2021 Election Candidates – Society for Pediatric Research

2021 Election: Officers & Council Candidates

President-elect

Kate Ackerman, MD
Maureen Su, MD

Strategy and Operations Officer-elect

Sandra Amaral, MD MHS
Todd Florin, MD MSCE

Council Position: Allergy, Immunology, Rheumatology

Megan Cooper, MD PhD
Jolan E. Walter, MD PhD

Council Position: Cardiology

Teresa M. Lee, MD MS
Shabnam Peyvandi, MD MAS

Council Position: Critical Care, Anesthesiology, Surgery, Pharmacology, Pain, Urology, Ethics

Danielle Ahn, MD
Martina Steurer, MD MAS

Council Position: Endocrinology

David T. Breault, MD PhD
Kanakadurga “Durga” Singer, MA MD

Council Position: Genetics, Metabolism, Dysmorphology, Teratology, Craniofacial Medicine

Lindsay C. Burrage, MD PhD
Benjamin Darbro, MD PhD

Council Position: Neonatology Neurology

Andrea F. Duncan, MD MSClinRes
Sarah Mulkey, MD PhD

Ballots were emailed to SPR Active members on January 5. If you did not receive the email communication which came from info@societyforpediatricresearch.org via SurveyMonkey, please check your junk and spam folders. If still not found, please contact the SPR Office. Deadline for voting is February 15.

President-elect Candidates

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.

Maureen Su, MD

Maureen A. Su, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). SPR has played an important role throughout Dr. Su’s career. Early on, Dr. Su received the 1998 SPR Medical Student Research Award, which encouraged her to pursue a career in academic pediatrics. Dr. Su served as pediatric resident and chief resident at UCSF prior to completing her endocrine fellowship in the NICHD-sponsored Pediatric Scientist Development Program (PSDP). She currently is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded research laboratory studying autoimmunity, including sex differences in autoimmune disease. An SPR member since 2013, Dr. Su served on the SPR Young Investigator Coaching Program (2013-18) and on SPR Council, where she led the Diversity and Inclusion Cross Cutting theme (2016-2019). In this role, she led efforts to strengthen the pipeline for underrepresented trainees in academic pediatrics. As president of SPR, her priorities will be to increase member engagement and to address disparities faced by underrepresented groups in the pediatric research workforce by expanding mentoring and funding opportunities.

Strategy and Operations Officer-elect

Sandra Amaral, MD, MHS

Sandra Amaral, MD, MHS is the Medical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Amaral leads several, multi-center NIH-funded translational and clinical research studies focused on improving transplant access and outcomes. Dr. Amaral applies her research skills toward supporting undergraduates, graduate students and junior faculty on career development awards. An SPR member since 2013, Dr. Amaral served on the ASPN Program Committee from 2012-2018, chairing the 2018 ASPN Program in Toronto. As Program Chair, Dr. Amaral prioritized diversity of speakers and topics, advanced cross-disciplinary sessions and expanded opportunities for young and senior scientists to engage. As an SPR Council member, Dr. Amaral would like to drive programs that provide opportunities for mentorship, sponsorship and collaboration across a vibrant, engaged, diverse and inclusive community of pediatric researchers.

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. Cooper’s clinical focus is immunology, and she is Director of the Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiencies at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Dr. Cooper’s 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.

Jolan E. Walter, MD, PhD

Jolan E. Walter, MD, PhD is Chief of the Division of Allergy/Immunology and the Robert A. Good Endowed Chair in Pediatric Immunology at University of South Florida at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Dr. Walter has been an SPR member since 2014. She is a highly collaborative translational physician scientist who will strengthen the multi-disciplinary network of physicians at SPR to improve child health. Dr. Walter is eager to promote education and awareness in PID is reflected by member of the Editorial Board (JACI-IP) and leadership for high impact advocacy projects (SCID Compass, IDF), primary immune regulatory disorders (PIRD) (with PIDTC) amd diagnostic interpretation of genetic studies in PID and secondary hypogammaglobulinemia (BCI, AAAAI). She also champions efforts to increase practical education of the multiple specialities in the community concerning diagnostic steps for immunodeficiency and genetics (editor for aninvited book by Springer). Dr. Walter has been highly invested in research and education for trainees of all levels. She authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles, mentored over 80 trainees and faculty members in research and/or clinical care.

Council Position: Cardiology

Teresa M. Lee, MD, MS

Teresa M. Lee, MD, MS has been an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Columbia University since 2013. As a physician-scientist with clinical training in genetics, cardiomyopathy and heart failure, her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of pediatric cardiomyopathy in the hopes of translating these findings into improved treatment strategies. Although new to SPR as of 2019, Dr. Lee’s work closely aligns with SPR’s mission to create a multi-disciplinary network of diverse researchers to improve child health. She has worked to engage trainees and junior faculty in academic medicine. If given the opportunity to serve on Council, Dr. Lee would work to enhance mentoring and peer-mentoring opportunities, along with specific career development programing to help ensure the success of early career researchers.

Shabnam Peyvandi, MD MAS

Shabnam Peyvandi, MD MAS is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UCSF Benioff Children’s 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 Program—a 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.

Martina Steurer, MD MAS

Martina Steurer, MD MAS, is an associate professor of pediatrics at UCSF in San Francisco, CA. She is a cardiac intensivier and a neonatologist. She is an SPR member since 2019. Her research focuses on outcome research in preterm infants with congenital heart disease. She is interested to join the Council Member position in Critical Care Medicine and become more involved with the Mission of SPR including mentoring young physician scientists.

Council Position: Endocrinology

David T. Breault, MD, PhD

David Breault, M.D., Ph.D. is the Associate Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at Boston Children’s and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Breault has been an active member of SPR since 2005, proposing nominations for new members since that time. As Associate Chief he has been passionate about mentoring the next generation of pediatric physcian-scientists and will continue to advocate for pediatric investigators at every level. He has been an active mentor locally and within the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES) and served on the Program Committee of the last PES meeting jointly organized with PAS. Hs is a member the Anti-Racism Committee and of the M.D. Culture Champion Committee at Boston Children’s Hosptial and would utilize these experiences as an active member of committees and workgroups on topics relevant to the future of SPR and PAS (e.g., PAS program content, mentoring, diversity and advocacy).

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 Women’s 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.

Benjamin Darbro, MD, PhD

Benjamin Darbro, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa and the Director of the Shivanand R. Patil Cytogenetics and Molecular Laboratory. Dr. Darbro studies the relationship between genomic variation and human disease. His research encompasses the genetic determinants of neurodevelopmental disorders, molecular mechanisms of cancer, and how the two overlap at a genetic-network level. Dr. Darbro investigates the roles of germline and somatic sequence and structural variations in the context of the “genomic mutational burden” hypothesis of both cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders. An SPR member since 2019, Dr. Darbro seeks to expand education and access to clinical grade genomic testing for pediatric research and patient care. His goal is to develop a collaborative framework in which genomic testing obtained in research studies is effectively used in the clinical care of pediatric patients now and through their lifetime.

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 Children’s 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.

Sarah Mulkey, MD, PhD

Sarah Mulkey, MD, PhD is the Director of the Fetal-Neonatal Neurology Fellowship at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC and an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Mulkey has been a member of SPR since 2015. She reviews abstracts and workshops for the PAS meeting and participants as a poster facilitator and platform moderator. She is currently a member of the Pediatric Research Fellows Clinical Research Awards Selection Committee. Dr. Mulkey Chaired a Scientific Session on Prenatal Pediatrics at the 2018 PAS meeting. Dr. Mulkey’s research focuses on prenatal-neonatal conditions and neurodevelopmental outcomes with a focus on congenital infections (NIH-NICHD R01). Dr. Mulkey values the networking, research support, and opportunities for collaboration through the SPR and wants to support the strong multi-disciplinary presence of neonatal neurology at SPR and would be a productive member of the SPR Council.