Dr. Margaret “Magee” Leigh has served as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the Pulmonary Division for over 40 years. Throughout her tenure, she has provided care for children with chronic lung diseases, taught medical students, residents and pulmonary fellows and engaged in research of chronic lung diseases with a specific focus on cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia. With her recent retirement, we wish to honor Dr. Leigh’s legacy with a lectureship in her honor. The lectureship will help us bring in experts from around the world to help train and inform the next generation of learners.

UNC School of Medicine’s Jane Little, MD, director of the UNC Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease program, and Maria Boucher, MD, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell program, detail the current struggles of patients with sickle cell disease and how we can help.

Alan Stiles, MD, has announced his intention to retire after serving as a member of the UNC School of Medicine faculty for more than 35 years. Since initially joining the Department of Pediatrics faculty in 1986, Stiles had held several leadership roles and played a part in the expansion of care for patients in Chapel Hill and across the state of North Carolina.

In lieu of a formal retirement celebration, Dr. Stiles has requested that donations be made to support the NC Children’s Hospital. Click here for more information on ways to give.

UNC Health is proud to announce plans for the new NC Children’s Hospital, a partnership with the state that will help improve the health of children and adolescents across North Carolina.

The freestanding children’s hospital would be the first of its kind in North Carolina, providing the highest levels of care to children without having to leave the state. This state’s flagship children’s hospital will offer families in North Carolina access to a facility comparable in clinical and academic scale to any of the top children’s hospitals in the country. A child and adolescent psychiatric hospital would be located within the children’s hospital.

We are excited to congratulate Pediatrics department members who were recently included in the 2023-2024 cohort of the AOE FLAGship Program!

“It’s difficult to be away from that sweet baby that you looked forward to welcoming in this world,” says Georganna Gaines, whose son, Phillip, has spent more than a year in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at UNC Hospitals. Gaines shares her family’s bittersweet journey in the NICU to encourage others going through similar challenges. “Give yourself grace,” she says. “Let yourself feel all the feelings.”

This RTI/UNC-Chapel Hill collaboration will be the first US study offering genome sequencing and genetic risk scores for type 1 diabetes statewide. UNC School of Medicine leads are Cynthia Powell, MD and Jennifer Law, MD in Pediatrics. Early Check, a groundbreaking research study that provides free health tests to newborns up to four weeks old in North Carolina, will begin offering genome sequencing to screen for hundreds of childhood-onset genetic conditions and assess a newborn’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes in their lifetime. Enrollment for the expanded study is expected to begin Thursday, Sept. 28.

Molly Berkoff, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, has been elected to the ACGME Board of Appeals for Pediatric Child Abuse.
In addition, Dr. Berkoff has been elected to the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care, Adoption and Kinship Care Executive Committee. The Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care promotes the health and development of children and youth who are at risk for or have experienced family disruption. The Council accomplishes this by developing policy guidelines for comprehensive and trauma-informed care, advocating for child and youth to thrive, and providing education and support to the members of the American Academy of Pediatrics, other health professionals, and the child welfare community. Congratulations Molly!

A phase 2 study, led by Thomas W. Ferkol, MD, at the UNC School of Medicine, demonstrates safety and efficacy of idrevloride with hypertonic saline for treatment of primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare genetic disorder that can lead to permanent lung damage.

The UNC Office of Research Communications featured Ilona Jaspers, PhD, director of the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology in “Rooted,” a series highlighting long-time researchers at Carolina.