Heather Crouse, MD

Dr. Heather Crouse is a pediatric emergency medicine physician, educator, and global health leader with a career focused on strengthening pediatric emergency care through sustainable partnerships, health systems development, education, and workforce capacity building.

She came to Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital (BCM/TCH) in 2005 for combined fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) and global health (GH) and joined the BCM faculty in 2009.

She currently serves as Director of Global Pediatric Emergency Medicine at BCM/TCH. In this role, she leads initiatives that connect BCM/TCH faculty and programs with domestic and international partners to advance pediatric emergency care through education, workforce development, health systems strengthening, quality improvement, advocacy, and research.

Her academic career has bridged pediatric emergency medicine, global health, and medical education. Her formal global health training includes tropical medicine and international disaster medicine, and her work has encompassed clinical care, education, research, quality improvement, and health systems strengthening. Central to this work has been the development of equitable, locally relevant partnerships that build sustainable capacity for the care of acutely ill and injured children.

She has had a particular focus on advancing global health education and fellowship training. In 2005, she helped establish the nation’s first pediatric subspecialty–global health fellowship at BCM/TCH, initially participating as its first fellow and subsequently directing the program for eight years. Over the past two decades, she has worked nationally to define and promote best practices in pediatric global health education and has mentored the development of pediatric global health fellowships both within BCM/TCH and at institutions across the United States. Most recently, she spearheaded the development and formalization of a national accreditation process for pediatric global health fellowships through the Academic Pediatric Association (APA). In 2023, the BCM/TCH Combined PEM–Global Health Fellowship became the first program in the country to achieve accreditation through this process.

Internationally, her work has evolved from direct clinical care toward long-term health systems strengthening, workforce development, and institutional partnership development. Early in her faculty career, she collaborated with the Pan American Health Organization to develop a Spanish-language Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) program designed to strengthen pediatric emergency care in Latin America through high-quality, locally relevant, and sustainable training and triage systems. In 2016, she spearheaded the development of the Pediatric Alliance for Child Health Improvement in Malawi at Kamuzu Central Hospital and Environs (PACHIMAKE), a consortium of U.S. and Malawian institutions created to strengthen pediatric emergency and acute care at Kamuzu Central Hospital. Through coordinated clinical, educational, quality improvement, and research initiatives, the partnership helped build local capacity and contributed to the development of Malawi’s second pediatric residency program. Building on this experience in collaborative workforce and health systems development, her division is currently partnering with colleagues in Rwanda to support the development of the country’s first Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care (PECC) Fellowship.

Together, these efforts reflect Dr. Crouse’s commitment to long-term, locally driven partnerships that strengthen pediatric emergency care. Across these efforts, her overarching goal is to foster collaborative and increasingly locally led partnerships that build sustainable systems of care and reduce disparities in emergency care for children worldwide.

Clinical Interests

Global health, medical education, quality improvement, health services strengthening

Education

Honors and awards

2025

Michael Shannon, MD, FAAP Memorial Award for Service and Humanism in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, AAP Section of Emergency Medicine

2024

Shamrock Award for Patient Safety, Texas Children’s Hospital 

2018

Joan Shook, MD, MBA Excellence in Leadership Award, BCM Department of Pediatrics, Section of Emergency Medicine

2017

Baylor College of Medicine Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award for Educational Leadership, BCM

2016

Baylor College of Medicine Academy of Distinguished Educators, BCM

2015

Baylor College of Medicine Fulbright and Jaworski Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching and Evaluation, BCM

* Texas Children’s Hospital physicians’ licenses and credentials are reviewed prior to practicing at any of our facilities. Sections titled From the Doctor, Professional Organizations and Publications were provided by the physician’s office and were not verified by Texas Children’s Hospital.

Research interests

Global health, educational research (both domestic and global), program evaluation

Genisca A, Mackey J, Kosoko A, Habet M, Johnson L, Eck C, Sampayo E, Crouse HL. Healthcare provider attitudes towards the emergency triage system in Belize. Glob Pediatr Health 2020 Apr 10; DOI: 10.1177/2333794X20911581. PMID 32313821.

Crouse HL, Watts J, St. Clair N, Batra M, McGuinness G, Keating E, Russ C, Farr K, Steenhoff A, Schubert C, Leslie L, Woods S, Wilson K, Camp E, Butteris S. Global Health opportunities in pediatric fellowships. Pediatrics 2020 Feb;145(2):e20192138. PMID: 32001489.

Steenhoff AP, Crouse HL, Lukoloyo H, Larson CP, Howard C, Mazhani L, Pak-Gorstein S, Niescierenko ML, Musoke P, Marshall R, Soto MA, Butteris SM, Batra M for the American Board of Pediatrics Global Health Task Force. State of the Art review Article: Partnerships for Global Child Health – Stronger Together. Pediatrics 2017 Oct; 140 (4). PMID 28931576.

Eckerle M, Crouse HL, Chiume M, Phiri A, Kazembe PN, Friesen H, Mvalo T, Rus MC, Fitzgerald EF, Hoffman IF, McKenney A, Coe M, Mkandawire B, Schubert C. Building sustainable partnerships to strengthen pediatric capacity at a government hospital in Malawi. Front Pub Health 2017 July; 5:183. PMID 28798907.

Kapoor R, Avendaño L, Sandoval MA, Cruz AT, Soto MA, Crouse HL. Initiating a standardized regional referral and counter-referral system in Guatemala: A mixed-methods study. Glob Pediatr Health 2017 Jul; 4:1-14. PMID 28812056.

Crouse HL, Mullan PC, Macias CG, Hsu DC, Shook JE, Sirbaugh PE, Schutze GE, Jones WJ, Torrey SB. A novel approach to combining Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Global Health Fellowships. Pediatr Emerg Care 2016 Mar; 32(3):157-162. PMID: 25285392.

Crouse HL, Torres F, Vaides H, Walsh MT, Ishigami EM, Cruz AT, Torrey SB, Soto MA. Impact of an Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) – based triage process in the paediatric emergency department of a Guatemalan public hospital. Paediatr Int Child Health 2016 Aug; 36(3):219-224. PMID: 25940386.