May was a busy month! Inpatient capacity remains extraordinarily high with all inpatient units being at, or nearly at, 100% capacity for the Spring. This does not represent a blip or incremental increase – instead, there have consistently been high levels of surgical volume, ED admissions, and transfer requests. Thank you to all the teams that have been caring for these patients and families as well as coordinating transfers. | |
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I want to highlight Dr. Kenya McNeal-Trice and her incredible service. She has served on the ACGME Review Committee for Pediatrics residency for many years. Her expertise will help us navigate the new changes that will be implemented by the ACGME starting July 2025. Thank you, Kenya!
I am excited to share that Dr. Ashley Sutton will start as Associate Chief Safety Officer for UNC Children’s and the Associate Vice Chair for Safety in the Department of Pediatrics. We are so excited to have Dr. Sutton serve in these roles and thankful for her leadership!
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Dr. Margaret (Magee) Leigh was recently named one of the recipients of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2025 Edwin L. Kendig, Jr Award, which recognizes lifetime achievements in the field of pediatric pulmonology. Dr. Kendig was a pioneer in the field of pediatric pulmonology and served as editor of the first textbook in North America devoted to diseases of the chest in children, Disorders of the Respiratory Tract in Children, which still bears his name. The consummate “triple threat,” Dr. Leigh recently completed her 40-year career in pediatric pulmonary care, education, and research. Please help me congratulate Dr. Leigh on this accomplishment!
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We had a very successful Pediatric Academic Society (PAS) meeting in Toronto. | |
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As always, I am thankful for your leadership and commitment to the children and families of North Carolina.
Gratefully,
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April Smithwick Named Neonatal APP Manager | We are excited to announce that April Smithwick, ARNP, NNP-BC has accepted the role of Advanced Practice Provider Manager in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine effective May 26, 2024. April earned her undergraduate degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then earned her master’s degree from The University of Florida and started working as an NNP in 2015. April joined our NNP team at UNC in 2020 and quickly demonstrated her excellent clinical and leadership skills. We are very proud to welcome her into this new APP leadership role! We know that our NP team will continue to grow and be successful under April’s leadership! Congratulations, April! | | | | |
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UNC Pediatrics at East Pittsboro Celebrates 1st Birthday
UNC Pediatrics opened at East Pittsboro on May 2, 2023. Dr. Heather Wright Williams and the team continue to serve the kids and families of Chatham County!
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General Pediatrics Top Performers | | |
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Dr. Heather Williams was top provider across UNC/UNC PN in Pediatric Assessment of Social Determinants of Health |
Kristen Cole, RN, MSN, CPNP-PC was featured as a UNC Health Value Superstar for the month of May. There are wonderful accolades to Kristen on the website, including the following: "Through her work at the N.C. Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill and Nunnelee Pediatric Specialty Clinic in Wilmington (a UNC Health/Novant Health partnership), Kristen Leads the Way* in providing exceptional Carolina Care to our pediatric patients." | |
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Boyd, Stromberg, and Weber recognized as Super Antimicrobial Stewards | The Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP) honored three collaborators with Super Steward Awards. The award recipients were Jenny Boyd, MD; Joseph Stromberg, MD; and David J. Weber, MD, MPH. CASP created the awards in 2022 to recognize colleagues' efforts to champion stewardship in their settings. "CASP's success hinges on collaboration with colleagues passionate about stewardship. | | | |
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Samaras Earns DNP
Athena Samaras, DNP, MPH, PPCNP-BC, APP in Hospital Pediatrics, recently graduated with her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Duke University.
Congratulations Athena!
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Massie Earns T32 Position
McCauley Massie, MD, Pediatric HemOnc Fellow and Carolina Child Health Scholar was awarded a position on the Lineberger iTOP T32 and co-authored a published abstract titled, “Developing tools to improve the resident experience on the pediatric hematology oncology rotation” with Drs. Jacquelyn Baskin-Miller, Joanne Alfred, & Maria Velez. Congratulations McCauley!!
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Hochhalter Earns T32 Position
Christian Hochhalter, MD, Peds GI fellow and Carolina Child Health Scholar was awarded a position on the Pharmacology T32! Congratulations Dr. Hochhalter!!
Congratulations Christian!
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2024 Academy of Educators Pediatric Graduates, Inductees, and Awards | |
At the UNC School of Medicine’s Academy of Educators annual Evening of Scholarship on May 16, 2024, many Pediatrics faculty and trainees were recognized for their enthusiasm, dedication, and talents as UNC AOE educators.
Founded in 2006, the Academy of Educators is designed to emphasize teaching and support faculty development both in Chapel Hill and across the state.
More information can be found at www.med.unc.edu/aoe.
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Rao Promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics | Priyanka Rao, MD was promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics effective June 1, 2024. Dr. Rao has been a faculty member in Pediatrics since August 2020. | | | |
Raffa Named to Physician Scientist Training Program | Dr. Brittany Raffa, Assistant Professor in General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, has been named to the School of Medicine's Physician Scientist Training Program. Congratulations! | | | |
Pirzadeh Accepted to IHQI Improvement Scholars | Afsaneh Pirzadeh, MD, Associate Professor in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, has had her proposal accepted to implement a standardized care pathway for pediatric patient falling within the defined criteria for acute stroke has been selected for support through the IHQI Improvement Scholars. | | | |
Burbank on AAAAI Podcast for Asthma Awareness | For Asthma Awareness Month, Episode 114 of the AAAAI podcast, Conversations from the World of Allergy, Allison Burbank, MD, offers a detailed and extremely insightful conversation surrounding the latest approaches towards asthma management and goals of therapy. | | | |
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UNC Children's Visits Dubai
Drs. Keia Sanderson (Peds Nephrology),Jackie Patterson, Wes Jackson, and Melissa Bauserman (NPM) were invited to Dubai to speak at a global convening by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Neuroprotection for infants with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy
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Cannon Accepted to NC TraCS Clinical Trialist Training Program | Laura Cannon, Assistant Professor in Rheumatology, was accepted to the 2024-2025 NC TraCS Clinical Trialist Training Program. | | | |
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Boyd Accepted as New Fellow in ELH Program | |
Dr. Jenny Boyd has been accepted as a Fellow in the 2024 -2025 Executive Leadership in Health Care (ELH) Program, a track of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program. ELH is a transformative program builds healthcare leadership skills and includes the opportunity within the program to learn and network with the ELAM fellows.
Established in 1995, the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program offers an intensive one-year fellowship of leadership training with extensive coaching, networking and mentoring opportunities aimed at expanding the national pool of qualified women candidates for leadership in academic medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy.
Congratulations!
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Weiss Featured in Emory Medicine Magazine | |
Dr. Jasmine Weiss’ work to inspire individuals from historically underrepresented populations in medicine to dream a future in medicine—then achieve it—was featured in Emory Medicine's magazine.
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Adolescent SUD Conference 2024 | |
On June 6, the Governor’s Institute is holding the inaugural Statewide Virtual Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Conference. This is sponsored by several NC agencies including NC DMH/DD/SUS, to bring together experts and NC practitioners who serve children, adolescents, and families.
Thanks to Dr. Lucien Gonzalez who will be giving the opening presentation for this event!
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Williams and Segal Awarded CFTK Grant
Congratulations and thanks to Dr. Xavier Williams who teamed up with resident Dr. Lily Segal and was awarded a Carolina For the Kids grant for their project, LIT empowerment: Empowering Youth Through Literature. Through this project, they will establish a library for youth at the Dillon Detention Center.
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UNC Children's Made a Big Impact on NEC Awareness Day | |
On Fri, May 17, NEC Awareness Day, UNC made a big impact on social media, WRAL, and the traingle community in support of the Titus Strong Foundation.
The Titus Strong Foundation was founded to bring awareness and adequate research to families and communities that are affected by Necrotizing Enterocolitis.
www.titusstrong.org
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UNC School of Medicine Leads $9.3-Million Study
to Create Chlamydia Vaccine
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This five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is led by Toni Darville, MD, director of the UNC Children's Research Institute, in collaboration with scientists at Vaxcyte, Inc. and the University of Chicago.
To address the global epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded a five-year, $9.3 million grant to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vaxcyte, and the University of Chicago to develop a vaccine candidate for the prevention of Chlamydia.
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Frazer Awarded NEC Society Early Career Research Award | |
At PAS 2024, the NEC Society awarded the Early Career Research Award to Lauren Frazer, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. The $5,000 Research Award opportunity is open to early career faculty physicians (within 5 years of fellowship completion) whose primary research aligns with the NEC Research Priorities. The award will help to support promising NEC research being conducted by early career physicians and inspire more clinicians to join us in building a world without NEC.
Congratulations!
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Kamoun Awarded Greenwall Foundation Making a Difference Grant | |
Camilia Kamoun, MD, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology, was recently awarded a grant by the Greenwall Foundation through its Making a Difference Program, in the amount of $240,272 in support of her project, "Moving Away from Race-Ethnicity Based Clinical Care of Early Female Puberty Towards Race and Ethnicity Conscious Puberty Justice".
The Making a Difference program funds bioethics research projects that seek to resolve current challenges in health care, policy, and research. Grants are awarded twice yearly. Since 2013, the Foundation has funded more than 100 Making a Difference grants supporting bioethics research on a wide array of issues including aid-in-dying, deception in medical contexts, discrimination in health care, and responses to the opioid epidemic, among others. Congratulations Camilia!
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2024 Innovation Pilot Award Projects Announced | |
The UNC Center for Health Innovation is pleased to announce the awardees of the 12th Annual Innovation Pilot Awards. Proposals were sought from across UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine faculty and employees for innovations across a spectrum of areas including care delivery, workforce development, new technology, advanced analytics, and more.
Congratulations to the UNC Children's Awardees:
A pilot feasibility study of a small group professional coaching intervention to decrease burnout and improve well-being among UNC Health physicians
PI: Katherine Chan, MD, MPH (Department of Urology)
A Specialized Feeding Clinic for Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Partnership Between the UNC Pediatric Feeding Team and the UNC TEACCH© Autism Program
PI: Krisi Brackett, PhD, CCC-SLP, C/NDT (Rehab Services- UNC Feeding Team)
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Dr. Becky Baum – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - served as a Course Director for the AAP Common Mental Health Conditions course. Dr. Lucien Gonzalez was a presenter for this course.
Dr. Neal deJong and Dr. Ashley Sutton – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - with their mentees, medical student Hartlee Johnston and resident physician Dr. Emily Anderson had their work accepted for poster presentation at the Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference this month: Title: Comparison of Infants Discharged from Birth Hospitalization with Gastrostomy versus Naso-enteral Feeding Tube.
Dr. Kori Flower – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - published Prenatal Risks to Healthy Food Access and High Birthweight Outcomes. Duh-Leong C, Perrin EM, Heerman WJ, Schildcrout JS, Wallace S, Mendelsohn AL, Lee DC, Flower KB, Sanders LM, Rothman RL, Delamater AM, Gross RS, Wood C, Yin HS. Acad Pediatr. 2024 May-Jun;24(4):613-618. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.08.017. Epub 2023 Sep 1. PMID: 37659601
Dr. Adriana Herrera and member of the Hospital Pediatrics team – published Differences in testing for drugs of abuse amongst racial and ethnic groups at children's hospitals. Herrera A, Hall M, Alex Ahearn M, Ahuja A, Bradford KK, Campbell RA, Chatterjee A, Coletti HY, Crowder VL, Dancel R, Diaz M, Fuchs J, Guidici J, Lewis E, Stephens JR, Sutton AG, Sweeney A, Ward KM, Weinberg S, Zwemer EK, Harrison WN. J Hosp Med. 2024 May;19(5):368-376. doi: 10.1002/jhm.13305. Epub 2024 Feb 21. PMID: 38383949.
Dr. Katie Jordan – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - published an evaluation of the UNC FIRST program: Academic performance of students in an accelerated medical pathway. Chen F, Jordan KA, Li W, Lam Y, Pascarella L, Coe CL. Med Educ Online. 2024 Dec 31;29(1):2345444. doi: 10.1080/10872981.2024.2345444. Epub 2024 Apr 28. PMID: 38678447
Dr. Camilia Kamoun – Endocrinology – published Heightism, growth hormone treatment, and social functioning: a holistic approach to a persistent clinical challenge. Kamoun C, Largent EA, Grimberg A. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2024 May 13. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000001363. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38747208.
Dr. Edwin Kim - Allergy/Immunology – gave the keynote talk titled, Therapeutics for Food Allergy, at the Gores Family Allergy Center Food Allergy Symposium. Los Angeles, CA on May 11, 2024.
Dr. Katherine MacDonald – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - was selected for the 2024 UNC CFAR Developmental Core funding cycle for her project: Adolescent and young adult HIV disclosure to partners and its impact on HIV prevention in Western Kenya.
Dr. Nancie MacIver – Endocrinology – published Metformin use associated with lower rate of hospitalization for influenza in individuals with diabetes. Greene E, Green CL, Hurst J, MacIver NJ. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2024 May 14. doi: 10.1111/dom.15655. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38742467.
Dr. Kenya McNeal-Trice – Hospital Pediatrics and Dr. Aliese Sarkissian –Pediatric Rheumatology published Integrating education for clinical practice change. Chawla EM, Schuler CL, Barnhardt EW, Herbst LA, Sarkissian A, McNeal-Trice K, Newmeyer A, Perry M, Poynter SE, Lannon C. Clin Teach. 2024 Feb 29:e13753. doi: 10.1111/tct.13753. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38419551
Dr. Tisu Mvalo – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published: Comprehensive assessment of pediatric acute and inpatient care at a tertiary referral hospital in Malawi: opportunities for quality improvement. Fitzgerald E, Ciccone EJ, Mvalo T, Chiume M, Mgusha Y, Mkaliainga TB, Tilly AE, Chen J, Bell G, Crouse H, Robison JA, Eckerle M. BMJ Paediatr Open. 2024 May 7;8(1):e002404. doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2023-002404. PMID: 38719563
Dr. Colin Orr – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published Racial and Ethnic Disparities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among US Youth. Wolf ER, Rivara FP, Orr CJ, Sen A, Chapman DA, Woolf SH. JAMA. 2024 May 28;331(20):1732-1740. doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.3908. PMID: 38703403
Athena Theodora Samaras, NP – Hospital Pediatrics – published Legislators Must Act to Address Primary Care Workforce Shortages. Samaras AT. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, Volume 20, Issue 3, 2024, 104924, ISSN 1555-4155,
Dr. Joanna Smeekens – with members of the Allergy/Immunology team – published A mutation in Themis contributes to anaphylaxis severity following oral peanut challenge in CC027 mice. Risemberg EL, Smeekens JM, Cruz Cisneros MC, Hampton BK, Hock P, Linnertz CL, Miller DR, Orgel K, Shaw GD, de Villena FPM, Burks AW, Valdar W, Kulis MD, Ferris MT. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024 Apr 24:S0091-6749(24)00411-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2024.03.027. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38670234
Dr. Mike Steiner – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published:
Changing patterns of routine laboratory testing over time at children's hospitals. Tchou MJ, Hall M, Markham JL, Stephens JR, Steiner MJ, McCoy E, Aronson PL, Shah SS, Molloy MJ, Cotter JM. J Hosp Med. 2024 Apr 21. doi: 10.1002/jhm.13372. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38643414
Evaluation of claims data from a commercial value-based insurance product shows pediatric imaging is not a major driver of overall or pediatric healthcare expenditures. Donnelly LF, Dellva BP, Jarmul JA, Steiner MJ, Shaheen AW. Pediatr Radiol. 2024 May;54(5):842-848. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05845-w. Epub 2024 Jan 10. PMID: 38200270
Dr. Tim Vece – Pulmonology and Dr. Eve Wu – Rheumatology – were highlighted in the article “Breath of Hope RI” in the Warwick Beacon Online.
Dr. Rebecca Vitale – Endocrinology – published Transition to self-management among emerging adults with type 1 diabetes: a mixed methods study. Vitale RJ, Asher N, Shank K, Katyal B, Tinsley LJ, Garvey KC, Laffel LMB. Front Clin Diabetes Healthc. 2024 May 7;5:1332159. doi: 10.3389/fcdhc.2024.1332159. eCollection 2024. PMID: 38774897.
Drs. Eve Wu and Aliese Sarkissian – Rheumatology - were invited to speak at the Carolinas Cure JM Family Day at Duke Medicine Pavilion on April 27th. Dr. Wu’s talk was entitled “The CARRA Registry: Power of You” and Dr. Sarkissian’s talk was entitled “Stronger Minds: Supporting Mental Health”.
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Brittney Stone, MS, MBA
Division Administrator - Emergency Medicine
Dahlia Hodges
Credentialing Coordinator
Nominated by: Dan Park, MD, MBA
I want to take time to recognize the behind-the-scenes efforts of two fantastic individuals and my partners who have made the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) operational during a long stretch of being short staffed. Dahlia Hodges, our Credentialing Specialist, and Brittney Stone, our Pediatric Emergency Medicine Division Administrator, have worked tirelessly to ensure that we have the right credentialed physicians to provide uninterrupted, high quality care in the PED. The work they do is not the most glamorous (tons of paperwork and attention to fine print) but without them, our patients and staff would suffer. I know Dahlia and Brittney aren’t the only ones who perform crucial operational judo so I thank all of our administrative professionals who help make things happen on a daily basis.
Thank you Dahlia and Brittney. Grateful for your expertise and partnership.
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