Aubrey Coleman, M.D., PGY-2, Pediatrics Resident, was selected to serve on the 19/20 Resolution Task Force of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Pediatric Trainees (SOPT). As part of her role on the task force, Dr. Coleman will attend the Annual Leadership Forum in March 2020. While on the task force, she will participate in the entire resolution process from the beginning of the idea to the adoption of the resolution at the Annual Leadership Forum. She will serve on the task force from July 2019 to March 2020.
Nazia Kabani, M.D., Third Year Fellow, Combined Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Neonatology, Tennille Webb, M.D., Pediatric Nephrology, and Michael Lopez, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Neurology, receive Loan Repayment Program (LRP) awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Kabani receives her award through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Webb receives her award through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Dr. Lopez receives his award through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. These awards are for a period of two years.
According to the LRP website, "The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers.
The LRPs counteract that financial pressure by repaying up to $50,000 annually of a researcher's qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research. Since tomorrow's medical breakthroughs will be made by investigators starting in their research careers today, the LRPs represent an important investment by NIH in the future of health discovery and the wellbeing of the Nation."
Heather Austin, Ph.D., Adolescent Medicine, is the recipient of the 2019 Dr. Helen L. Coons Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology Scholarship awarded by the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Austin, has been invited to serve a three-year term starting in 2020 on the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Health Services- Mental Health Committee. She has also been offered the position of mentee in the UAB Healthcare Educators Academy.
Dr. Austin and her colleague, Dan Marullo, Ph.D., Pediatric Psychology, in the Behavioral Health Ireland Center at Children’s of Alabama have been appointed as liaisons to the American Psychological Association (APA) Deep Poverty Initiative. APA President Rosie Phillips Davis, Ph.D., ABPP, has made examining psychology’s role in ending deep poverty a key initiative of her presidential year. This initiative will establish ongoing collaboration between psychological science and the public and private sectors through advocacy efforts, user-friendly science-based resources and partnerships to effect population-level change. The American Psychological Association proposes moving beyond understanding causes and consequences of poverty - towards using psychological science as a catalyst to address and help solve deep poverty. Please visit the American Psychological Association website for more details.
Prescott Atkinson, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, was elected as the new president of the United States Organization for Mycoplasmology at the 5th Biennial Meeting on July 11-12 in La Jolla, CA.
Congratulations Dr. Atkinson!
The UAB Department of Pediatrics welcomes nine new faculty members during the month of July. Please join us in making them feel at home!
Erica Christen Bjornstad, M.D., MPH, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Nephrology
Matthew Clark, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Medicine
Leslie Collins, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiology
Courtney Crayne, M.D., MSPH, Instructor in Pediatric Rheumatology
Christy Foster, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology
Thanh Summerlin, M.D., Assistant Professor in Neonatology
Colm Travers, M.D., MSPH, Assistant Professor in Neonatology
Aman Wadhwa, M.D., MSPH, Instructor in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
Elizabeth Worthey, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Erica Christen Bjornstad, M.D., MPH, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Nephrology, earned her medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and her masters of public health at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Bjornstad completed her pediatric residency and pediatric nephrology fellowship at the University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital. Dr. Bjornstad also completed a mini-fellowship in renal ultrasonography at Emory University. Prior to joining UAB, she has worked extensively in Latin America and Africa, publishing a resource guide for healthcare providers in Africa - North Carolina Children's Global Health Handbook. Her research/clinical interests include: epidemiology of acute kidney injury, novel diagnostic tests, and global health, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Matthew Clark, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care, earned his medical degree at the University of Missouri. Dr. Clark completed his internal medicine and pediatric residency at the University of Missouri, his pediatric critical care fellowship at Saint Louis University and his pediatric cardiac critical care fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His major/clinical research interests include: clinical trials and quality improvement.
Leslie Collins, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiology, earned her medical degree at the East Carolina University – Brody School of Medicine. Dr. Collins completed her pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research/clinical interests include: imaging, fetal ECHO, and heart failure and transplant.
Courtney Crayne, M.D., MSPH, Instructor in Pediatric Rheumatology, earned her medical degree and master of science in public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Crayne completed her pediatric residency at Tulane-Ochsner Pediatrics and her pediatric rheumatology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Crayne is also on the Government Affairs Committee for the American College Rheumatology. Her major research/clinical interests include vaccination outcomes in children with autoimmune disease. She is also active in advocacy efforts with a special interest in legislative affairs and healthcare policy reform.
Christy Foster, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and earned her medical degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Foster completed her pediatric residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and her pediatric endocrinology fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center this year. Her research/clinical interests include: investigating novel biomarkers in adolescent females with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), developing an endocrinology curriculum for the general pediatrics resident trainees. She is working to develop a PCOS-specific clinic to better address the needs of this population.
Thanh Summerlin, M.D., Assistant Professor in Neonatology, earned her medical degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Summerlin completed her pediatric residency and neonatal-perinatal fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She will join the community neonatology group.
Colm Travers, M.D., MSPH, Assistant Professor in Neonatology, earned his medical degree at the University College in Dublin, Ireland and completed pediatric residency and membership examinations in Medicine of Childhood through the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Dr. Travers completed his neonatal-perinatal fellowship and pediatric residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His major research/clinical interests include: reducing major morbidities and mortality among preterm infants, long term outcomes in survivors of prematurity, implementation of evidence based practice, disparities in neonatal-perinatal care, and global neonatal health.
Aman Wadhwa, M.D., MSPH, Instructor in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, earned his medical degree from M.S. Ramaiah Medical College in India and master of science in public health degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Wadhwa completed his pediatric residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and recently completed his pediatric hematology and oncology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His major research interests include: investigating factors that increase the risk of treatment-related toxicity in children undergoing treatment for cancer, with the eventual goal of reducing the morbidity experienced by these children. His clinical interests are in caring for patients with hematologic malignancies.
Elizabeth Worthey, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, earned her doctorate degree in genetics from the Imperial College London in London, England. Dr. Worthey completed her postdoctoral training at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Prior to joining UAB, Dr. Worthey was a faculty investigator and director of Software Development and Informatics at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. Her research interests include the development and application of omic, informatic, and data science based methods and technologies in order to identify and understand causal molecular variation in rare, undiagnosed or misdiagnosed disease. Her lab also focuses on the identification and study of variation that alters an individual's response to therapeutics or modifies clinical presentation, progression, and/or outcome.
Mohini Gunnett, M.D., First Year Fellow, Pediatric Pulmonology, was awarded the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation 1st/2nd year Clinical Fellowship Award, which began July 1, 2019 and runs through June 30, 2021.
This competitive award supports fellows who intend to make cystic fibrosis a priority in their academic careers. As part of this award, recipients benefit from salary support and travel funds to attend the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference each year of the 2-year award period. The award promotes the training of leaders in cystic fibrosis care and research.
Congratulations Dr. Gunnett!
Girish Dhall, M.D., Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, has joined the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. Dr. Dhall has been appointed as a Senior Scientist in the Neuro-Oncology Program.
Congratulations Dr. Dhall!
Children’s of Alabama and the Kaul Pediatric Research Institute (KPRI) are pleased to announce the 2019 awards. The major goal of the KPRI quality and safety grant program is to allow teams to identify and address specific quality and safety issues that cannot easily be addressed using existing operational resources or structures.
This year, three grants were awarded. All funded applications are directed toward the improvement of child health care. Thank you to all who submitted applications! Congratulations to the following awardees.
Michael Seifert, M.D., Pediatric Nephrology - Reducing residual cardiac risk after pediatric kidney transplantation
Betsy Hopson, MSHA - QI project to improve bowel management in Spina Bifida Clinic
Avi Madan-Swain, Ph.D., Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, and Margaux Barnes, Ph.D., Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition - Improving family centered psychosocial screening
Hannah Hulsey, M.D., Adolescent Medicine Fellow, received the 2018-2019 Spring Research Roundtable/Fellow Core Conference Attendance Award. This allows Dr. Hulsey to attend a scientific meeting of her choice within the continental United States.
The next award will be presented at the end of December 2019 for the fellow with the highest attendance at Fellows’ Research Roundtable and Fellow Core Conferences from July – December 2019. Thank you to all of the fellows who have been dedicated to attending these conferences.
Congratulations Dr. Hulsey!
The UAB Department of Pediatrics welcomes two new faculty members during the month of June. Please join us in making them feel at home!
Jonathan Byrnes, M.D., Associate Professor in Cardiac Critical Care
Girish Dhall, M.D., Professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Jonathan Byrnes, M.D., Associate Professor in Cardiac Critical Care, earned his medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Byrnes completed his pediatric residency at the University of Mississippi. He completed a combined pediatric cardiology and pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas. Prior to joining UAB, Dr. Byrnes was an associate professor in pediatric cardiology and pediatric cardiac intensive care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital/University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Byrnes will be the CVICU ECMO medical director. Dr. Byrnes is active in clinical and translational research involving extracorporeal life support that would benefit critically ill children. This research is primarily focused on the biocompatibility of the patient/device interface and the associated interaction of the coagulation and inflammatory pathways. The aim of these endeavors is to ultimately decrease the incidence of end organ dysfunction and stroke associated with these therapies.
Girish Dhall, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Director, UAB Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Blood & Marrow Transplantation, earned his medical degree from Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India. Dr. Dhall completed his pediatric residency training New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York followed by pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine in New York, New York and his pediatric neuro-oncology fellowship at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining UAB, Dr. Dhall was an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and the Director of Neuro-oncology Program at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA)/USC. His major area of research interest is clinical research in CNS germ cell tumors and infant medulloblastoma and designing early phase clinical trials for patients with pediatric brain tumors.