Michael Winstead, MD was promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics effective March 1, 2024. Dr. Winstead has been a faculty member in Pediatrics since 2017. Dr. Winstead received a BA in Liberal Arts and Sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in May 2006 and received his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in May 2010. He completed his Pediatric Residency at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in June 2013. A fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology was completed at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in June 2016. Dr. Winstead completed his fellowship in Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in 2017.

Neal dejong, MD, MPH, at the UNC School of Medicine, David Y. Ming, MD, at Duke University School of Medicine and Ryan Coller, MD, at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, received $5.5 million to study hospital-to-home transitions across settings for children and youth with special healthcare needs.

A research study named Early Check has screened 1,000 newborns after birth in an effort to help identify rare conditions early, provide treatment, give parents educational information, and connect families with specialists throughout the state of North Carolina.

Stage one results from the OUtMATCH clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that a monoclonal antibody, omalizumab, increased the amount of peanut, tree nuts, egg, milk and wheat that multi-food allergic children as young as age one could consume without an allergic reaction. Edwin Kim, MD, MS, Corinne Keet, MD, PhD, and Mike Kulis, PhD, are contributing authors.

Stephanie D. Davis, MD, Chair and Edward C. Curnen, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics has been selected by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) as the 2024 recipient of the Elizabeth A. Rich, MD Award.

The Department of Pediatrics is thrilled to announce that Samuel M. Young, Jr., PhD has accepted the position as a Roper Investigator, Professor with Tenure and Director of the UNC Gene Therapy Center. Dr. Young will join the Department on June 28th, 2024. Dr. Young joins us from the University of Iowa where he is currently appointed as a Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and serves as the Director of the Molecular Auditory Research in the Department of Otolaryngology.

Tom Belhorn, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases, has been selected by UNC School of Medicine Medical Alumni to receive the 2024 UNC School of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award. This award recognizes Dr. Belhorn’s decades of leadership within pediatric infectious disease and his commitment to training the next generation of providers. Congratulations Tom!

Dr. Heifert joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Assistant Professor with the Division Pediatric Gastroenterology on February 12, 2024. Dr. Heifert earned her medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, completed her pediatric residency at the Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA, and completed her subspecialty training in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. Most recently she has been Staff Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC.  Welcome Theresa!

Colin Orr, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, is a co-author of a supplement article published in Pediatrics on Feb. 1. The article, “Child Health and the US Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce: Planning for the Future,” is the first of a multi-part supplement that provides a rigorous analysis of the projected pediatric subspecialty workforce in the United States.

Xiaojing Zheng, PhD was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics effective February 1, 2024. Dr. Zheng has been a faculty member in Pediatric Infectious Diseases since 2013. Dr. Zheng received her BS in Medicine from Tongji Medical School in Wuhan, China in 1995 and completed a MS in Nephrology from Tongji Medical School in August 2001. She completed a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh in June 2007 as well as a PhD in Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh in May 2012.