Robert A. Pendergrast, Jr., MD, MPH, FAAP

Dr. Pendergrast is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Adolescent Medicine, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He completed Pediatrics Residency and a Fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS. 

After a graduate degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, he has spent his career teaching medical students and pediatric residents in the context of pediatric primary care of children and teens. Since 1997 he has been the director of Adolescent Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. 

He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and an Approved Consultant in clinical hypnosis, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. 

After beginning training in clinical hypnosis in 2002, he started the Pediatric Mind-Body Program at MCG in 2003, serving children and teens with chronic pain and other chronic medical conditions. In 2005 he completed the Fellowship at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center and has since contributed to editing portions of their online curriculum in nutritional medicine. He is a founding member of the Section on Integrative Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

He has been part of NPHTI’s Core Faculty since 2012. He has authored and co-authored a number of medical research articles and book chapters, and has published research through the Georgia Prevention Institute on the effects of meditation on cardiovascular disease risk factors in youth. He was honored by the MCG School of Medicine class of 2004 by being voted their Educator of the Year. 

He has received the Exemplary Teacher Award in the Department of Pediatrics six times since 2010. Major clinical and teaching interests include adolescent primary care, nutrition, doctor-patient communication, cancer and other disease prevention, and clinical hypnosis. His book Breast Cancer: Reduce Your Risk with Foods You Love was a Finalist in the Indie Excellence National Book Awards competition in 2011.