David Kawatu
Associate Chief Medical Officer for UC Davis Children’s Hospital
David Kawatu, M.D., serves as the Associate Chief Medical Officer for the UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
In this role, Kawatu provides expertise and leadership to ensure high-quality, safe patient care across pediatric services. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the children’s hospital and works closely with the UC Davis Health leadership and medical team to advance high-quality clinical care at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. He previously served as the Interim Associate Chief Medical Officer of the Children’s Hospital.
Kawatu returned to UC Davis Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he served for many years as a professor and chief of the pediatric gastroenterology section. During his first tenure at UC Davis Health, he served as the chief of the pediatric gastroenterology division and vice chair for clinical affairs in the department of pediatrics. For that tenure, Kawatu had been recruited from Brown University/ Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where he had served as the associate chief of the division of pediatric gastroenterology as well as the director of its fellowship program.
Kawatu specializes in treating children with a wide range of gastrointestinal conditions including eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease and intestinal failure. Kawatu completed his medical training at the University of Zambia School of Medicine in Lusaka, Zambia, completed his residency at the State University of New York Health Science Center and a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at the Brown Alpert School of Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital.