Margaret Kendrick Hostetter

Margaret Kendrick Hostetter, 1970

M.D., Baylor University
B.A., Denison University

Director
Yale Child Health Research Center
New Haven, Conn.


Citation awarded June, 1999

Margaret Kendrick Hostetter is a nationally recognized expert on the molecular biology of infectious diseases. She is Director of the Yale Child Health Research Center and Professor and Chief of Pediatric Immunology at Yale University School of Medicine. Her career has been a stellar one from the time that she graduated from Denison first in her class and Phi Beta Kappa. After earning her M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1975, she completed five years of pediatric training and served on the faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital. Peg then spent sixteen years at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, where in 1993 she was named to the American Legion and Auxiliary Heart Research Chair in Pediatrics.

At Yale, the research center Peg heads investigates the causes and cures of childhood infections, cancer and genetic defects. Peg’s own research focuses on two major killers of children: the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae and the fungus Candida albicans. Her clinic for internationally adopted children has evaluated more than 1600 international adoptees from around the world. During her career, she has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes, and the World Health Organization, among others. Peg has served as President of the Society for Pediatric Research, and has received research awards from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Samuel Rosenthal Foundation.

A Denison volunteer as well, Peg served as an Alumni-Nominated Trustee from 1989 to 1995. She has also worked for Denison as a volunteer for the Capital Campaign, for her Class Reunion Fund, and as a career advisor.

Peg has two children, a daughter, Mayme, and a son, Jack. Peg makes her home in Ezra Stiles College of Yale University, where she serves as a resident fellow and advisor to undergraduates.