Welcome to the Pediatric Department Newsletter! This publication is designed to connect our alumni with our academic team members— faculty, staff, and trainees alike. Our goal is to strengthen the bonds within our community, locally and nationally, ensuring we stay connected no matter where your journey has taken you. Let’s continue to support, celebrate, and uplift each other as a vibrant academic network.

If you’re considering returning, we also have open faculty positions—be sure to explore them below:

• Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Pediatrics
• Pediatric Cardiology Clinical Faculty
• Primary Care Pediatrics, Clinical Faculty, Orange Pediatrics
• Primary Care Pediatric Psychologist
• Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Director
• Pediatric Genetics Clinician
• Clinical Child and Pediatric Psychologists/Assistant Professor, Diabetes Prevention Clinic
• Clinical Child and Pediatric Psychologist
• Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, Division Director
• Neurodevelopmental Pediatrician
• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Division Director
• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Physician Scientist
• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (BMT/Stem Cell Transplant)
• Pediatric Hepatology (Med Director Liver Transplant)
• Pediatric Rheumatology Open Rank/Open Track Clinical Faculty
• Pediatric Sleep Medical Director
• Pediatric Transplant Cardiologist

Summer brings a welcome opportunity to pause, reflect, and celebrate the people who make Pediatrics such an exceptional community. As the year continues, I continue to be immensely grateful for the many ways our alumni, faculty, staff, trainees, and supporters contribute to improving the health and well-being of children and families.

Across our department, members of our Pediatrics family are leading advancements in patient care, research, education, and engagement. Your dedication and accomplishments continue to strengthen our mission and serve as a source of pride and inspiration for our department.

This season is also one of momentum and possibility. We are excited to welcome new trainees, build upon innovative programs, and expand collaborations that help us better serve our patients and communities. The energy, expertise, and commitment found throughout our network continue to shape the future of pediatric medicine.

As you enjoy the summer months, I hope you have opportunities to relax, reconnect with friends and family, and take pride in all that you have achieved. Thank you for remaining an important part of the UVA Pediatrics community and for the many ways you support our shared purpose.

We would also love to hear from you. Whether you have recently reached a professional milestone, received an award, published research, assumed a new leadership role, or celebrated a personal achievement, please share your news with us so we can recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our alumni.

Warm regards,

Madhu Misra, MD, MPH

Benjamin Armistead Shepherd, Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, UVA

Physician-in-Chief, UVA Health Children's

Dean's Awards

Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

I am so pleased to announce that Dr. Jaclyn Wiggins is one of this year’s recipients

Dean’s Clinical Excellence Award

I am so pleased to announce that Dr. Michelle Adu- Darko is one of this year’s recipients 

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentorship

I am so pleased to announce that Dr. Karen Fairchild is one of this year’s recipients

Departmental Awards 

Clinical

Pediatric Cardiac Center Coming to South Tower

We are excited to announce that the 7th floor of the South Tower has been designated as the future home of a Pediatric Cardiac Center. This dedicated space will support the continued growth of pediatric cardiac services and enhance our ability to provide comprehensive, patient-centered care for children and families across the region.

The new center will bring together specialized clinical services in a centralized location, fostering collaboration among multidisciplinary care teams while creating an environment designed to meet the unique needs of pediatric cardiac patients.



This investment reflects our ongoing commitment to advancing pediatric healthcare and expanding access to specialized services for the communities we serve.

Community Engagement

The Teddy Bear Clinic was an incredible success this year, bringing together families, community partners, faculty, staff, trainees, and volunteers for a day focused on connection, education, and helping children feel more comfortable in healthcare settings.

Through interactive stations, hands-on activities, and compassionate engagement, children had the opportunity to explore medical tools and experiences in a fun and welcoming environment. The impact of the event was evident in the smiles, laughter, and excitement shared throughout the day by both children and families.

A special thank you goes out to every volunteer, division, and community partner who dedicated their time, energy, and creativity to make this event possible. Your willingness to show up, engage with families, and create meaningful experiences made a lasting difference in our community.

Events like the Teddy Bear Clinic truly reflect the heart of pediatrics and the power of collaboration, and we are so grateful for everyone who helped make the day such a memorable and impactful experience.

Education

Gift from Jim Nataro, MD, and Ina Stephens, MD

A $100,000 endowed fund is expanding global learning opportunities for pediatric trainees by providing financial support for educational travel to GME-approved sub-Saharan African countries, as designated by the World Bank. The fund is designed to enhance international clinical and educational experiences for pediatric residents, with flexibility to support multiple trips by a single resident or travel experiences for multiple residents, at the discretion of the Department Chair.

In years when no pediatric resident elects to participate, the fund may also be used to support a pediatric fellow pursuing educational opportunities in the region. To ensure the endowment's long-term impact, any unused annual income may be reinvested for future use, preserving support for generations of trainees interested in global health experiences.

Research

Accolades

I am delighted to share the exciting news of this year’s Promotion and Tenure outcomes. Please join me in congratulating our 2026 cohort on these well-earned promotions effective July 1:

Award of Tenure

• Dr. Jennifer Burnsed
• Dr. Brynne Sullivan

Promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor

• Dr. Ayah Elmaghrabi
• Dr. Christina Peroutka

Promotion from Associate to Full Professor

• Dr. Peter Dean
• Dr. Colleen Druzgal
• Dr. Jeremy Middleton

These milestones reflect not only individual excellence but also meaningful contributions to our missions in research, education, clinical care, and service. We are proud to count such dedicated and accomplished colleagues among our faculty.

Please join me in celebrating their success and extending your congratulations.

Academy of Excellence in Education

• Inductees from Pediatrics include Anna Jesus, MD, Ryan Cappa, MD, and Julie Lovin, MD

Fellow Grant Awardees

• Post doc candidate: Tanner Richie
• Mentor:  Cowardin, Carrie
• Division: Gastroenterology
• Title: Microbial drivers of SIBO in undernourished children
• Clinical fellow candidate: Nicholas Heitkamp
• Mentor: Sullivan, Brynne
• Division: Neonatology
• Title: AI and lung ultrasound to predict surfactant need

Administration

• Mikalah Martin, Administrative Professional: received a Hoos Building Bridges Award (UVA level award) for her extraordinary ability to collaborate and strengthen connections across departments, systems, and community partners, and for her leadership with programs such as Social Health Rounds, the SOAR summer initiative, community engagement grant programs, and the Community Collaborative. She was nominated by Emily Gonzalez, PhD & Cody Ragland, Operations Manager

Cardiology

• Sarah Dudley Grorud, MD, 2026 Edwin and Mary Kendig Award recipient.
• Mike McCulloch, MD: Featured in the news discussing National Donate Life month, and the dynamics around pediatric organ donation and the difficult decisions that families face, and more: https://cvillerightnow.com/podcasts/wina-live-well-series-pediatric-cardiologist-dr-michael-mcculloch/.

CHRC

• Dr. Maria Luisa Sequeira Lopez’ and Dr. Ariel Gomez’ Commentary on the recent guidelines to treat hypertension was published in Hypertension: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.125.26125
• Hiroki's manuscript has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology!
• Lucas De Almeida obtained the 1st place as the Winner of the 2026 Postdoctoral Symposium poster competition, among 72 posters from UVA and VCU.
• Mohd Sayeed, PhD, 2026 Hiroko Nishimura Trainee Award for Outstanding Oral Presentation recipient.
• Dr. Araceli Santiago: received JIT for her R21 grant
• Dr. Fernando Ruiz: featured in Medicine in Motion, talking about his research, Fernando Ruiz, PhD
• Dr. Ruiz investigates how enterobacteria, such as Shigella, pathogenic E. coli, and bacteria linked to inflammatory bowel disease, cause illness

Critical Care

• MJ Sacco: Gave Grand Rounds to the entire Health Care New Zealand System for Children: "Thinking Inside the Box: When Pattern Recognition Fails in the Pediatric ICU". 

Endocrinology 

• Congratulations to Joy Kauffman, RNCC, for passing the CDCES exam. She is the first on the Peds Endocrine team to become certified! 
• Christopher R. McCartney, Aaron Fr. Pannone, Su Hee Kim, Matthew J Gurka, Mark D DeBoer, Christine M Burt Solorzano. Free testosterone independently predicts metabolic syndrome severity in U.S. adolescent girls aged 12–19 years. Journal of the Endocrine Society, April 2026
• Dr. Mark DeBoer: Symposium talk at ENDO 2026 in Chicago in the session on Devices and Technologies Shaping Diabetes Care
• Dr. Christine Burt-Solorzano: Symposium talk at ENDO 2026 “Intersection of Metabolism and Reproduction: Treatment Outcomes in Adolescent PMOS”
• Dr. Madhu Misra:
• Moderated Master Clinician Session at ENDO 2026 on “Overcoming the Adverse Metabolic State in Adolescents with Obesity and Insulin Resistance”
• Symposium talk at the International Conference of Children’s Bone Health in Montreal: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports and Bone Injuries

Gastroenterology

• Dr. Jeremy Middleton was recently named a 2026 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia. This prestigious honor recognizes faculty who go above and beyond to inspire a passion for learning and uphold the highest standards of scholarship. Dr. Middleton was nominated by Dr. Madhusmita Misra and Dr. Susan Gray in recognition of his outstanding dedication to teaching and mentorship. Congratulations to Dr. Middleton on this well-deserved achievement!
• Dr. Carrie Cowardin: 2nd percentile score on R01

Hematology Oncology

• Stefanie Bailey: Received a Pediatric Pilot Award through the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center for $50K: “Engineering FUS-inducible CAR-T cells for miR-206 delivery in rhabdomyosarcoma”.

Hospital Integrative Medicine

• Dr. Eliza Holland: Received the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Certificate of Leadership in Hospital Medicine 
• Dr. Eliza Holland continues to invest in leadership development both personally and across UVA Health. Since completing Greater Tucson Leadership in 2013, she has pursued advanced leadership training through the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) Leadership Academy, completing courses in teamwork, strategy, and leadership. This fall, she will serve as a facilitator for SHM’s Strategic Essentials program.

In partnership with the UVA Health Leadership Institute, Dr. Holland also helped launch a leadership development program for residents and fellows identified as emerging leaders. The inaugural cohort included 37 trainees who completed a yearlong curriculum focused on leadership, advocacy, negotiation, healthcare policy, and group capstone projects. A second cohort will begin this September.

In addition, Dr. Holland is training to become an executive coach, with the goal of supporting physician well-being, reducing burnout, and promoting professional growth. She hopes to expand coaching opportunities within the Department of Pediatrics and serve as a coach for future SHM Leadership Academy participants.

Through her commitment to leadership education, mentorship, and coaching, Dr. Holland is helping develop the next generation of healthcare leaders.

Infectious Disease

• Steve Zeichner’s research on a simpler, faster way to make vaccines was featured in UVA Today and Medicine in Motion.
• Linda Waggoner Fountain, MD: The Robert S. Holm, MD Leadership Award at APPD 2026 meeting in Denver: honors an APPD member (past or present) for extraordinary contribution in leadership and support of other program leaders as a mentor, advisor, or role model at a national level through APPD.

Neonatology

• Dr. Alix Paget-Brown: featured in the local news with Dusty Lynn and Sarah Curry for their Newborn Resuscitation Course: Target 7: First responders make history with Blacksburg training )
• Started 24/7 MD coverage of the NICU on May 4th, 2026
• Lisa Letzkus, NP, Jon Swanson, MD, Brynn Sullivan, MD: The Baby Cavs Express project has officially been funded by the Jefferson Trust
• Karen Fairchild, MD, 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award in Pediatric Science recipient. 
• Dr. Jonathan Swanson was awarded a 3 Cavs grant for an Interdisciplinary Investigation of Microplastic Exposure in Breast Milk Across Newborn Care Pathways.
• (3Cavs 3.1 - Project #17)
• Project PIs:
• ·    Somayeh Asadi, School of Engineering and Applied Science
• ·    Jessie Gibson, School of Nursing
• ·    Jonathan Swanson, School of Medicine
• Project Summary and Impact:
• Microplastics (MPs) are increasingly recognized as a pervasive environmental contaminant relevant to human health. MPs have been detected in human biological matrices, including blood, lungs, placenta, and feces, indicating widespread exposure across the lifespan. Human breast milk has recently emerged as an MP exposure medium during a sensitive period of development. Despite growing interest, quantitative data on MP concentrations in breast milk remain scarce and are derived entirely from non-U.S. populations. Expressed breast milk is routinely subjected to multiple handling steps in hospitals, particularly for newborns requiring tube feeding. However, MP concentrations have not been quantified across the full clinical feeding pathway in neonatal care. The objective of this study is to quantify how MP concentrations in breast milk change across routine handling and feeding stages used for newborns. This interdisciplinary pilot study will generate the first U.S.-based quantitative dataset characterizing MP concentrations in human breast milk across clinically relevant feeding stages. The resulting data will provide foundational evidence to contextualize MP exposure among newborns, inform future studies, and support the development of evidence-based guidance for breast milk handling

Nephrology

• Jennifer Charlton, MD: Received NOA for mPI R01 grant “Improving the evaluation of high-risk deceased donor kidneys for transplantation”.
• Dr. Agnes Urban: published a review on the “Genetic insights into congenital and infantile nephrotic syndrome: predicting severity and informing care" in Pediatric Nephrology
• We spotlight a major advance from the laboratory of Dr. Agnes Swiatecka-Urban. Her team has grown human kidney organoids: three-dimensional clusters of living cells, only a few millimeters across, that self-organize in culture into miniature working models of a real kidney, reproducing many of the organ's specialized structures and functions. These organoids are built from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), ordinary cells reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state from something as simple as a blood sample and then coaxed to become kidney tissue. Led by BIMS graduate student Ewelina Hejenkowska, the project uses these living models to investigate the mechanisms of nephrotic syndrome, a serious kidney disease in which the organ's delicate filters leak large amounts of protein into the urine. The long-term goal is to generate organoids from the cells of individual patients, creating patient-specific "kidneys in a dish" that allow the team to study each person's disease directly and work toward treatments tailored to that individual. It is a vivid example of how stem cell science is opening a path toward truly personalized care for kidney disease.

Neurodevelopmental

• Congratulations to Lisa Letkus, PhD! The Jefferson Trust has granted $188,000.00 to fund Baby Cavs Express: Transforming early developmental care through mobile evaluation and support. We are excited to see this great idea come to fruition. In addition, they've been notified that the Dubose family will be endowing the EDC program with a $200,000 gift to support lifelong learning opportunities for team members. This is an incredible investment in our people and our future.
• Richard D. Stevenson, Mark R. Conaway, Gordon Worley, Virginia A. Stallings. Growth of Children With Cerebral Palsy and Health Outcomes. Pediatrics April 2026.
• Ruby Tan, Rose Nevill, Valentina Intagliata, Audrey Higgins, Elizabeth White, Andrew Burns, Jenniffer Herrera, Beth Ellen Davis. Predictors of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children With Diagnostic Uncertainty After Initial Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric Evaluation. J Dev Behavioral Pediatrics 2026.
• Dr. Anna Jesus, Maddi Knight, PT, and Tricia Wilkins, OT, presented at the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL
• Tricia Wilkins:
• Essential Elements of Care: Insights from Specialists, early childhood care
• Ask a Physical & Occupational Therapist
•  Maddi Knight:
• Essential Elements of Care: Insights from Specialists, middle childhood care
• Ask a Physical & Occupational Therapist
• Dr. Anna Jesus:
• Essential Elements of Care: Insights from Specialists, early childhood care
• Emergency Care Considerations

Primary Care Pediatrics and Teen Health

• 46th Annual Birdsong conference at the Boar’s Head with over 100 in attendance!
• Celebrating Sarah Bedford and Juliana Skuba on their Daisy Award nominations and their contributions to increasing breastfeeding support in Pediatric Primary Care.
• UVA Orange Pediatrics Food Pharmacy Opens! The UVA Orange Pediatrics clinic obtained final approval from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to operate a Food Pharmacy in the clinic. The first food order was placed at the end of January, and the shelves have been stocked. We partnered with Mom2Mom so that we can provide diapers, wipes, feminine hygiene products, and formula. We also partnered with the Virginia Extension Office, which provided cutting boards and can openers for families who need them. On February 4, we opened our pantry doors and are ready to serve patient families who are experiencing food insecurity. We have also established a community board to oversee operations and development of our food pantry, with our next meeting scheduled in April.
• Congratulations to Stephanie Hall, MA, who was nominated for a Bee Award!
• Riverside Pediatrics, projected to open to patients on April 15, has begun onboarding its first nursing team members: Marissa Bartley (MA), Kelsey Falls (MA), Kalia Jackson (MA), Melissa Lopez‑Rojas (RN), Megan Nester (RN), and Adriana Potter (RN).
• Teen Health welcomed Juliana Canas Baena, LCSW, who has officially joined Teen Health's Eating Disorder Interdisciplinary Team! She will be providing therapy services to patients struggling with eating disorders and their families at the new Riverside Teen Health location and via telehealth.
• April Kimble and Jody Esselstyn are developing and sharing education on caring for patients with eating disorders across all pediatric primary care sites throughout the month of April. This patient population requires thoughtful, specialized care, and we deeply appreciate April and Jody’s expertise, commitment, and time in helping ensure best clinical practices across our teams.
• Dr. Diane Pappas for being the recipient of the 2026 Raven Award for her long-standing advocacy for the downtrodden and oppressed in our community. The Award recognizes excellence in service and contribution to the University and is the highest honor the Raven Society bestows upon an individual.
• Pediatric and Specialty Care Riverside and Teen & Young Adult Care Riverside opened on April 15! 
• Dr. Mike Ryan: PhD dissertation was accepted and will be presented over Thanksgiving break
• Dr. Kate Donowitz: board-certified in Integrative Medicine

Psychology

• Dr. Alisa Bahl, Ph.D.
• Invited Grand Rounds – Pediatric Sleep Centra Lynchburg Family Medicine
• Tips for Positive Parenting – Conversations with a Child Psychologist UVA Pediatric Psychology
•  Dr. O’Gorman's manuscript was accepted for publication in Academic Pediatrics:
• Weinfield, N. S., O’Gorman, E. T., Mohadikar, K. N., Bettencourt, A. F., Wu, E. G., Young, A. S. (2026). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Actions Taken in Primary Care in Response to Adolescents’ Elevated Mental Health Symptoms. Academic Pediatrics.
• Dr. Emily Gonzalez was invited to participate in an immigration discussion (including HR1) with Secretary Figueroa and HHR agencies

Social Health Sciences and Programs

• The Healthy Streets, Healthy People event was a wonderful opportunity to engage with children and families in our community while promoting mental health awareness, stress management, and overall well-being. ………grateful for the opportunity to host a Social Health Sciences and Programs table and connect with community members through educational materials and meaningful conversations