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Dear friends,
There were many celebrations during the month of June!
We had a wonderful resident graduation at the Carolina Club with more than 150 family members and friends in attendance (photos below). 35 new interns started last week, and we will be welcoming 16 new fellows next week!
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Today is the launch of the Tiny Tarheel Unit in the NICU! Thank you to the Tiny Tar Heel Unit medical directors - Andrea Trembath, MD, MPH and Sarah Croop, DNP-NNP-BC for your leadership!
We are thrilled to welcome Pediatric Nephrology to the Department! Starting July 7, 2025, they will begin seeing patients at the UNC Children’s Blue Ridge Multispecialty Clinic in Raleigh. A special thank you to Dr. Keisha Gibson for her incredible leadership in making this possible! We’re excited to see the continued growth and collaboration this will bring for our patients and teams!
Since its launch in March, the Pediatric Primary Care Walk-In Service has shown a steady increase in utilization. Importantly, it is helping to divert patients from the Emergency Department in cases where a clinic visit is more appropriate. We’re encouraged by this trend and grateful to the teams making it possible!
| | | Congratulations to all of our Academy of Excellence Evening of Scholarship awardees and poster presenters. You can see from the photos below, it was a great night! | | A huge congratulations to our amazing faculty, resident, and fellow winners from Award Day! Please see below for the list of recipients: | | |
Faculty Clinician Educator Award
Fellow Clinician Educator Award
UNC GME Cefalo Awards
- Dr. Amalia Lee and Dr. Lily Segal
Resident Clinician Awards
- Dr. Morgan Everheart, Dr. Will Randall, and Dr. Lily Segal
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WakeMed Resident Awards
- Dr. Meaghan Nazareth and Dr. K'Shylah Whitehurst
Excellence in Medical Education Awards
- Dr. Justin Penninger, Dr. Miguel Locsin, and Dr. Caitlin Green
Children’s Champion Award
Residency Graduate Tar Heal Award
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| | UNC Pediatrics Wilmington/Novant Youth Health and Wellness Clinic | Family nurse practitioner Carolanne Majeskie discusses how the Youth Health and Wellness Clinic in Wilmington helps set kids up for a healthier adulthood, and offers tips to helps kids make healthy lifestyle changes. | | | |
| | Boyd Selected to Serve as UNC Hospitals CQO | Dr. Jenny Boyd will serve as the next Chief Quality Officer for UNC Hospitals. During her 15 years working in pediatric critical care, hospital operations, and healthcare quality improvement, Dr. Boyd led transformative initiatives to enhance patient safety, clinical performance, and provider accountability. Congratulations! | | | |
Academy of Educators Honors Multiple Outstanding Educators in Pediatrics | |
At the UNC School of Medicine’s Academy of Educators 2025 Evening of Scholarship multiple Pediatrics faculty and trainees. Founded in 2006, the Academy of Educators is designed to emphasize teaching and support faculty development both in Chapel Hill and across the state.
This year’s awards recognized individual excellence but also highlighted the collaborative spirit and innovative thinking that defines UNC’s medical education community.
Congratulations to all the honorees for their inspiring work and continued impact!
2025 Pediatrics AOE Award Winners
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Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Education: Marianna Henry, MD, MPH
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Foundation Phase Teaching Excellence Award: Arshiya Ahuja, MD
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Application/Individualization Phase Clinical Preceptor Excellence in Teaching Award: UNC Hospitals – Central: Christian Lawrence, MD, MPH
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Educational Research Mentor Award: Bianca Allison, MD, MPH
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Educational Mentor/ Advisor Award: Priyanka Rao, MD
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Innovation in Teaching Award: William Mills, MD, MPH
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Faculty Teaching Resident/Fellow Award: Nicole Chandler, MD
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Resident Educator Award: Safiyya Adam, MD
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Senior Faculty Award: Jacquelyn Baskin-Miller, MD, MS
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| | Lee and Segal Receive 2025 Cefalo Awards | Congratulations to Dr. Amalia Lee, a fellow in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and Dr. Lilly Segal, a Primary Care Pediatric resident - two of the 2025 Robert C. Cefalo Annual House Officer Award winners. These outstanding members of UNC Hospitals’ house staff are recognized for their exemplary service, professional performance and compassionate patient care. | | | |
| | Jordan Leads Students to Pediatrics Through Community Health Training Program | Dr. Katie Jordan serves as lead physician mentor for UNC medical students in the Community Health Training Program (CHT). In that capacity, she's led the program to growing so that there are 6 students currently, with 1 former student now in pediatric residency. This year, 2 CHT students successfully matched in Pediatrics at UNC and will enter residency in June 2025. | | | |
| | Sarkissian Promoted to Associate Professor | Aliese Sarkissian, MD, MBOE was promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Rheumatology, effective June 1, 2025. Dr. Sarkissian has been a faculty member in Pediatrics since August 2018. Dr. Sarkissian received a BA in Biology from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN in 2006 and a post graduate MS in Biology from Indiana University Purdue University in 2007. | | | |
| | Dhadvai, Duffus & Williams Selected for 2025-2026 Leadership in Academic Medicine Program | Sandeep Dhadvai, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Sara Duffus, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, and Heather Williams, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, were recently selected to participate in the 2025-2026 Leadership in Academic Medicine Program (LAMP). | | | |
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McBride and Makhijani
Receive National Research Professionals Awards
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Two Pediatric research staff were recently presented with awards at the National Research Professionals conference.
Jenni McBride, Research Coordinator with General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was awarded the Community Impact Award and Sneha Makhijani, Clinical Research Coordinator with Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, was awarded the Excellence in Human Subjects Research award,
The UNC-NRP is a peer group that is open to all research personnel at UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health to help increase awareness and communication of best practices through a series of educational seminars, resources, mentoring, and networking programs. We are excited to have this forum to facilitate improvements in the overall management of clinical, social, and translational research.
Congratulations!
| | | | | | Chasnovitz Cited in Popular Science | |
Why do babies' eyes change color? Sunlight, genetics, and more.
Eye color isn’t fixed at birth. Instead, the shade can change through biological processes that involve melanin, sun exposure, and genetics, said Dr. Rebecca Chasnovitz, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine.
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Drs. Melissa Bauserman and Jackie Patterson – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine published Establishment of a neonatal resuscitation registry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: An open cohort study. Mackay A, Ishoso D, Mafuta E, Eilevstjønn J, Gomez P, Carlo W, Bauserman M, Bose C, Patterson JK.PLoS One. 2025 May 23;20(5):e0324332. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324332. eCollection 2025.PMID: 40408395.
Dr. Marielys Collazo-Roman – Infectious Disease Fellow and Carolina Child Health Scholar – was recently awarded a Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) Stanley and Susan Plotkin and Sanofi Pasteur Fellowship Award for $50,000 per year for 2 years for her outstanding research proposal titled, “The Role of Dengue Virus Envelope Protein Dimer Binding Antibodies in Serotype-Cross Protective Immunity.”
Dr. Lane Donnelly – Pediatric Radiology, Dr. Michael Stiener - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine and team published The Frequency of Multiple Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs) Occurring in the Same Child: A Five-Year Experience. Sotak TP, Troxler HB, Kirkley AM, Joyner BL Jr, Steiner MJ, Donnelly LF. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2025 Apr 26:S1553-7250(25)00137-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jcjq.2025.04.006. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40442013.
Dr. Misty Good - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published Modeling pathogen-driven neonatal late-onset sepsis: a modification to the murine cecal slurry. Sellers-Porter C, Lueschow-Guijosa SR, Santana JM, Cera AJ, Bautista GM, Persiani M, Good M, McElroy SJ.Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2025 Jun 10;15:1589712. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1589712. eCollection 2025.PMID: 40557325.
Dr. Nadia Hoekstra – Pulmonology Fellow and Carolina Child Health Scholar with Dr. Tisu Mvalo - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published:
Perceptions of hospital feeding practices among mothers of infants with severe pneumonia in Malawi: a qualitative descriptive study. Hoekstra NE, Craven DM, Tsidya M, Thom A, Bula A, van der Zalm M, Mvalo T, McCollum ED.BMJ Open. 2025 Jun 8;15(6):e094793. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-094793.PMID: 40484434
Establishing normative physiological values among breastfeeding infants in Malawi for the development of a pneumonia dysphagia risk score. Hoekstra NE, Schuh H, Chagomerana M, Senekkis-Florent P, Pedersen C, Mvalo T, Lefton-Greif MA, McCollum ED.BMJ Open Respir Res. 2025 May 19;12(1):e002612. doi: 10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002612.PMID: 40389369
Dr. Matt Laughon – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine published:
Respiratory Outcomes After Transcatheter vs Surgical Patent Ductus Arteriosus Closure in Preterm Infants. Chock VY, Bhombal S, Davis AS, Sankar MN, Do BT, Laughon MM, Van Meurs KP, Backes CH, McNamara PJ; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network.JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jun 2;8(6):e2513366. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.13366. PMID: 40459893.
Extended Caffeine for Apnea in Moderately Preterm Infants: The MoCHA Randomized Clinical Trial. Carlo WA, Eichenwald EC, Carper BA, Bell EF, Keszler M, Patel RM, Sánchez PJ, Goldberg RN, D'Angio CT, Van Meurs KP, Hibbs AM, Ambalavanan N, Cosby SS, Newman NS, Vohr BR, Walsh MC, Das A, Ohls RK, Fuller J, Rysavy MA, Ghavam S, Brion LP, Puopolo KM, Moore R, Baack ML, Colaizy TT, Baserga M, Osman AF, Merhar SL, Poindexter BB, DeMauro SB, Kumar V, Cotten CM; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network. JAMA. 2025 Jun 24;333(24):2154-2163. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.5791.PMID: 40294395.
Dr. Mike O’Shea – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine published:
Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the ECHO Consortium. Ghassabian A, Dickerson AS, Wang Y, Braun JM, Bennett DH, Croen LA, LeWinn KZ, Burris HH, Habre R, Lyall K, Frazier JA, Glass HC, Hooper SR, Joseph RM, Karr CJ, Schmidt RJ, Friedman C, Karagas MR, Stroustrup A, Straughen JK, Dunlop AL, Ganiban JM, Leve LD, Wright RJ, McEvoy CT, Hipwell AE, Giardino AP, Santos HP Jr, Krause H, Oken E, Camargo CA Jr, Oh J, Loftus C, O'Shea TM, O'Connor TG, Szpiro A, Volk HE; ECHO Cohort Consortium.Environ Health Perspect. 2025 Jun 11. doi: 10.1289/EHP16675. Online ahead of print.PMID: 40498638.
Disparities in the association of ambient air pollution with childhood asthma incidence in the ECHO consortium: A US-wide multi-cohort study. Wang VA, Habre R, Ryan PH, Coull BA, Datta S, Luttmann-Gibson H, Blossom J, Just AC, Schwartz J, Yanosky JD, Aris IM, Chandran A, Kress AM, Breton C, Farzan SF, Camargo CA Jr, Liang D, Ferrera A, Peterson AK, Kerver JM, Karr CJ, Leve LD, Dabelea D, Karagas MR, Bennett DH, Nkoy FL, Aschner J, O'Shea TM, Lothrop N, McEvoy CT, Knapp EA, Schuh HB, Miller RL, Gold DR, Zanobetti A.Environ Epidemiol. 2025 Jun 11;9(4):e398. doi: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000398. eCollection 2025 Aug.PMID: 40520482.
Dr. Arti Pandya – Genetics & Metabolism published ClinGen recuration of hearing loss-associated genes demonstrates significant changes in gene-disease validity over time. Tshering KC, DiStefano MT, Oza AM, Ajuyah P, Webb R, Edoh E, Broeren E, Ratliff J, Gitau V, Paris K, Aburyyan A, Alexander J, Albano V, Bai D, Booth KTA, Buonfiglio PI, Charfeddine C, Dalamón V, Castillo ID, Moreno-Pelayo MA, Duzkale H, Dorshorst B, Faridi R, Kenna M, Lewis MA, Luo M, Lu Y, Mkaouar R, Matsunaga T, Nara K, Pandya A, Redfield S, Roux I, Schimmenti LA, Schrauwen I, Shaaban S, Shen J, Vona B, Smith RJ, Rehm HL, Azaiez H, Abou Tayoun AN, Amr SS; ClinGen Hearing Loss Clinical Domain Working Group.Genet Med. 2025 May;27(5):101392. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2025.101392. Epub 2025 Feb 19.PMID: 39987489.
Dr. Dan Park – Emergency Medicine published Pain Management in Pediatric Trauma: A Multidisciplinary, Patient-Centered Approach. Gregory H, Wiemer KN, Park DB. Adv Emerg Nurs J. 2025 Jun 6. doi: 10.1097/TME.0000000000000572. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40476724.
Dr. Emily Vander-Schaaf - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published Addressing food insecurity: a paediatric academic advocacy collaborative quality initiative. Amati JBA, Mehta S, Buitrago Mogollon T, Maldonado L, Sease KK, Best D, Montez K, Vander Schaaf E, Erickson E, Holloway J, Gustafson K, Roberts J, Avery C.BMJ Open Qual. 2025 May 13;14(2):e003083. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2024-003083.PMID: 40360391.
Dr. Shiva Zargham– Emergency Medicine published A Case Series of the Use of Intranasal Dexmedetomidine for Procedural Sedation in the Pediatric Emergency Department. Gregory, H., Bethel, C., Anton, G., Whitaker, M., & Zargham, S. Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 30(3), 376–382. Jun 2025.
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TAMAM Supports Kids and UNC Children's | |
The Triangle Association of Muslim American Mothers (TAMAM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to community service in the Triangle. One of TAMAM’s projects includes an annual toy drive. For the last eight years, a portion of the toy collection has been donated to UNC Children’s Hospital.
On June 10, 2025, members from TAMAM, including Asma Khan, Ayesha Shah, Rudaba Imam, and Mahroo Ahsan, delivered toys to Beth Bailey, Play Facility Operations Manager at UNC Children’s Hospital Volunteer Services.
Pictured above…
Dakota Oats (UNC Children’s Hospital Volunteer Services)
Sabina Mir, MD (UNC Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and TAMAM member)
Beth Bailey (UNC Children’s Hospital Volunteer Services)
Ayesha Shah (TAMAM member)
Asma Khan (President TAMAM)
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Please join us in welcoming the newest addition to the Pediatrics family!
In June, Dr. Justin Sperlazza, Research Instructor in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, his wife Jet and family welcomed their new baby boy, Nico,
Such a Sweet Heart!
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Michelle Curl and Xiaoyan Zhang
Pediatric Endocrinology Nurse Coordinators
Nominated by Dr. Nancie MacIver
Associate Professor & Chief, Pediatric Endocrinology
It is with great enthusiasm that I nominate our incredible nurse coordinators, Michelle Curl and Xiaoyan Zhang. As essential members of our pediatric endocrinology team, they embody dedication, compassion, and excellence in patient care every day.
Both Michelle and Xiaoyan are exceptional diabetes educators, providing invaluable guidance and support to patients and families navigating complex diagnoses. They are tireless patient advocates, ensuring that every child receives the highest level of care, education, and resources needed to manage their condition effectively.
Beyond their clinical expertise, Michelle and Xiaoyan are the backbone of our team. They are hardworking, dependable, and always willing to go the extra mile to support colleagues and patients alike. Their kindness and empathy create a welcoming environment for families facing difficult challenges, while their teamwork and problem-solving skills help our clinic run smoothly.
We are incredibly fortunate to have Michelle and Xiaoyan on our team. Their unwavering dedication and compassionate approach to patient care make them truly deserving of this recognition.
Thank you both!
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