Thank you for your continued dedication to promoting child health! We begin September with many challenges associated with the pandemic, including online schooling. The Town Hall in August was well attended and the breakout groups outlined great ideas for addressing these stressors. Please consider joining the taskforce, led by Dr. Lindsay Chase (lhchase@email.unc.edu). This taskforce is focused on childcare issues, online schooling and the associated challenges with the pandemic. 

We have a UNC Children’s Town Hall this Wednesday at noon, led by Stuart Gold and Andrea Hayes-Jordan. Please join us to discuss recent events and what racism means to you.

Shauna Coleman joined the Department of Pediatrics on August 10th. She will be working as a Nurse Practitioner treating children in the NC Children's Subspecialty Clinics in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Ms. Coleman earned her undergraduate degree in Nursing from Ohio State University and her Masters in Nursing at Duke University.

Dr. Susan lynch joined the Department of Pediatrics on August 17th. She comes to UNC from Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she directed the Comprehensive Center for Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Dr. Lynch completed medical school, pediatric residency, and neonatology fellowship at West Virginia University. From 1997-2001 she served on the faculty at West Virginia University where she directed the Neonatal Follow-up Program. At UNC, Dr. Lynch is assuming leadership of the Special Infant Care Clinic (SICC) and will provide clinical care, quality improvement leadership, and medical education in the Neonatal Critical Care Center and the SICC.

Gerardo Quezada, MD

Dr. Gerardo Quezadan joined the Department of Pediatrics on August 1st. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2000. Subsequently, he completed his residency at Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2017, Dr. Quezadan completed his Advanced Pediatric Hematology Oncology fellowship at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Most recently he was an Assistant Professor in Pediatric Hematology Oncology in the Baylor College of Medicine, Children's Hospital of San Antonio, Texas. At UNC, Dr. Quezada will be seeing patient in the NC Children's Hematology Oncology Clinics in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

Dr. Priyanka Rao joined the Department of Pediatrics on August 1st. Dr. Rao received her undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008. She studied public health for a year at La Universidad San Francisco de Quito, in Equador and subsequently completed her medical degree at the University of Iowa. In 2016, she completed her residency at the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children's Hospital and followed up for a year as Chief Resident. Most recently, Dr. Rao was a faculty in Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. Now at UNC, Dr. Rao will be dividing her time between UNC Pediatrics at Panther Creek and the UNC Children’s Primary Care Clinic.

Dr. Morgan Sims joined the Department of Pediatrics on August 15th. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston. He completed his residency at the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2017. In 2020, Dr. Sims returned to the Medical University of South Carolina to completed his fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine in 2020. Now at UNC, Dr. Sims will be staffing the Pediatric Urgent Care in Raleigh and the Pediatric Emergency Department at the NC Children's Hospital in Chapel Hill.

Dr. Genny Taylor has been a part of the Department of Pediatrics since she began her residency with us in 2013. She completed her neonatal-perinatal fellowship in 2019. Most recently she has been working at UNC part-time in the Neonatal Critical Care Center. As of August 1st, Dr. Taylor will be full-time faculty, caring for children in the Special Infant Care Clinic (SICC) and the Neonatal Critical Care Center.

The Pediatrics Residency Program is very excited to have our first set of Redding-Lallinger Virtual Visiting Scholars start on Tuesday, September 1st. This is a virtual rotation that Christian Lawrence, Eric Zwemer, and the Chief Residents organized to provide a virtual visiting rotation for students underrepresented in medicine.

The name of this rotation is in honor of Dr. Rupa Redding-Lallinger to bring attention to her prior and continuing work in the UNC Department of Pediatrics and for the children of North Carolina. For those who weren’t fortunate enough to work with Dr. Redding-Lallinger, she is a trailblazer at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics. She graduated from Cornell Medical College of Cornell University prior to completing the combined Medicine-Pediatrics residency program at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in 1984.

This summer the Physician-Scientist Development Program within the Pediatric Residency Program has welcomed its inaugural resident, Dr, Isabelle Dagher. Dr. Dagher joins UNC from the University of Indiana, where she was an undergraduate and medical student. At IU, she was involved in several research projects, including one of the newborn airway microbiome that resulted in a publication in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Dr. Dagher will continue her research interests in pediatric pulmonology and rare lung disease. Her mentors will be Stephanie Davis and Margaret Leigh. Residents interested in learning more about the DOP PSDP should contact Ian Davis.

UNC Children’s Diversity Committee  

The Faculty Affairs and Diversity Leadership Committee is soliciting feedback from faculty to inform revisions to the guidelines for appointments, promotion, and tenure.

Join the School of Medicine’s Task Force to Review and Revise the Guidelines for Promotion and Tenure for town hall discussions on the current guidelines for appointments, promotion, and tenure and the Provost’s Report of the UNC-Chapel Hill Taskforce on Promotion and Tenure Policies and Practices. The task force has been formed by the SOM Faculty Affairs and Diversity Leadership Committee, governed by the SOM’s Academic Council.

The task force is soliciting feedback from faculty of all ranks, departments, and tracks to provide feedback on the guidelines and Provost’s recommendations via town halls and targeted meetings. Click here to view the updated town hall schedule with Zoom details available

Please contact Morgan Resnick-Kahle, Assistant Director for Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development, and Dr. Cam Enarson, Vice Dean for Strategic Initiatives, with questions.

Matthew Egberg, MD - Pediatric Gastroenterology - Newly awarded the NPH Loan Repayment Program. Awards include protected research time to devote to research activities with a portion of eligible loan expenses paid, over a 2-year period.

Tal Kafri, MD PhD - Gene Therapy Center - the National Institutes of Health has awarded $770,756, over a 4-year project period, as an R01 in support of the project entitled "The circadian rhythm as a lentiviral vector restriction factor."

Martha Kenney, MD - Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology - has recently been awarded $94,233 by Global Blood Therapeutics in support of her project, "Examination of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Management and Care of Sickle Cell Patients and on the Operation of Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centers"

Michael O'Shea, MD - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - has a variety of new research awards, including:

Applicants must be a faculty member at UNC Children’s Hospital, or be a current fellow in good standing within UNC Hospitals, pursuing pediatric research. Applications are due by midnight Oct 5. Additional details and a link to the application process can be found on the CRI website.

Great news for UNC Children's and the UNC Health Foundation

Brandi works at the front desk in the clinic for UNC Children's Allergy and Immunology at Raleigh.

Brandi has been a huge asset to our providers. She is always professional, willing to help, and goes above and beyond to ensure requests are completed. During the past few months she has jumped in and helped with reorganizing and rescheduling so many clinic patients due to COVID-19.