Dr. Jonathan Gaillard (PGY4 child neurology resident) was accepted as an editorial team member of the Neurology® Resident & Fellow Section.
Drs. Erin Fedak, Nancy McNamara, and Erin Neil were promoted to the rank of Associate Professor!
August 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Erika Steensma (PGY3 child neurology resident), who was accepted into the CoMET program (Community of Medical Educators in Training)!
Dr. Erin Fedak and colleagues had their abstract selected for presentation at the Broadening Representation and Inclusion by Growing Diversity and Equity (BRIDGE) session at the American Epilepsy Society 2022 Annual Meeting.
The abstract is titled Disparities Associated with Discontinuation of Ketogenic Diet Therapy: Single Center Experience.
We had three Pediatric Neurology winners in the inaugural Department of Pediatrics Chair’s Awards!
Chair’s Award for Humanism in Clinical Care: Patricia Robertson
Chair’s Award for Outstanding Mentorship: Renée Shellhaas, M.D., M.S.
Chair’s Award for Clinical Program Development: Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program (Nancy McNamara, M.D., and Erin Fedak-Romanowski, D.O., codirectors)
Dr. Louis Dang was awarded an R01 grant on his first attempt for his project, “Elucidating pathogenic mechanisms in STRADA-related brain malformation and epilepsy.”
June 2022
Congratulations to our child neurology residency graduates!
Dr. Theresa Estiphan will be the first Cotton Family Pediatric Epilepsy Fellow here at the University of Michigan
Dr. Ishani Kumar will be a headache fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Rachel Nayak will be joining the faculty here at the University of Michigan
April 2022
Teri Behnke, our residency program coordinator, was awarded the University of Michigan Graduate Medical Education Program Administrator Excellence Award!
February 2022
Dr. Renée Shellhaas will be Co-PI for a newly funded R01 grant looking a genetic predisposition to post-neonatal epilepsy in survivors of acute symptomatic neonatal seizures.
Dr. Julie Ziobro will be participating in a trial of Clemizole for treatment of patients with Dravet syndrome.
January 2022
Dr. Vivian Cheung was interviewed on NPR about allocation of scarce COVID drugs for immunocompromised patients:
Dr. Jonathan Gaillard received the first University of Michigan Pediatric Neurology Resident Research Grant (Louis Dang, mentor), established from a generous donation from the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation.
Our chief residents both secured outstanding fellowships for the 2023-2024 academic year
Dr. Kaitlyn Cartwright will be completing a multiple sclerosis/neuroimmunology fellowship at the Ohio State University
Dr. Rachel Sehgal will be completing a headache fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
December 2021
Dr. Martha Carlson was awarded the Evan Newport HOPE Award, which honors staff, faculty, students or teams who have demonstrated ongoing commitment to the philosophy of patient and family centered care.
Dr. Rachel Gottlieb-Smith was selected to receive the 2022 American Academy of Neurology A.B. Baker Teacher Recognition Award.
Dr. Julie Ziobro is co-investigator, with Dr. Wei Nui, on the grant “Antisense oligonucleotide therapy of X-linked Protocadherin 19 related Autism and Epilepsy,” funded by the Simons Foundation
She also was awarded the Elizabeth E. Kennedy (Children’s Research) Award for her project “Interneuron development in a mouse model of Pcdh19-clustering epilepsy.”
September-October 2021
Dr. Sucheta Joshi was elected to serve on the Child Neurology Society’s Executive Board as Councillor for the Midwest.
Drs. Renée Shellhaas and Louis Dang organized and chaired, “Are We Poised for a Therapeutic Revolution in Child Neurology?,” the most highly rated session at the Child Neurology Society annual meeting.
Our faculty presented at nine seminars, symposia, and workshops during the meeting.
Drs. Dang, Joshi, Leber, Silverstein, and Shellhaas were honored during the meeting’s Swaiman Legacy Luncheon.
Best Clinical Neurology Fellow Poster: Melisa Carrasco, M.D., Ph.D.
Paroxysmal Disorders In Infancy and Seizure Likelihood
Dr. Nancy McNamara and Dr. Steven Leber were selected for the Top Teachers award in the Department of Pediatrics for 2020. This award is granted to the top 10% of faculty in the department based on resident and student evaluations.
Dr. Julie Ziobro was chosen to present her abstract “A novel mouse model of PCDH19-clustering epilepsy” at the Pediatric Epilepsy Highlights session of the upcoming annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.
Paige Rieckhoff was selected by the American Epilepsy Society as one of five nurse practitioners in the country to participate in the AES Fellows’ Program.
Congratulations to Dr. Renee Shellhaas – 2021 Crain’s Healthcare Hero Award Winner.
The awards recognize leaders in health care and, according to Crain’s Detroit, this year’s winners reflect the extra mile every health care worker has gone during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Shellhaas won in the physician category for her research that is improving care for newborns with seizures.
Dr. Kerri Neville’s article "Implementation of a Standardized Seizure Action Plan to Improve Communication and Parental Education" was selected by the journal Pediatric Neurology as the best article by a trainee for 2020.
“Your work is impactful, thoughtfully researched and well written.” (Dr. Giulia Benedetti, our former resident and epilepsy fellow, won the same award for 2018!)
Dr. Sucheta Joshi was awarded a grant from the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation for her study ““Developing a transition registry for Adolescents and Young Adults with Epilepsy”
Dr. Julie Ziobro was awarded a grant from the American Epilepsy Society and PCDH19 Alliance for her study “Mechanisms of PCDH19 clustering epilepsy.”
Dr. Ziobro was also invited to be on the faculty for this year’s Pellock Resident Seminar on Epilepsy preceding the Child Neurology Society annual meeting. She’ll give the talk on genetics/gene therapy and facilitate a small group.
Best Neurology Resident Poster: Namrata Patel, M.D.
Quality Improvement Initiatives to Increase Administration of Folic Acid
Supplementation for Adolescent Girls Prescribed Antiseizure Medications
Namrata D. Patel, M.D., Samuel J. Mackenzie M.D., Ph.D., Maysa Hamade, M.D., Renée A. Shellhaas, M.D., MS, Nancy A. McNamara, M.D., Erin M. Fedak-Romanowski, DO
