Dear friends,

 

I hope you all are doing well and had a great Memorial Day weekend!

 

We have a few new faces that joined UNC Children’s over the last month. I want to welcome Dr. Varina Boerwinkle, the new Division Chief of Pediatric Neurology. She received her MD from University of Texas Southwestern and completed her Pediatric Neurology residency from Baylor. She is an expert in Pediatric and Neonatal Neurointensive care and is serving as the Director of the Clinical Resting State fMRI service.

 

I also want to welcome Dr. Lane Donnelly to UNC Children’s! Dr. Donnelly is joining us from Stanford University School of Medicine where he served as the Chief Quality Officer and practiced as a pediatric radiologist. He earned his medical degree, completed his Diagnostic Radiology residency and Pediatric Radiology fellowship at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He will serve as the Executive Medical Director of Pediatric Population Health and Quality for UNC Health and as the Director of UNC Children’s Quality.

 

Check out the photo of Drs. Meghan Rebuli and Ilona Jaspers presenting the, “Role of Societies in Supporting Women.”

Also, in case you missed it, Benny Joyner, MD, MPH was recently interviewed in the WRAL story, Parents of child lost to brain-eating amoeba fight to keep others safe.

Gratefully,

UNC Health Children’s in Wilmington is now providing outreach clinics to Jacksonville, NC. Currently specialists from are seeing children in clinics for pediatric cardiology and gastroenterology. Beginning in Junes, specialists in pediatric endocrinology will be joining their colleagues in Jacksonville.

Amy Mackay, MD, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellow, was recently named a 2022 Global Health Scholar. In addition she has been awarded funding from the UNC Gillings School of Public Health to obtain her MPH during fellowship. Congratulations Amy!

Emily Baldwin, NNP and Kristen Leahy, NNP, Advance Practice Providers with UNC Health Children’s in Wilmington, obtained their Doctor of Nursing Practice from UNC Wilmington. Both graduates practice in the NICU at Novant New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Congratulations Emily and Kristen!

Katie Mills, Lead Study Coordinator with the Children's Research Institute, was nominated by the Clinical Research Program faculty at the UNC - Wilmington College of Health and Human Services for a graduation award. Katie was selected as the winner of the Award of Excellence for the MS in Clinical Research and Product Development graduate.

The full data set, county-level information, and health recommendations can be found on the Center for Women’s Health Research at UNC website

on Thurs, May 19th,

Lauren Frazer, MD, Assistant Professor in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine , was recently passed her Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Boards. Congrats Lauren!!

Alyssa Tilly, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, has been awarded the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Early-Career Award. This award recognizes physicians and nurses in the US who provide exemplary care to patients nearing the end of life, and comes with a $15,000 fund to further her work in global palliative care. 

Congratulations to our UNC Children's colleagues who have been elected to the following SOM faculty committees:

Matt Laughon, MD (Peds/Neonatal Perinatal Medicine)

Daniel Park, MD (Peds/Emergency Medicine)

Sean Mclean, MD (Peds Surgery)

Rebecca Matthews, MD (Peds/Emergency Medicine)

JoJo (Qian-Zhou) Yang, MD – Child Neurology/Epilepsy, Christine Tangredi, MD – Pediatric Neurology at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, and Michael Kappelman, MD, PhD – Pediatric Gastroenterology received funding from the Novant/New Hanover-UNC research advisory council to study disparities in pediatric epilepsy surgery evaluation in the state of NC.

Rebecca Baum, MD – General Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine – was recently interviewed in the CNN story, Kids can show anxiety symptoms early on. Here’s how to spot them.

Melissa Bauserman, MD – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – has been named Principal Investigator on the Global Health Grant: The University of North Carolina-Kinshasa School of Public Health Research Partnership in the Democratic Republic of Congo; a Model for Improving Women's and Children's Health Through Research.

Dr. Bauserman also recently published: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of pregnant women regarding COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy in 7 low and middle-income countries: An observational trial from the Global Network. Naqvi S, Saleem S, Naqvi F, Billah SM, Nielsen E, Fogleman E, Peres-da-Silva N, Figueroa L, Mazariegos M, Garces AL, Patel A, Das P, Kavi A, Goudar SS, Esamai F, Chomba E, Lokangaka A, Tshefu A, Haque R, Siraj S, Yousaf S, Bauserman M, Liechty EA, Krebs NF, Derman RJ, Carlo WA, Petri WA Jr, Hibberd PL, Koso-Thomas M, Thorsten V, McClure EM, Goldenberg RL. BJOG. 2022 May 21. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.17226. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35596701.

Erica Brenner, MD, MSCR – Gastroenterology – is one of 4 to receive support from the 2022 UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientists Training Program to cultivate their careers as translational clinician scientists. Read More…

Scott Commins, MD, PhD – Allergy and Immunology – recently featured in several stories on ticks and meat allergies, including in Scientific American: This Tick Can Make You Allergic to Meat and It’s Spreading, WUSA9: Yes, you can develop an allergy to red meat if bitten by this tick, and TODAY: How a bite from a ‘lone star’ tick can trigger severe allergy to meat.

Camille Ehre, PhD – Pulmonology – was recently included in the Science News story, The body’s response to allergic asthma also helps protect against COVID-19.

Katie Jordan, MD and Eric Zwemer, MD– General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine – recently published: Guess What I’m Thinking: Avoiding the Game No Learner Wants to Play. Katherine A. Jordan, Nicholas M. Potisek, Eric K. Zwemer. Pediatrics 2022; e2022057450. 10.1542/peds.2022-057450.

Stephen Lichtman, MD – Gastroenterology – was recently featured in stores on hepatitis in children, including WRAL: North Carolina up to 9 reported cases of hepatitis in children, and Spectrum News: Parents concerned about hepatitis strain affecting children.

Deanna Miller, MD – UNC Children’s Wilmington: Hospital Medicine – was a participant in the workshop entitled "Improving the Transfer Call Process" at the recent Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver.

Fernando Moya, MD – UNC Children’s Wilmington: Neonatology - was a participant in a clinical research presentation in the Neonatal Clinical Trials session at the recent Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver.

Dr. Moya also authored the “Surfactant Use” chapter in the recently published Manual of Respiratory Care edited by Dr. Steve Donn and collaborators.

Michael O’Shea, MD – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – recently published: Quantitative MRI Characterization of the Extremely Preterm Brain at Adolescence: Atypical versus Neurotypical Developmental Pathways. McNaughton R, Pieper C, Sakai O, Rollins JV, Zhang X, Kennedy DN, Frazier JA, Douglass L, Heeren T, Fry RC, O'Shea TM, Kuban KK, Jara H; ELGAN-ECHO Study Investigators. Radiology. 2022 Apr 26:210385. doi: 10.1148/radiol.210385. PMID: 35471112.

John Stephens, MD – Pediatric Hospital Medicine – recently published: Establishment of Achievable Benchmarks of Care in the Neurodiagnostic Evaluation of Simple Febrile Seizures. Stephens, J. R., Hall, M., Molloy, MJ., Markham, JL, Cotter, JM, Tchou, MJ, Aronson, PL, Steiner, MJ, McCoy, E, Collins, ME, & Shah, SS. Journal of Hospital Medicine. 2022 May 13. doi: 10.1002/jhm.12833. PMID: 35560723.

Peyton Thompson, MD, PHD – Infectious Diseases – was recently included in the WRAL story FAQ: COVID-19 booster shots for kids.

Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD - Infectious Diseases – was recently included in the STAT News entry Child’s autopsy from 2008 becomes a clue to mystifying polio-like illness and in the WTVD story COVID-19 cases increasing in younger children.