Tina L. Cheng

Tina Lee Cheng is an American pediatrician. In 2020, she was named the Chair of Pediatrics, Chief Medical Officer, and Research Foundation Director of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Cheng was born in Coralville, Iowa to Chinese immigrant parents Frank and Margroth Cheng. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher and her father was a biochemist. Growing up alongside two sisters, she considered her mother a role model and described her as a "strong woman." As a youth, she experienced a lot of nosebleeds and visited ENT doctors frequently, resulting in her wishing to pursue a medical career.

Cheng attended Iowa City West High School, where she was one of three Asian students enrolled. As a senior in 1979, she was selected by President Jimmy Carter as one of five American high school students to participate in the International Science School. She was also the recipient of the Hugh F. Seabury Debate and Forensics award on the basis of scholarship, integrity, character and general debate performance through her high school career.

Upon graduating from high school, Cheng enrolled at Brown University for her undergraduate degree and medical degree before completing a residency in pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco. Prior to attending Brown, Cheng shied away from pediatrics in defiance of adults who told her it was "a good field for a woman." However, after completing her pediatrics clinical rotation, she chose to pursue it as her specialty.

Upon completing her graduate degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a research fellowship at the University of Massachusetts, Cheng worked at the Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. She remained there for eight years before being recruited to become the director of Johns Hopkins University's Children's Center Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. In this role, she merged Johns Hopkins’ pediatric primary care and subspecialty clinics under one outpatient roof called the David M. Rubenstein Child Health Building. In 2014, Cheng and colleague Sara Johnson founded the Ruth and Norman Rales Center for the Integration of Health and Education which serves over 1,500 students at two Baltimore charter schools.

As a result of her work in pediatrics, Cheng was honored as a Trailblazing Women in Business at the 2016 annual Women in Business Trailblazers in Healthcare Awards Dinner. The following year, she was appointed to the Given Foundation Professorship and director of the Department of Pediatrics and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. In 2018, Cheng was recognized by the Daily Record as one of the Most Influential Marylanders for her dedication and commitment to children's health.

In 2020, Cheng was named the B.K. Rachford Memorial Chair in Pediatrics, Chief Medical Officer, and Research Foundation Director of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The following year, Johns Hopkins recognized her work with a Portrait Honor.

Cheng and her husband Ken Conca have two children together, a son and a daughter. In 2020, Cheng and her daughter Alison Conca-Cheng wrote a commentary in response to a study on racism affecting Chinese American parents and children.