Dear Colleagues, Staff, and Friends,

I am thrilled to celebrate a significant milestone today: my 6-month anniversary! This incredible journey has been marked by your dedication, compassion, and unwavering commitment to the well-being of our young patients and our department.

Over the past six months, I have immersed myself in learning about each of you and our department. I am proud to report that we have successfully completed retreats focused on research, teaching, and education, laying the groundwork for our future. We are collaborating with partners across the state to ensure UVA Health Children's continues to provide exceptional care for the sickest patients in our region.

I eagerly anticipate our future together, dedicated to serving you and striving for continuous improvement and excellence within our department.

With heartfelt appreciation,

Madhu Misra, MD, MPH

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

Physician-in-Chief, UVA Children’s Health

Retreats

Education Retreat

• Chaired by Drs. Jeremy Middleton and Linda Waggoner Fountain.
• On April 24, 2024, the Department of Pediatrics convened an education retreat to define the vision and goals of the Department under the leadership of Dr. Misra. More than thirty Departmental faculty interested in discussing the strengths and opportunities for the undergraduate and graduate medical education programs gathered for the half-day retreat. Dr. Neeral Shah, the director of the School of Medicine’s Academy for Excellence in Education, led the group in refining the newly developed departmental mission statement as it relates to our educational values in the Department of Pediatrics. He also helped the group define key concepts that are core to our educational mission. Drs. Jeremy Middleton and Linda Waggoner-Fountain presented local and national data regarding learners in pediatrics. Smaller breakout groups met to establish short- and long-term priorities for the education of medical students, pediatric residents, and pediatric fellows. The retreat created marching orders for future working groups to implement ideas for improvement as well as energize department educators.   

Research Retreat

• Chaired by Dr. Ariel Gomez
• We are happy to report that our research retreat was a resounding success. The goal was to identify areas of research with the highest chances of success and develop collaborations and new approaches to prevent, manage, and/or cure pediatric diseases. The event was attended by a diverse and enthusiastic group of faculty and staff. We started with a review of our goals and strategic opportunities, followed by a working lunch/poster session where division heads summarized their current research work. This was followed by invited talks, and breakout sessions to identify research priorities that build on existing strengths both within the Department as well as across the School of Medicine and the University at large. There was a substantive discussion focused on themes such as community-based and social determinants of health, precision medicine, artificial intelligence, global population health, infectious diseases, novel tissue imaging methods, and the growing of vascularized organs using bioprinting. The strategic areas thus identified would serve as an important roadmap for our future hires and investments in our research enterprise.

Here are some of the gains for the Department of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital over the past six months:

• We are currently interviewing for our Vice Chairs for Research, Teaching, and Academic Affairs. 
• Emily Gonzalez, PhD, will be the new Associate Chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. 
• Our search committees for the Division Directors of General Pediatrics, Genetics, Infectious Diseases, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition are working to find the next incumbents for these important roles.  
• Jonathan Swanson, MD, will be our new Chair for Neonatology.
• We are on track to expand to 60 NICU beds and 25 PICU beds by the end of Summer 2024. Plans for further NICU expansion into the shelled space in the South Tower are ongoing with a successful launch of fundraising efforts in April 2024.  

13-year-old Olivia Goodwin – who receives ongoing care at UVA Health Children’s for congenital heart disease – has been named UVA Health Children’s 2024 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Local Champion. Born with a congenital heart condition, Olivia underwent her first surgery at UVA Health Children’s when she was three days old to install a pacemaker. Due to her condition, Olivia will need procedures every five to seven years for the rest of her life. Now 13, Olivia has had three heart surgeries and is on her third pacemaker, with her next surgery scheduled for late 2024.

We are eagerly preparing for the launch of a new clinic of UVA Health at Riverside this fall that marks a significant milestone in addressing the high demand for pediatric neurodevelopmental disabilities and mental health services. The UVA Health Children’s Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Health Clinic will be the only outpatient clinic in the state to combine the expertise of developmental pediatricians, child psychologists, integrative medicine specialists, and child psychiatrists.

The new clinic will:

• Expand outpatient neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and mental health services at UVA Health Children’s.
• Care for youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities such as Autism, Down Syndrome, and complex ADHD
• Provide evidence-based therapies for children with mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression regardless of medical or developmental status
• Be the only clinic in our region outfitted for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, an evidence based behavioral parent training therapy to address behavior concerns in early childhood
• Incorporate integrative health practices (i.e., yoga, mindfulness, & meditation) and become the home of our nation’s first pediatric medical yoga clinic
• Serve historically underserved youth and provide equitable access to all children, regardless of their family’s language preference or insurance status and ability to pay
• Coordinate and collaborate with community partners serving children & teens
• Be the cornerstone for a more robust behavioral health system of care at UVA Health Children’s to include behavioral health services in primary care and medical subspecialty settings.

Thank you to all our generous donors, community advisors, and team members who have helped make the new clinic a reality! Construction is underway at the Riverside clinics on Route 29 North at 2335 Seminole Lane. Initially, appointments will be by provider referral as we build services and staff. We understand there is a tremendous need for these services and will work to proactively meet the evolving needs of our community. 

Please continue to be proactive about nominating your colleagues for these and other awards. Also, if you would like to be nominated for an award, please let Dr. Sinkin or me know so we can look into this.

• The UVA Medical Alumni Association and the Department of Pediatrics hosted a reception for alumni and friends in Toronto at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. It was so fun to see former faculty, students, residents, and all of the current crew who were there to present their work. 

• Congratulations to the below providers on being awarded the "Excellence in Performance Assessment" award:
• Evelyn Aboagye, MD
• Andrew Burns, MD
• Alexandra De León, MD
• Kira Dubester, MD

Admin

• Cierra Hill was awarded Uteam Member of the Month for May

Cardiology:

• The School of Medicine Endowed Chairs Committee and the Provost’s Office approved Dr. L'Ecuyer's election to the J. Francis Dammann Professorship in Pediatric Cardiology effective July 1, 2024

Critical Care

• Mike Spaeder, MD was elected Chair of the Society of Critical Care Medicine's Postgraduate Education and Fellowship Committee. 
• Michelle Adu-Darko, MD was named one of the Center for Excellence in Education Scholars 

Gastroenterology

• Carrie Cowardin, PhD's lab's first major publication in Microbiome (IF = 15.5). The journal also produced a nice video summary of their work

General Pediatrics

• Irene Mathieu, MD has received a promotion to Associate Professor.
• Irene Mathieu, MD published the following op-ed:
• Pediatrician: I have roots in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley." The new EPA rules are a step in the right direction.
• Michael Ryan, MD received the Ilene B. Harris Legacy Research Fund award for Medical education scholarship.
• Michael Ryan, MD will serve as co-principle investigator for a multi-institutional, one-year study, starting July 1st, to use focused ethnography to explore competency decisions in medical school. Dr. Ryan's research project was the only research project funded out of 35 grant proposals submitted.
• Michael Ryan, MD received the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics: Research and Scholarship Award.
• Meg Keely, MD, and Ann Kellams, MD graduated from a year-long fellowship: ELAM - Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine at Drexel University.
• Meg Keely, MD published two papers:

1. Academic Medicine Education Scholarship Assessment Reconsidered: Expansion of Glassick's Criteria to Incorporate Health Equity.
2. Academic Pediatrics: Promotion Criteria for Medical Educators: Are We Climbing a Ladder with Invisible Rungs.

Genetics

• Matt Snyder, MD received a "travel award" from the Society for Inherited Metabolic Diseases, and gave an excellent platform presentation at the annual meeting in Charlotte, NC.

Infectious Disease

• Leigh Grossman, MD has been inducted into the University of Virginia Raven Society

Neonatology

• Jen Burnsed, MD, and Meghan Puglia, MD have been invited to present as finalists for one of the BI Pilot grants 
• Karen Fairchild, MD's Spark Innovation project for a NICU Follow-Up Mobile Clinic has been selected as a top 10 winner by the awards committee. For the second round of the competition, they will be selecting 3 of the 10 winning ideas for full implementation. 
• Jen Burnsed, MD has been awarded School of Medicine Bridge Funding for their bench research on neonatal brain injury and has also been inducted into the UVA Academy for Excellence in Education.
• Jen Burnsed, MD will be the Program Director of the Neonatology Fellowship starting July 1.

Nephrology

• Agnes Urban, MD was awarded the MPI grant from the CFF entitled Kidney Function in PwCF in the era of high-efficiency modulators. This is a multi-PI (Dartmouth, UAB, and UVA) grant with UVA leading the team. The grant also establishes a new research Program at UVA designated to study kidney disease in people with cystic fibrosis – a new direction in CF research.
• Agnes Urban, MD was invited to become a standing member of the LCMI study section at the NIH NHLBI.
• The Urban lab published a Review manuscript: Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Mar 27;25(7):3713. doi: 10.3390/ijms25073713.“Beyond the borders of the cell: How extracellular vesicles shape Covid-  19 for people with Cystic Fibrosis”
• Agnes Urban-Dr. Urban and her UVA team (Drs. Charlton, Erdbruegger, Vitko, Yavuz) were awarded a 3-year Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Multi-PI grant to study kidney disease in People with Cystic Fibrosis in the era of Highly Efficient Modulator Therapy. The studies will be done with the team from Dartmouth and UAB

Respiratory

• The Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine has hired Tia Roy, NP as their sleep nurse practitioner. She will be starting 06/24/2024.  
• Kara Coffey, MD will join the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology section in 09/2024.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine recently published the 2nd edition of their textbook, Pediatric Pulmonology for which Richard Kravitz, MD is both an author and Associate Editor.
• Gerry Teague, MD presented Disparities Research at the Pediatrics Research Retreat.
• Gerry Teague, MD's paper was accepted for publication by JACI (impact factor 15.2). "A novel syndrome of silent RV infection in children with recurrent wheeze." About 25% of children with recurrent wheeze harbor an indolent RV infection with lung granulocytic inflammation, elevated blood-CRP, elevated neutrophil counts, and poor symptom control. The syndrome is more prevalent in children treated with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids. Symptomatically these children improve with replacing their corticosteroids with prolonged azithromycin therapy. Work in progress suggests the problem is flat RV-induced interferon responses in the lung macrophage populations towards increased mononuclear cells (bone-marrow-derived) which support a mucosal inflammasome.
• Gerry Teague, MD completed a case-controlsbone-marrow-derived shift study of recurrent croup which yielded five unique clusters of children's croup (manuscript to be submitted). 

New & Upcoming Additions

• Julia (Julie) Lovin 12/1/2024 Starts Assistant Professor position - Ped Cardio
• Aaron Misakian 12/1/2024 Endo clinical faculty
• Seth Morrison 11/1/2024 Faculty joins Gastroenterology (75% research)
• Josh Reyes 9/1/2024 Faculty joins Developmental
• Kara Coffey 9/1/2024 Faculty joins Respiratory Medicine, Allergy, and Immunology
• Lindsay Riordan 9/1/2024 Faculty joins General Pediatrics - Northridge
• Kelly Gurka 8/21/2024 Research faculty joins Neurodevelopmental & Behavioral Peds
• Alexandra Biller 8/19/2024 Faculty joins Gastroenterology
• Anisha Gerber 8/15/2024 Clinician Investigator joins Nephrology 80% research
• Julia (Julie) Lovin 8/1/2024 Starts Instructor position - Ped Cardio
• Megan  Yunghans 7/1/2024 Faculty joins General Pediatrics - Birdsong
• Emily Carroll 7/1/2024 Faculty joins General Pediatrics - Northridge
• Crystal Edds-McAfee 4/29/2024 APP (NP) Joins Newborn Nursery

Received an award or have an accomplishment? Let us know!

Contact Cierra Hill or Cody Ragland with your submission.

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