Fernando Mendoza, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, of Stanford, Calif., was named the recipient of the Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award from the Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO). He received the award April 22 during the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver.
The award is given by FOPO, which is composed of seven pediatric organizations, including the AAP. It recognizes a pediatrician who is a distinguished leader and role model as a clinician, educator and/or an investigator.
Dr. Mendoza is an advocate for underserved pediatric populations, and his research focuses on immigrant health and policy. He also is working to increase diversity in medical education, with attention on the pipeline for underrepresented minorities.
Dr. Mendoza is a professor of pediatrics emeritus, former chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, associate dean emeritus of minority advising and programs at Stanford University and former principal investigator of the Stanford School of Medicine’s Center of Excellence for Diversity in Medical Education. After being named assistant dean of student affairs at Stanford Medicine in 1983, he created the Early Matriculation Program, which targeted underrepresented minority medical students to pursue careers in academic medicine.
Dr. Mendoza is co-director of the Academic Pediatric Association’s Research in Academic Pediatrics Initiative on Diversity, was a founding member of the Hispanic Servicing Health Professions School and was a member of the AAP Task Force on Addressing Bias and Discrimination. He recently completed a term on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Additional Fellows in the news
Michael R. DeBaun, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., FAAP, of Nashville, Tenn., has been elected president-elect of the American Pediatric Society, a role he will assume in 2023.
Dr. DeBaun is a professor of pediatrics and medicine, vice chair of clinical research and translational research in the Department of Pediatrics and J.C. Peterson, M.D. Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also director of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease.
Camilia Rivera Martin, M.D., FAAP, of Boston, was named chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital effective May 1. Dr. Martin will oversee a neonatal team that delivers more than 7,300 babies annually and provides individualized care for babies born with disorders or abnormalities and mothers with high-risk conditions that complicate pregnancy.
Dr. Martin joins NewYork-Presbyterian from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where she served most recently as associate director of the neonatal intensive care unit and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Jason G. Newland, M.D., M.Ed., FAAP, and Cassandra M. Pruitt, M.D., FAAP, both of St. Louis, were named to newly created leadership roles in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.
Dr. Newland has been named the department’s new vice chair of community health and strategic planning. Dr. Pruitt has been named the new vice chair of outpatient health. Both physicians treat patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Newland will strengthen collaborations with pediatricians in the St. Louis area whose patients may benefit from Washington University’s specialized medical services. Dr. Pruitt’s new role has her overseeing Washington University’s pediatric subspeciality clinical spaces, including Memorial Hospital Shiloh in Illinois, Northwest HealthCare in Florissant, Mo., and Children’s Specialty Care Centers in west and south St. Louis County.
Joy M. Neyhart, D.O., FAAP, of Juneau, Alaska, was appointed to the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality. The committee advises the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services and the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration regarding programs that are directed at reducing infant mortality and improving the health status of pregnant women and infants.
Dr. Neyhart is a primary care pediatrician at SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) in Juneau. Prior to joining SEARHC, she ran an independent pediatric medical practice from 2000-’22.
José R. Romero, M.D., FAAP, of Little Rock, Ark., has been named director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Romero most recently served as Arkansas health secretary, where he led the state’s response to COVID-19 since May 2020. Dr. Romero was the director of the section of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital from 2008 through 2020. He is immediate past chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, former chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Fellows in the News acknowledges AAP members’ national and prominent awards, honors and appointments. Submit brief background information with academic titles and a high-resolution photo to Steve Schering at [email protected]; phone 630-626-6320. Publication is at the discretion of AAP News.
