President-elect
Kate Ackerman, MD
Kate Ackerman, MD is the Senior Vice Chair of Innovation & Integration and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care) and Biomedical Genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Ackerman has research expertise in both bench and clinical sciences, and she has a long-term interest in understanding genetic mechanisms of rare critical illness. Dr. Ackerman has been an SPR member since 2006 and has served as the Strategy and Operations Officer (2014-2018), as a committee member (SPR executive, finance, communications, PAS Content), and as the Secretary of the International Pediatric Research Foundation (current). She is a recipient of the SPR Thomas Hazinski Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Ackerman is committed to finding innovative ways to adapt clinician-scientist training to our changing health care environment, and she will work to make sure that SPR continues to grow strong and serve its members, despite incredibly challenging times of change.
Strategy and Operations Officer-elect
Todd Florin, MD, MSCE
Todd Florin, MD, MSCE, is the Director of Research for the Division of Emergency Medicine at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Florin’s NIH-funded research program focuses on improving the diagnosis and management of children with lower respiratory tract infections through clinical and molecular epidemiology and clinical trials. An SPR member since 2015, Dr. Florin served on SPR Council and SPR PAS content committee from 2017-2020, and as Chair of the SPR Perspectives Committee from 2018-2020. In this role, he greatly expanded the SPR Perspectives contributions to the society’s partner journal, Pediatric Research, while fostering collaborative writing relationships between junior and experienced SPR members. Dr. Florin serves on the planning committee for the PAS meeting, in addition to leading multicenter research as part of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee of the AAP, the HRSA-funded Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, and the global Pediatric Emergency Research Networks. Recognizing the diversity of pediatric scientists, the strengths of team science, and passionate for developing the next generation, Dr. Florin would like to prioritize SPR initiatives that stimulate synergistic research across disciplines, backgrounds, and institutions.
Council Position: Allergy, Immunology, Rheumatology
Megan Cooper, MD, PhD
Megan Cooper, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University. Dr. Cooperās clinical focus is immunology, and she is Director of the Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiencies at St. Louis Childrenās Hospital. Dr. Cooperās NIH-funded laboratory investigates basic mechanisms of immune regulation and discovery of molecular mechanisms of immunodeficiencies. An SPR member since 2017, she participated in the design of a session for the 2021 PAS meeting and will speak on the topic of immune dysregulation. In her leadership role with the MSTP and as Program Director of Pediatric Rheumatology, she is committed to developing the next generation of physician-scientists. Dr. Cooper would work to develop activities focused on pediatric research, including support of faculty at the critical transition to independence. She would also prioritize expanding representation of rheumatology, immunology, and allergy within the society.
Council Position: Cardiology
Shabnam Peyvandi, MD MAS
Shabnam Peyvandi, MD MAS is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UCSF Benioff Childrenās Hospital where she has been on faculty since 2013. Her clinical focus is on fetal and pediatric cardiology and she is the Associate Director of the Fetal Cardiovascular Program and the Director of the Healthy Hearts & Minds Programāa neurodevelopmental follow-up program for children with congenital heart disease. She is a funded physician researcher with a focus on neurodevelopmental outcomes in CHD. She has been a member of SPR since 2018. As a council member of SPR representing cardiology, Dr. Peyvandi would continue the efforts to recruit and involve young investigators in pediatric cardiology with a focus on diversity and inclusion.
Council Position: Critical Care, Anesthesiology, Surgery, Pharmacology, Pain, Urology, Ethics
Danielle Ahn, MD
Danielle Ahn, MD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, NY, where she has been a faculty member since 2013. Her research interests include the host response to multi-drug resistant organisms, chronic colonization of tracheostomies and ARDS/sepsis. An SPR member since 2018, Dr. Ahn has participated as an abstract reviewer for the Fellows Basic Research Award for the last 2 years. Given her current experience as a junior faculty member, Dr. Ahn is motivated to encourage and support the next generation of pediatric physician-scientists. She hopes to highlight areas in which trainees and junior faculty could be better supported in their research journey while promoting diversity and wellness in the process.
Council Position: Endocrinology
Durga Singer MA, MD
Durga Singer, M.A., M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Michigan, an Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Immunology and Physician Advisor in the Office of Faculty Development. Dr. Singer was named the Valerie Opipari M.D. Professor of Pediatrics in 2020. An SPR member since 2015, Dr. Singer has been an active member of the PES Research Affairs Committee and Workforce Task Force. She has worked to promote peer mentorship efforts, advance inclusive leadership, and focus on gender equity efforts at the University of Michigan and via the Womenās Interprofessional Network of the American Diabetes Association. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of obesity induced inflammation and sex differences in metabolic disease. Dr. Singer would prioritize the development of activities to promote the pipeline for pediatric researchers, advance physician scientists from diverse backgrounds and support efforts for equity.
Council Position: Genetics, Metabolism, Dysmorphology, Teratology, Craniofacial Medicine
Lindsay C. Burrage, MD, PhD
Lindsay C. Burrage, M.D., Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine since 2014. She is a board-certified pediatrician, medical geneticist and biochemical geneticist. She has been a member of SPR since 2015. Her research is focused on using rare metabolic and skeletal diseases as models for more common disorders. She is actively involved in disease gene discovery within the Undiagnosed Diseases Network and leads the clinical section of the Baylor College of Medicine Precision Medicine Models Center. Dr. Burrage aspires to make precision medicine accessible to the wider pediatric community and increase the presence of geneticists in SPR. She is also passionate about physician scientist career development and engaging in initiatives that help support and maintain a diverse pipeline of pediatric physician scientists.
Council Position: Neonatology Neurology
Andrea F. Duncan, MD, MSClinRes
Andrea Duncan, MD, MSClinRes is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, as well as Associate Division Chief of Diversity and Inclusion for the Neonatology division, Director of the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic, and Chair of the Psychosocial Care through Early Childhood Program at Childrenās Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). An SPR member since 2016, she has reviewed abstracts, facilitated posters, and presented workshops and original research at PAS. Her research includes investigation of fine motor functioning in preterm children; sleep and executive functioning in children with CP; and parent coping after early CP diagnosis. She is Neurodevelopmental Follow-up PI for the CHOP site of the NICHD Neonatal Research Network and for the CHOP site of the Early Detection of CP Implementation Network. She would prioritize building a more diverse and enduring physician-scientist pool through active mentorship and promotion of diverse funding and research portfolios.
