Member Spotlight: Mari Nakamura

Mari M. Nakamura, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School She currently serves as Medical Director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.

Dr. Nakamura earned her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship training at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. She then pursued fellowship training in pediatric health services research at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, during which she earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Since joining the Boston Children’s Hospital faculty in 2009, Dr. Nakamura has sought to optimize the care of patients with infectious diseases through research and quality improvement. She is particularly interested in fostering safe and judicious use of antimicrobials, facilitating diagnostic stewardship, and improving hospital care systems, including through use of clinical information technology.


Education is one of Dr. Nakamura’s passions. She previously chaired the Boston Children’s Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Trainee Education Committee and also served for several years as Associate Director for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and now directs the program’s antimicrobial stewardship track. She has mentored several fellows in research and professional development, offering guidance on launching successful careers in academic infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship.

As Antimicrobial Stewardship Director, Dr. Nakamura has led efforts to develop local and national guidance on pediatric COVID-19 treatment. She is the PIDS Liaison for the IDSA COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network and a panelist for the IDSA Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with COVID-19.