December 2021
Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year! I hope that each of you had some time to relax with family and friends this holiday season. I would like to thank Stuart Gold and Kenya McNeal-Trice for putting together a wonderful dance video to start off 2022! 
 
As you are aware, Omicron is on the rise. This virus is significantly impacting staffing throughout the hospital. We will continue to send COVID updates. Please attend Grand Rounds this Thursday, David Weber will be presenting the latest on COVID. Also, please support each other and the staff who are working extra hours as we care for children and families treated at UNC Children’s. 
 
Congratulations to our fellowship program directors and to the programs who successfully matched fellows in December!
 
Also, I want to welcome our newest division, the Wilmington Pediatric Subspecialty Division. We are excited to have these new Wilmington providers and staff officially join UNC Children’s! Together, we will promote child health in Southeastern North Carolina. 
 
Finally, be on the lookout for the UNC Children’s annual report, which will be disseminated this month.
 
With immense gratitude,
UNC Children's Missions Update
Please Welcome our New Children's Providers!
Assistant Professor
General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

Dr. Marszal joined the Department of Pediatrics on December 1st. She received her BS in Biological Sciences from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL in 2009 and her medical degree from George Washington University in 2016. She also holds a MA in Medical Science from Boston University School of Medicine awarded in 2012. Dr. Marszal completed her pediatric residency at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in 2019. She has recently completed a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. Welcome Lindsay!
To Our Incredible PICU Team
From Dr. Jenny Boyd

I just want to take a moment to publicly acknowledge and thank all the PICU staff that worked Christmas Day. The Christmas Day shift was one of those days that could break a person’s spirit with a seemingly endless string of emergencies.

I am continually grateful and amazed at the grit and resilience of our PICU team, to hunker down, and simply get the work done during these stressful times. I don’t think I heard one complaint or push-back as we continued to accommodate and treat patients. I’m sure I will miss some folks but I do want to highlight a few:
  • Heidi Hurley the charge RN that day, who had to be in charge and take a new ECMO patient, all while navigating multiple bed issues. 
  • Christy Rowe, a pediatric Respiratory Therapist who had worked night shift the night previous but stayed at the bedside of a difficult patient and hand bagged a patient while we sorted out the plan for over 5 hours and didn’t leave until well into the afternoon. 
  • Our residents were equally steadfast and determined to make sure everyone was cared for, and remained flexible with rounding with multiple attendings, multiple distractions from rounds, which ultimately didn’t end until 5pm. 
  • Dr. Benny Joyner, who came into help the team, for what I thought would just be an hour or 2 and turned into an all-day necessity.

I know many say that it’s the people that make UNC such a wonderful place to work, and nowhere is that more true than in our PICU. We are truly “One Great Team”, and I am thankful for all of my teammates that worked so hard to prevent any deaths from happening on Christmas. It was a valiant effort and could not have happened without the coordinated effort of our entire team. During these difficult times, when everyone feels they are going above and beyond and are stretched to their limits, I just wanted to say how grateful I am to work alongside teammates that prove the adage “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

I remain humbled and grateful to be on this team.
Our fellowship programs have been successful in their recent match. The Pediatric programs below will be welcoming these learners in the Summer of 2022:

Allergy/Immunology
  • Rayan Kaakati, MD - from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
  • Jeremy Owens, MD - from Eastern Virginia Medical School
Critical Care Medicine
  • Lauren Brown, DO - from Duke University
  • Catherine Trub, MD - staying with us at the UNC Chapel Hill
Endocrinology
  • Rachel Modarelli, MD -from Duke University
Gastroenterology
  • Ahmad Salah Sami, MD - from Goryeb Children's/Morristown Medical Center
Medical Genetics
  • Monika Williams, MD - from the Univ of Connecticut/Connecticut Children's
Hematology/Oncology
  • Nichole Artz, MD - from the University of Louisville
  • Lauren Hernandez, DO - from the University of Louisville
Hospital Pediatrics
  • Madison Archer, MD - from Cincinnati Children's
  • Melissa Diaz, MD - from the Nicklaus Children's Hospital
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
  • Amalia Lee, MD, MPH - staying with us at the UNC Chapel Hill
  • Kendra Martinez, MD - from the University of Minnesota
Pulmonology
  • Andre Espaillat, MD, MPH - from the Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's
  • Cindy Lee, DO - from the Univ. Of Florida-Orlando/ Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children
Keia Faison was selected to the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) Advancing Inclusiveness in Medial Education Scholars (AIMS) Program. This program provides professional development and mentorship to expose underrepresented in medicine pediatric residents to the APPD community and careers in medical education early in their training with the goal of increasing diversity in Pediatric medical education leadership. 
Xavier Williams was selected to the New Century Scholars Resident Mentoring Program through the Academic Pediatric Association, American Board of Pediatrics, and American Pediatric Society. This national mentorship program sponsors underrepresented in medicine pediatric residents with an interest in pursuing careers in academic pediatrics.
Check Out Our Pediatric Anesthesiology Colleague's Grand Rounds Presentation
Management of the Difficult Pediatric Airway

The winter 2021 OpenAnesthesia Pediatric Virtual Grand Rounds "Management of the Difficult Pediatric Airway with Dr. Hemanth A. Baboolal" is now online!

Read more
www.openanesthesia.org
EZ Teaching Tips Video Series -Part 2 Available
Dr. Eric Zwemer, as part of his new role in faculty development, is creating various educational resources for the department. Below is a link to the EZ Teaching Tips Video series - a set of quick (<5 min), high-yield, and practical videos on various educational topics. The video series will be available from the Pediatrics Faculty Development website.
Maria E. Diaz-Gonzalez de Ferris, MD, MPH to join ISN Education Working Group

Dr. Diaz-Gonzalez de Ferris has been appointed to a 4 year term on the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Education Working Group. The purpose of the Education Working Group is to bring together nephrologists and health care professionals in the field of nephrology from around the world to support the development of educational resources in nephrology, with a particular focus for online learning through the ISN Academy.
Check Out our New Awards, Achievements, and Publications
Rebecca Baum, MD - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - is one of the authors of a book recently published by the APA. Forman, S. D., Shahidullah, J. D., Hostutler, C. A., Green, C. M., & Baum, R. A., (2021). Mental Health Strategies for Pediatric Care. AAP.
Allison Burbank, MD - Allergy/Immunology - recently published as Burbank AJ, Schworer SA, Sood A, et al. Airway IL-1β associates with IL-5 production following dust mite allergen inhalation in humans. Respir Res. 2021;22(1):309. Published 2021 Dec 7. doi:10.1186/s12931-021-01903-9
W. Adam Gower, MD - Pulmonology - recently received a notice of award for an NEHI Foundation grant for his work studying Neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy.
Matt Laughon, MD, MPH & Mike O'Shea MD, MPH- Neonatal Perinatal Medicine - were part of a team awarded $25,000 as a NeuroSpark pilot grant. The awards was part of the School of Medicine's Forward Together Strategic Plan to fund pilot neuroscience research. The goal of this funding is to increase collaborations in the neurosciences and to incentivize faculty to generate pilot data for use in grants to the NIH and other external agencies. Eight teams gave presentations, with attendees voting for the top four projects.

Advancing a Computational Tool to Measure Facial Grimacing Associated with Spontaneous Pain
  • Morika Williams, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, and member of the UNC Neuroscience Research Center and the UNC Thurston Bowles Arthritis Research Center
  • Matt Laughon, MD, MPH, professor in the UNC Department of Pediatrics and member of the UNC Children’s Research Institute
  • Guorong Wu, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry
  • Michael O’Shea, MD, MPH, the C. Richard Morris MD Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and member of the UNC Children’s Research Institute
Tim Moran, MD, PhD - Allergy/Immunology - received the notice of award for his R01 application for the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) award through the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
Peyton Thompson, MD - Infectious Diseases - recently spoke at the first annual American Physician Scientist Association - University of Miami Chapter medical student research symposium. Attendees appreciated hearing her professional story, research endeavors, and career advice.
Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD - Infectious Diseases & Michelle Hernandez, MD - Allergy/Immunology - The Pandemic Response Repository - Microbial and Immune Surveillance and Epidemiology (PREMISE) study, led by the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, accomplishes pandemic preparedness by combining microbial surveillance with prospective surveillance of what humans are making immune responses to. From this, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines will be developed, on the shelf, ready for scale-up. UNC’s Children’s Research Institute is running one of three pilot sites, led by PI Matthew Vogt and co-PI Michelle Hernandez. The first phase of funding initiated in late 2021 for startup activities, for what is planned to be a global network of sites with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. The recruitment phase of the PREMISE pilot will be starting at the beginning of 2022. Keep an eye out for recruitment materials, as the CRI will be collecting specimens from children 10 years and younger to help prevent the next pandemic!
General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine Holiday Service Project

We are proud and humbled to share that we received donations, totaling $1,500, from more than 20 members of the Division of General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The donations were used to make purchase for two of our outreach activities:
 
For the Juvenile Justice Center at Butner -
  • Books to create a library for inmates at the second incarceration facility they just opened.
  • A luncheon for all of the nurses and staff there
 
For the Residential Schools for the Deaf and Blind across the state -
  • 4 blood pressure cuffs (pediatric, adult small, medium and large)
  • Laptop for medication room
  • Health education materials for visually impaired and blind students
New Addition to the Pediatrics Family!

We're happy to announce that Dr. Kathleen Wang, Assistant Professor in Allergy/Immunology, and her family received their Christmas present a little early this year!

Kent Zi Allen joined the family on December 23rd at 5:05a - weighing 8 lb 10 oz. Everyone is home and doing well!
Katrina Mounlavongsy
Human Resources Consultant

Nominated by the Pediatric Division Administrators

The Pediatric Division Administrators would like to nominate Katrina for the Unsung Hero. We are all so grateful to Katrina for her knowledge and commitment to Pediatrics’ HR. Katrina is always quick to respond and available for questions and more in depth discussion as needed. She goes a step further and explains “why”, which is extremely helpful. She always gives every bit of information that will be needed, including the next few steps. She follows up to ensure recruitments are on tract. Her guidance in the recruiting process is greatly appreciated during a time with constantly changing policies and guidelines. We are so thankful to have Katrina on our team.