Prior to joining the Institute for Asthma and Allergy (IAA), Dr. Athena Economides held academic appointment at both the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School, and at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, where she developed the Food Allergy Center. Her special interests include food allergy and immune deficiencies, and her contributions to medical literature including articles on diagnostics and management of allergic rhinitis, vasomotor rhinitis urticaria, and asthma, especially pediatric asthma.
Dr. Athena Economides – a bi-lingual Greek-American – earned a Master’s Degree in Child Development prior to attending medical school in Athens, Greece. During her pediatric residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she was awarded the St. Gem Award (1992) for excellence in research. She then went to complete both a basic science and clinical allergy / immunology fellowship at UCLA.
Dr. Economides is committed to providing medical education for physicians. During her brief tenure at Kaiser in Washington DC, she directed a continuing medical education program and currently runs an Allergy-Immunology Journal Club for DC area physicians. She regularly contributes to the training of medical residents both at Georgetown and Washington Hospital Center and lectures widely on such topics as the evaluation of recurrent infections, anaphylaxis, rhinitis, asthma, and sinusitis.
An active participant in the professional community, Dr. Athena Economides serves on several committees for the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. The Consumers Research Council of America voted Dr. Economides as a top pediatrician, and the Washingtonian recognized her as Best Doctor.