

We are happy that you are exploring a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UNC.
Our fellows are hard-working individuals who are deeply committed to providing excellent care to the children and families of North Carolina. As the state hospital of North Carolina, we take care of all children in the state no matter their ability to pay. Because of that, our fellows care for children from all over the state spanning all cultural, lifestyle and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are also committed to improving the care of critically ill children by advancing research, quality improvement and education.
As a free-standing children’s hospital, we can collaborate with our pediatric colleagues to improve the care of all the children who enter our doors. We are also adjacent and adjoined to the broader UNC hospital system and the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing, which allows our fellows to collaborate across all forms of medicine, research and education. This environment provides fellows with a broad range of experiences and prepares them for practice in diverse settings upon graduation.
We have faculty within our division with expertise and current research in global health, quality improvement, medical education including simulation modalities, and clinical and translational research. Our faculty are involved in national research collaboratives including ACSEND, PICU-UP, and overcoming COVID. These resources enhance our trainees’ scholarly projects and provide a platform for independent research.
UNC offers a broad range of experiences in global health clinical care and research, as well as didactic activities covering myriad topics in the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, and others. Please consider visiting the Department of Pediatrics Global Health page.
Patient safety and quality care is paramount to what we do in the PICU. Our chief, Benny Joyner, is the Vice Chair of Quality and Patient Safety and brings this focus into all we do in the ICU. Our fellows are actively involved in QI projects and education as well as MM&I conferences throughout the Children’s Hospital. Please consider visiting the Department of Pediatrics Quality and Safety page.
Finally, Chapel Hill, the Triangle and North Carolina is an amazing place to live.
We are committed to the values and principles expressed by the UNC School of Medicine’s “Statement on Equity and Inclusion.”
The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the premier multidisciplinary training programs in the Southeast. Our Fellowship is a three-year program accredited by the American Board of Pediatrics. The fellowship is designed to provide excellent educational opportunities, clinical training in all aspects of critical care, and strong research opportunities in both basic and clinical research, as well as quality improvement and medical education.
About half of the three-year fellowship is spent in clinical training and half is spent on research. The first year of the fellowship places emphasis on clinical practice with specialized training rotations in pediatric anesthesia and pediatric pain. The second year is focused on research and growing clinical leadership responsibilities, while the final year is flexible and designed to provide individuals with clinical, research and educational opportunities to meet their educational and training needs.
The primary clinical training takes place in a 20 bed unit which includes both a multi-disciplinary PICU and PCICU (Pediatric Cardiac ICU) located in UNC Children’s Hospital on the UNC Medical Campus in Chapel Hill, NC. The UNC Children’s Hospital is the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the region and has the only pediatric burn center and pediatric airway center in the state, providing fellows with unique patient populations and training opportunities.
Why Choose UNC?
The PICU has an active extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program with new state-of-the-art equipment that provides support for a wide variety of critical conditions in neonates and pediatric patients. Designed to be multi-disciplinary, the team in the PICU also includes dedicated pediatric respiratory therapists, pediatric pharmacists, pediatric dietitians, child recreation therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work. The close-knit relationship between the pediatric nursing and physician staff is consistently rated as excellent.
Fellows are directly involved in all aspects of clinical management and decision-making for PICU and PCICU patients. They also provide direct supervision and education to fourth year medical students and residents from pediatrics, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, as well as other departments.
The UNC Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship is designed to provide the best possible research opportunities for fellows. Recognizing the individual nature of each fellow, we have tailored several programs to achieve the goals defined by the individual fellow.
Critical care fellows are given extensive research opportunities in both clinical research and basic science research, as well as quality improvement and medical education with strongly protected research time.
In the first year, fellows are encouraged to participate in a clinical research project and are introduced to the diverse research opportunities within and outside of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. In the second and third years, extensive protected time is provided so that each fellow can complete their research requirements. Education and review sessions occur at least monthly and provide the fellows with a significant amount of opportunity for review.
The major focus of the research experience is to learn how to design a hypothesis-driven research project, acquire the necessary technical skills to test the hypothesis, analyze the data and present the work.
Each fellow’s research is developed and monitored by a Scholarly Oversight Committee comprised of at least three faculty with at least one PCCM faculty and other members with content specific expertise. All fellows’ research is expected to result in a first author peer reviewed manuscript in a high-quality medical journal.
The PCCM Fellows at UNC also participate in a biannual ECMO/VAD course, an annual Ultrasound course, as well as a regional boot camp at the start of fellowship followed by a regional boot camp for senior fellows.
In addition to the conferences listed below, fellows are also mentored by PCCM faculty in delivering the core lecture series to residents rotating in the PICU and in facilitating simulation training. These experiences combine to provide a solid foundation to an academic career.
MONDAY
12:00pm PCCM Fellow Core Curriculum
2:30pm PCICU M&M (once a month)
3:30pm Cardiac Cath Conference
TUESDAY
12:00pm PCCM Fellow Core Curriculum
3:00pm PICU M&M (once a month)
WEDNESDAY
12:00pm PCCM Fellow Core Curriculum
12:00pm Pediatric Schwartz Rounds (once a month)
THURSDAY
8:00am Pediatrics Grand Rounds
2:30pm PCCM Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Conference (once a month)
4:00pm ECMO Quality Review (once a month)
The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Faculty is actively involved in medical education across the hospital. The faculty and fellows support the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Interest Group for Residents (PIG) with regularly scheduled events to discuss career choices, journal clubs and other information relevant to the field of critical care medicine.
One of the many uniquely valuable – and popular – educational options for fellows is the opportunity to join and participate as an educational leader in the “UNC Academy of Educators.”
This robust, formal education training curriculum is designed to emphasize teaching excellence in faculty and fellows, while promoting curricular innovation. Participants enjoy many types of opportunities for peer-to-peer leadership and teaching, and additional networking opportunities.
There are currently over 380 Faculty, Fellow and Resident members participating in the UNC Academy of Educators program.
The Academy offers numerous academic program components as well as four core committees:
• Scholarship
• Programming
• Awards
• Membership
In addition, the fellows evaluate the faculty and the program biannually to allow for continued advancement and improvement in the PCCM Fellowship.
The Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in UNC’s Department of Pediatrics is comprised of thirteen faculty members with board certification in pediatric critical care, with additional faculty dual boarded in pediatric cardiology.
Year | Alumni | Career |
2022 | LeeAnne Flygt, MD | Pediatric Intensivist University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA |
2022 | Jeremy Sites, MD | Pediatric Intensivist University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY |
2021 | Dennis Leung, MD | Pediatric Neurocritical Care Fellow Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD |
2020 | Katie Clouthier, DO | Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Fellowship Stanford University, San Jose, CA |
2020 | Shannon Solt, DO | Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Fellowship Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX |
2019 | Michelle Gombas, DO | Pediatric Intensivist Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN |
2019 | Mousumee Shah, MD | Pediatric Intensivist Dayton Children’s Hospital, Dayton, OH |
2018 | Melissa Crowder, MD | Pediatric Intensivist Ochsner Hospital for Children, New Orleans, LA |
2018 | Melissa Smith, MD | Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology UNC Children’s Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC” |
2017 | Mark Dexter, MD | Assistant Professor and Pediatric Intensivist Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA |
2017 | Daniel Lercher, MD | Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology, Co-Medical Director UNC AirCare UNC Children’s Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC |
2016 | Melissa Hines-Thomas, MD | Assistant Member, Pediatric Critical Care St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN |
2015 | Margaret Kihlstrom, MD | Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology, UNC Pediatric Residency Program Director UNC Children’s Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC |
2015 | J Rob Lovrich, MD | Medical Director of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Providence Alaska Medical Center, Anchorage, AK |
2014 | Christina Lopez, DO | Pediatric Intensivist Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at RWJUH, New Brunswick, NJ |
2012 | Laura Czulada, DO | Pediatric Critical Care Physician Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital, Brooklyn, NY |
2012 | Ivy Pointer, MD | Pediatric Hospitalist Wake Med, Raleigh, NC |
2012 | Nina Verdina, MD | Primary Care Pediatrician Growing Child Pediatrics (Duke Health System), Knightdale, NC |
If the clinical, educational and research opportunities available through our division interest you, we are happy to receive and consider your application.
All applications are handled through the ERAS system.
Interviews are scheduled from August through the fall prior to the AAMC Match
Application package required:
• Current CV
• Personal statement
• 3 letters of recommendation
Contact information for the fellowship program of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UNC School of Medicine.
Paul Shea, MD
Fellowship Program Director
Email: paulshea@email.unc.edu
Stephanie Schwartz, MD
Associate Program Director
Email: stephanie_schwartz@unc.edu
Amy Spruance
Fellowship Program Coordinator
Email: amy_spruance@med.unc.edu
Pediatric Subspecialty Program Coordinator
Email:
Mailing Address:
Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
417 MacNider Hall
CB# 7221
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7221
(919) 966-7495