabetes on the children of women who had diabetes during pregnancy. Dr. Pettitt joined Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 1998 where he continues his research in these areas.
Dr. Pettitt is a member of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the International Diabetes Federation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the Western Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group. He is a founding member of the Council on Diabetes in Pregnancy and the Council on Epidemiology and Statistics of the American Diabetes Association and served as the Chair of the Council on Diabetes in Pregnancy. In 1998, Dr. Pettitt received the Norbert Freinkel Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the field of diabetes and pregnancy and in 2002 he received the Kelly West Award for outstanding work in the field of diabetes epidemiology. In 2000 he was elected an honorary member of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.