Tara K. Bastek, MD, MPH, is a board-certified pediatrician and neonatologist with WakeMed Physician Practices, a division of the WakeMed Health and Hospital network in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is an attending neonatologist at the Raleigh, Cary, and North campuses and medical director of the Raleigh neonatal intensive care unit. Prior to joining WakeMed, Dr. Bastek was an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Bastek received her medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, completed an internship and residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, and a fellowship in newborn medicine/neonatology at Boston Children’s Hospital through Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bastek earned her master's degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health and completed a fellowship in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Bastek has been the principal investigator on research projects involving studies of both regional and international prenatal consultations for extremely premature infants. Her published work includes a chapter on decision-making and ethical dilemmas in the Manual of Neonatal Care, as well as articles in the Journal of Perinatology and Pediatrics. Dr. Bastek serves as chair or in a leadership capacity for numerous WakeMed committees. Her national affiliations include membership in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.