Dr. Percy Huggins

She earned her medical degree from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem. She was encouraged by her mentor to explore different specialties but consistently returned to pediatrics. “You can learn so much from children,” she says. “You have to approach them with a different mindset each time, which forces you to be creative.”

As a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Dr. Huggins is trained in allopathic medical science and patient care with additional years of training in the principles and practices of osteopathy, which take a holistic approach to the body with a focus in the lymphatic and musculoskeletal systems. She finds this extremely helpful in treating children who are constantly getting colds and respiratory infections.

Upon graduation from medical school, Dr. Huggins completed her residency at Westchester Medical Center, where she honed her skills in treating children across a wide range of ages and medical complexities. Though there was pressure to specialize, she knew pediatrics was her calling. “I tried to keep an open mind, but I just love general pediatrics,” she says. “There is nothing more meaningful to me than building relationships with kids and getting to see them grow.”

Dr. Huggins is an Assistant Attending Pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College. In 2016, Dr. Huggins joined Tribeca Pediatrics, where she cared for newborns through teenagers, before joining Atria.

Dr. Huggins believes that pediatrics is as much about communication as it is about medicine. She forges close bonds with the families she looks after, tailoring her recommendations about anything from sleep and potty training to food choices and beyond to the individual needs of the child and the parents. To that end, she is exceptionally skilled in meeting children at their level—whether through play, observation, or creative questioning—to understand what’s going on beneath the surface.

“I try to have fun each day, no matter what,” says Dr. Huggins. “I know firsthand how stressful parenting can be, and I am here to make things less scary for kids and their parents at every encounter we have.”

When she is not caring for her patients she enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons in Brooklyn, doing pilates, yoga, swimming, and biking, and she absolutely loves to read. “I read everything,” Dr. Huggins says.