Christine Pazandak, M.D.

Christine Pazandak, M.D., M.S.C.I., M.P.H., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in neonatal-perinatal medicine. Dr. Pazandak’s research focuses on neonatal brain injury, neonatal brain development, infant-parent bonding, mental health resources for families, medical-legal partnerships, and health care policy.

She earned her medical degree at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and simultaneously completed a Master of Public Health through a collaboration with the UT Health Science Center in Houston. Dr. Pazandak completed a residency in pediatrics at UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas and received advanced training through a neonatal and perinatal medicine fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also earned a Master of Science in clinical investigation. 

Certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2021.

Dr. Pazandak has presented and published widely within her research areas and has also written a chapter of the book Necrotizing Enterocolitis: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment. 

She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the Newborn Brain Society, and the Academic Pediatric Association.  

Dr. Pazandak is a scholar in the Academic Pediatric Association’s Health Policy Scholars Program. She is also Vice Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics National Advocacy campaign, Together in Care, aimed at empowering neonatal teams to improve palliative care for neonatal patients.

In 2013, she received the Gold Humanism Award from UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. In 2026, Dr. Pazandak has earned a travel grant from the Committee on Federal Government Affairs/Committee on State Government Affairs to support her advocacy work and is a repeat recipient of UT Southwestern’s PACT award.