Congratulations to the Stollery PICU/PCICU ECMO team, who was recently awarded the ELSO Platinum Center of Excellence designation! This prestigious recognition by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) reflects the highest level of commitment to exceptional patient care, clinical excellence, continuous improvement, and advancing ECMO practice. Achieving platinum status is no small feat—it places us among the top centers internationally.

Lawrence Richer and the WCHRI clinical study team led by Meghan Freer have been named Amgen Canada Site of the Year for Excellence in Clinical Research. The award is connected to their trial of the medication erenumab for migraine prevention in children and adolescents at The Stollery Children's Hospital.

Graduate students Jad-Julian Rachid and Si Ning Liu were awarded the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, which recognizes outstanding academic achievement, leadership and research success at the U of A.

Congratulations to the following Department of Pediatrics faculty members for receiving new funding from CIHR in the Spring 2025 project grant competition:

• Georg Schmolzer, Po-Yin Cheung and Brenda Law: Sustained inflation and chest compression versus 3:1 chest compression to ventilation ratio during cardiopulmonary resuscitation of asphyxiated newborns — $1,155,152

• Lori West: Overcoming ABO blood group inequity in transplantation: A new diagnostic assay to modernize ABO-incompatible organ transplantation — $1,071,000

Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Rosolowsky who recently received the Harvey Guyda Educator of the year Award by CSEM. CSEM recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the field of endocrinology and metabolism and provides support to young investigators and fellows for research.

The Department wants to congratulate Dr. Simone Lebeuf, Dr. Justine Turner, Dr. Allan de Caen, and Dr. Jon Duff who all recently received the King Charles III Coronation Medal. The King Charles III Coronation Medal recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region of, or community in, Canada, or attained an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.

Following a comprehensive search and selection process, Dr. Aisha Bruce has been appointed Zone Clinical Department Head for Child Health in Edmonton Zone, effective July 1, 2025.

The responsibilities of this senior medical leadership role will include developing and leading initiatives to improve quality, efficiency and capacity of clinical care delivery within child health and supporting physician wellness. Dr. Bruce will also contribute to the leadership of child health in the Edmonton Zone, including recruitment and resource planning. Dr. Bruce brings extensive leadership experience in Child Health to this new role. 

Among her many leadership roles, she has served as the Medical Director of Ambulatory Care for the Stollery Children's Hospital from 2015-2022 and as Chair of the Canadian Hemoglobinopathy Association from 2019-2024. She is passionate about excellence in clinical care and supporting physician engagement and wellness.

We want to congratulate Dr. Chelsey Grimbly for receiving the ENRICH Doctoral Clinician Researcher Salary Award!

This award from ENRICH (Empowering Next-Generation Researchers in Perinatal and Child Health) is intended for candidates who wish to pursue a career conducting research in the perinatal/child health and wellbeing field. 

Congratulations to Dr. Jess Foulds, who received the RDoC Mikhael Award for Medical Education. The RDoC awards honour individuals who have contributed to improving various elements of the lives of resident doctors in Canada.

We want to congratulate Dr. Do on recently receiving a Vanier Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to highly motivated and competitive students pursuing a doctoral degree at a Canadian institution.

We are excited to announce that Fellowship Coordinator Allison Spry was awarded the Annual PGME AFC Fellowship Program Administrator Award for her dedication to the fellowship administration and the new AFC program in Targeted Neonatal Echocardiography. 

Dr. Allan de Caen received the Canadian Hospital Impact Award at Children's Hospitals Week this year. Dr de Caen and his team have been establishing and enhancing a program for many years to address the critical healthcare needs of children in rural Alberta and other remote communities, improving outcomes for thousands of children.

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We want to congratulate Dr. Georg Schmölzer, whose nomination by the Canadian Lung Association for the King Charles III Coronation Medal was accepted by the Office of the Secretary for the Governor General of Canada. The Canadian Lung Association is incredibly proud to recognize Dr. Schmölzer's significant impact and contributions towards lung health in Canada, and we at the Department of Pediatrics are grateful to have such an outstanding member on our team!

Dr. Janani (Jay) Kassiri, Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Neurology, and her team launched North America's first dedicated clinic for female adolescents with epilepsy, the Female Adolescent Multidisciplinary Epilepsy (FAME) Clinic, at Stollery Children's Hospital in 2019. This pioneering initiative addresses the complex care needs of young women facing epilepsy. At the recent American Epilepsy Society (AES) conference in Los Angeles, the FAME Clinic was honoured for its innovative approach to tackling these patients' unique challenges. Collaborating with adolescent specialist and Department of Pediatrics faculty member Dr. Simone Lebeuf, the clinic provides comprehensive care, focusing on the effects of epilepsy medications on hormones, menstrual cycles, reproductive health, and mental health.

Dr. Khalid Aziz is receiving Life Membership to recognize his contributions to neonatology, both on behalf of the CPS and further afield, and especially for his contributions to the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) and ACoRN: The Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns. We want to extend a huge congratulations to Dr Aziz and thank him for his unwavering dedication to pediatric medicine. Dr Aziz's passion and commitment have inspired many, and we are proud to have him as a part of our team. 

WCHRI is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Lonnie Zwaigenbaum as Associate Director. His 2.5-year term commenced on May 1. In this role, Dr. Zwaigenbaum will work closely with Executive Director Sandra Davidge, the WCHRI leadership team, and WCHRI partners to drive forward strategic initiatives and projects.

We would like to recognize and welcome Dineli Fernando who received a studentship award from the Emergency Strategic Clinical Network. She will be working at ARCHE this summer on a systematic review of parents' experiences and information needs related to respiratory distress.

Dr. Jason Dyck - a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the director of the Cardiovascular Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry received seven more years of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Funding. His research focuses on understanding how changes in energy use at the molecular level contribute to disease, particularly heart disease. 

This research aims to improve our understanding of how the heart uses energy and aims to develop more effective therapies for conditions like cardiovascular disease.

In the first term of Dyck's Chair, his lab started conducting clinical investigations and drug discovery based on the results of his pre-clinical research. As a result, he gained recognition as a leading expert on the energy consumption of the heart and how it affects heart disease. 

“The renewal of this Chair provides vital, long-term support for our lab’s translational research to continue and allows us to build on the foundation we’ve established here at the University of Alberta,” says Dyck.

The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine is thrilled to announce a significant development within the Department of Pediatrics that exemplifies the vibrant research and academic pursuits happening at the University of Alberta. Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC), a cornerstone of Canadian pediatric emergency research, has now found its home at the University of Alberta for at least the next three years. PERC is a network of health care researchers at 15 Canadian Children’s Hospitals that is dedicated to improving care in pediatric emergency medicine through multi-centre research. 

We take pride in Dr. Samina Ali's appointment as the newly-appointed chair of the PERC network, marking a historic milestone as the first person of color to serve in this capacity. Her expertise and leadership are housed right here as a professor in the DoP, highlighting our department's significant contribution to national and international research landscapes. Further strengthening our ties, PERC has welcomed Andrea Eaton, a DoP MSc Alumni and PEAK Research Team study coordinator, as the PERC National Coordinator as well as Dr. Bruce Wright, associate professor within DoP, as a PERC Executive Committee member. This strong local representation underscores the DoP's commitment to excellence and diversity in pediatric emergency research on a national and international scale.

Dr. Bishoi Aziz a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr Wine recieved the Alberta Innovates award this year. He has also been nominated by the FGPS to the CIHR-Doctoral award. He also serves as the U of A GSA President and Governor on the U of A Board of Governors. 

We are proud to announce that Dr. Elizabeth Rosolowsky has received the Certificate of Merit Award from the Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME). This award recognizes the exceptional contribution that Dr Rosolowsky has made to medical education throughout her academic career.