Dear Colleagues,

The Pediatric Emergency Room will be officially opening in new space on the ground floor of Neurosciences on Monday morning, February 28^th! This increases capacity in the Pediatric Emergency Room and increases the workspace. Check out the pictures below!

This is such wonderful news and thank you to Dan Park, Cheryl Jackson, Pedro Fernandez-Cueto and Jane Brice for their advocacy.

Many of you know that we had some flooding at our Raleigh clinic over the weekend. Thank you to Kristin Laheta, Ceila Loughlin, Jessica Simo, Chris Falato, Melanie Dawes and others who helped direct the plan for the following week. There is some disruption, particularly of the infusion center, but work is moving quickly to resume our usual services.

I also wanted to recognize Keela Lyon and the UNC Children's Development Team and all the faculty and others who have helped with fundraising this year. We have already set a record for fundraising in a single year, and we are only slightly more than 1/2 way through. As you all know, Children's Hospitals depend on fundraising to function and meet patient and family needs.

Lastly, be on the lookout for the UNC Children’s Annual Report, which will be disseminated within the next few days. Thank you to Charlotte Weaver for leading this effort!

Dr. Boucher joined the Department of Pediatrics on January 1, 2022. She received her from BS Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 2006 and her medical degree from Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico in 2010. In 2013, she completed her pediatric residency at Tufts Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA and her fellowship in Hematology/Oncology was completed at UNC Chapel Hill in 2016. Dr. Boucher has since been an Assistant Professor at the Bernard and Millie Duker Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center. Welcome back Maria!

Dr. Elizabeth Jalazo joined the Department of Pediatrics on January 3, 2022. She received her BS in Biology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2005 and her medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 2011. Dr. Jalazo completed her pediatric residency at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 2014 and a fellowship in Academic Pediatrics in 2015. In 2021, she completed her fellowship in Medical Genetics at UNC Chapel Hill. Welcome Liz!

Samantha Jemiolo Renshaw joined Pediatric Pulmonology on January 24th. Ms. Renshaw received her BSN from Niagara University in 2014 and her MSN at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2020. Beginning in 2017, she has worked at UNC on 6 Childrens. Welcome Samantha!

Outpatient Carolina Care Committee recognized Pamela Steele, at UNC Childrens Allergy Immunology Blue Ridge Raleigh, for going above and beyond to care for her patients. The committee were impressed by mom's comments in the patient satisfaction survey.

Dr. Tony Lindsey, UNC Health Chief Medial Officer, recently reached out to offer thanks to Dr. Patrick Thompson, Professor of Pediatrics in Hematology/Oncology.

“I am writing to express my sincere thanks to you for your thoughtful care of a patient and outstanding collaboration with your triangle colleagues. I very recently had a call with the Chief Clinical Officer at Wake Med. He spontaneously brought up a patient care situation in which you provided responsive, thoughtful clinical care and communicated extremely well with the referring physician at Wake Med. Because you did such a great job, the Wake Med physician communicated broadly to the Wake Med leadership team. The Chief Clinical Officer specifically said that your actions gave their physicians great confidence in referring to you and UNC Lineberger. I know you will probably say that you are just doing your job but you should be recognized for doing such a tremendous job. Your efforts had a direct positive impact on the UNC relationship with Wake Med and , most importantly, the patient and family.”

Interview season is complete! Between the Pediatric, Medicine-Pediatric, and Child Neurology programs, we interviewed almost 500 students. Thank you to everyone for your contribution to the process. 

Christian Lawrence, MD, Assistant Professor in Hospital Pediatrics, was chosen as a 2022 Fostering UIM Education Leadership (FUEL) Scholar. The FUEL Program aims to increase diversity in pediatric medical education leadership through professional development and mentorship of underrepresented in medicine early career faculty. Participants will be exposed to the many careers in pediatric medical education, as well as the professional development opportunities and educational leaders within the APPD community. The program is based on mentorship, sponsorship and representation with a focus on experiential learning.

Congratulations to Sue Meier ND, NNP, MBA, MPH, Advanced Practice Provider Manager in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, on completion of her MPH degree from the Imperial College of London!

Rebecca Baum, MD - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - is a featured expert on the American Academy of Pediatrics website healthychildren.org about how parents and pediatricians can address mental health and offer additional support for children. Also, she will soon have the article "Defining Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics" published in the journal Pediatrics.

Michelle Hernandez, MD - Allergy/Immunology - received the notice of award for her project “Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in children and impaired antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination”, from the 2022-2023 CEHS Pilot Project Program.

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Pulmonology - our collaborative faculty have recently published: Jackson, W. M., Santos, H. P., Jr, Hartwell, H. J., Gower, W. A., Chhabra, D., Hagood, J. S., Laughon, M. M., Payton, A., Smeester, L., Roell, K., O'Shea, T. M., & Fry, R. C. (2021). Differential placental CpG methylation is associated with chronic lung disease of prematurity. Pediatric research, 10.1038/s41390-021-01868-x. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-021-01868-x

Global Health in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published: Patterson, J., Berkelhamer, S., Ishoso, D., Iyer, P., Lowman, C., Bauserman, M., Eilevstjønn, J., Haug, I., Lokangaka, A., Kamath-Rayne, B., Mafuta, E., Myklebust, H., Nolen, T., Patterson, J., Singhal, N., Tshefu, A., & Bose, C. (2021). Effect of resuscitation training and implementation of continuous electronic heart rate monitoring on identification of stillbirth. Resuscitation, 171, 57–63. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2021.12.020

Edwin Kim, MD - Allergy/Immunology - recently received a published: Liao, N., Scherzer, R., & Kim, E. H. (2021). Effective methods of clinical education. Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, S1081-1206(21)01286-2. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2021.11.021

Ilona Jaspers, PhD - Allergy/Immunology - is pleased to announce the recent renewal of the EPA cooperative agreement with the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology. CEMALB has been awarded $4.5 Million over 3 years. The Convergence Science in Environmental Health program will undertake trans-disciplinary research collaborations with investigators of EPA’s Public Health & Integrated Toxicology Division laboratories.

Timothy Moran, MD, PhD - Allergy/Immunology - recently received a NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award. The objective of this 5-year, $2.68 million R01 research grant is to investigate how the indoor environment impacts peanut allergy development in children. Read more...

Colin Orr, MD, MPH - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine and Stephanie D. Davis, MD - Pulmonology - recently published: Turner, A. L., Orr, C. J., Davis, S. D., Leslie, L. K., & Woods, S. K. (2021). Trainee Characteristics, Subspecialty Choice, and Program Usage for the American Board of Pediatrics Resident Research Pathways, 2000-2019. The Journal of pediatrics, S0022-3476(21)01049-0. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.10.049

Colin Orr, MD, MPH and Kenya McNeal-Trice - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - recently published: Orr, C. J., Montez, K. G., Omoruyi, E. A., Loyal, J., Konrath, J., Olsson, J. M., Long, M., Krugman, S., Selbst, S., Bostwick, S., Chung, P. J., & McNeal-Trice, K. (2022). Implementing What We Preach: Anti-Racist Recommendations from the Academic Pediatric Association Leadership Development Nomination Committee Task Force. Academic pediatrics, S1876-2859(22)00005-5. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2022.01.004

Megan Rebuli, PhD - Allergy/Immunology -recently published: Islam, T., Braymiller, J., Eckel, S. P., Liu, F., Tackett, A. P., Rebuli, M. E., Barrington-Trimis, J., & McConnell, R. (2022). Secondhand nicotine vaping at home and respiratory symptoms in young adults. Thorax, thoraxjnl-2021-217041. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-21704.

Aliese Sarkissian, MD - Rheumatology - quoted in the WRAL story on a teenager's long and inspiring journey. 'We call him the miracle kid': South Johnston High School wide receiver overcomes MIS-C.

Zachary Willis, MD, MPH - Infectious Diseases - recently published: Willis, Z., & de St Maurice, A. (2022). Covid-19 control measures and common paediatric infections. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 376, n3093. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3093

The Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health (CMIH) is pleased to announce that Coleman Family Ventures will give a one-year $100,000 donation to support CMIH’s 4th Trimester Project. This funding will allow the 4th Trimester Project team to improve the accessibility of health content on CMIH’s mom-designed postpartum websites, NewMomHealth.com and SaludMadre.com. The team will collaborate with maternal health professionals to develop short videos on important postpartum health and care topics that can be shared from their websites to social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. The goal is to reach and engage new parents with evidence-based, engaging video clips that cover self-care and recovery after childbirth. Contact SuzanneW@med.unc.edu for details or questions about getting involved.

We're happy to announce that Dr. Matt Laughon, Professor in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, has recently welcomed addition to his family!

Matt and his wife, Katie, welcomed Theodore “Teddy” Dominic Laughon on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 9:49a. He was 6 lbs 3 oz and 18 inches long.

Given the pandemic and ongoing demands, the CSSU has temporarily closed at times and its team members reassigned to help support other areas of the hospital. The CSSU is where some children receive lengthy infusions. When the CSSU is closed, Abiola and the CSSU team have been sacrificing their personal time off to come in and ensure our patients are getting the medicine and care they need. Their sacrifice demonstrates a commitment to excellence and willingness to help in whatever capacity necessary. We thank them for their kindness and hard work, and we could not think of a more deserving Unsung Hero!