Faculty Awards

Advocacy Achievement Award

Ryan Moore, MD

Division of Cardiology

When a child is born with a congenital heart defect, families must quickly learn about their child’s condition and the treatments available. Ryan Moore, MD, applied his medical and artistic talents to helping families visualize and understand multiple types of heart defects and repairs.

During his fellowship, Dr. Moore partnered with the Cincinnati Children’s animation team to create the Heartpedia mobile app. This interactive, 3D app shows anatomically accurate images and animations to educate families, trainees and nurses.

Dr. Moore strongly advocated for Heartpedia to be a free download to reach as many people as possible. To date there have been 55,000 downloads in over 100 countries.

In addition, Dr. Moore developed a 3D printing program and is working on translating it for use in virtual reality. Both Heartpedia and the 3D printing program are now used to teach families, helping them provide true informed consent, ensuring safer care and improving the patient-family experience.

Dr. Moore’s innovations are helping to further Cincinnati Children’s mission to provide excellent care in an environment that is focused on patients and families.

Advocacy Achievement Award

Mary Staat, MD, MPH

Division of Infectious Diseases

Mary Staat, MD, MPH, is the founding director of the International Adoption Center (IAC). Dr. Staat is recognized nationally for her top-tier research on vaccine safety and efficacy and the epidemiology of childhood infections, but she is most passionate about her work with international adoptees and their families.

She is deeply devoted to the children and families the IAC serves, and is both the motivational and hands-on leader of the talented team she has assembled. Under Dr. Staat’s direction, the IAC has become one of the leading centers of its kind in the world, and she advocates nationally and internationally for the welfare of this special population.

As a well-funded and respected researcher, Dr. Staat’s dedication to the IAC is not required for her to be successful in her academic and clinical pursuits, yet she devotes significant effort to helping adoptees and their families. The work is done from the goodness of her heart, and it’s clear that the families she serves are grateful for the impact she has had on their lives.

Clinical Care Achievement Award

Nicolas Madsen, MD, MPH

Division of Cardiology

Nicolas Madsen, MD, MPH, was appointed medical director of inpatient Cardiology after just one year at Cincinnati Children’s. “He came to us with a toolbox of skills, but nobody could have anticipated the trajectory of his clinical contributions,” wrote Andrew Redington, MD, in his letter of nomination.

Dr. Madsen transformed inpatient care in the Heart Institute. He built a multidisciplinary team of young clinicians and senior faculty. He worked with the Cardiac ICU team to develop comprehensive protocols for postoperative management. Thanks to the reduction in average length of stay the protocols produced, the Heart Institute was able to nearly double surgical cases with little or no increase in human or hospital resources.

While doing this work, Dr. Madsen also co-founded, and is executive director of, a national consortium for inpatient teams. This learning collaborative includes over 20 major institutions. Locally, he has organized the Heart Institute’s Patient and Family Day for four years, and has served as medical director of Camp Joyful Hearts and the Heart Institute Family Camp since 2013.

Clinical Care Achievement Award

Angela Statile, MD, MEd

Division of Hospital Medicine

Angela Statile, MD, MEd, is an exceptional clinician and educator who is leading large-scale quality improvement efforts to achieve timely patient discharge, better care transitions, and less costly care.

As medical director for Hospital Medicine’s Burnet Campus clinical services, she works with her team to improve flow and discharge efficiency through timely recognition of patients medically ready for safe discharge. As a result, over 80% of Hospital Medicine patients are discharged within two hours of meeting medically ready goals.

Dr. Statile’s leadership was a major driver in increasing the timely discharge of medically complex patients, and subsequently, similar programs have spread to 80% of the hospital’s medical and surgical units. Dr. Statile also has been recognized at conferences where she details timelines of discharge work in medically complex patients.

In addition, Dr. Statile is an institutional operations leader who implements key initiatives and nurtures partnerships across disciplines. She led implementation of high flow nasal cannula use in patients with bronchiolitis admitted to A6. As a result, fewer infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis require ICU admission.

Clinical Care Achievement Award

Michael Gelfand, MD

Department of Radiology

Michael Gelfand, MD, began his pediatric training here in 1973, and completed a second residency in nuclear medicine at UC in 1977—becoming one of the nation’s first pediatric nuclear medicine physicians.

Over his 40-year career in nuclear medicine, he has been instrumental in defining the anatomic and functional imaging of sickle cell disease, biliary atresia, urinary tract infections, osteomyelitis, renal obstruction, neoplasms, and many other pediatric diseases.

Dr. Gelfand modernized our imaging of neuroblastoma and brought therapeutic MIBG treatment to Cincinnati Children’s. He has been a key member of the thyroid cancer team. Under his leadership, Cincinnati Children’s began PET imaging, which has been invaluable in diagnosing and monitoring oncology patients.

Dr. Gelfand has a long history of working to reduce radiation doses in children, from a paper in 1978 to his recent work leading a nationwide dose reduction effort that defined new standards for imaging in North America. Dr. Gelfand has been the primary teacher of pediatric nuclear medicine to hundreds of fellows and residents. He has influenced pediatric nuclear medicine worldwide.

Educational Achievement Award

Daniel Schumacher, MD, MEd

Division of Emergency Medicine

Daniel Schumacher, MD, MEd, completed his Emergency Medicine fellowship and MEd in 2012, and has already built an impressive reputation as a leader in the field of competency based medical education.

His research focuses on the association between entrustment decisions and indicators of quality care. He is developing new, more meaningful, valid and reliable performance assessments to judge physicians’ competence and ability to provide high-quality care. Colleagues who nominated him believe his research will revolutionize physician training and credentialing, and ensure that patients receive the best care possible.

Dr. Schumacher chairs the Research, Innovation, and Scholarship in Education Group within Emergency Medicine. He has over 38 peer-reviewed publications and has given over 25 workshops at national meetings. He has been a member of the Pediatrics Milestone Project Working Group, the International Competency based Medical Education Collaborators group, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Conference.

While his scholarly achievements are impressive, he is also a skilled clinician, a dedicated teacher and a mentor to about 15 students, residents and faculty.

Educational Achievement Award

Ndidi Unaka, MD, MEd

Division of Hospital Medicine

Ndidi Unaka, MD, MEd, is an exemplary educator and institutional leader, who is integral to Cincinnati Children’s educational mission.

As a hospitalist, she leads multidisciplinary teams on daily rounds and regularly leads formal educational conferences for residents. She’s known for her ability to find the teachable moment and for her creative, interactive approach to education. She received the Faculty Teaching Award from the 2015 graduating residency class.

Dr. Unaka has been associate director of the Pediatric Residency Program since 2011. In this role, she contributes to the recruitment of trainees and mentors many residents in career planning, research project development and personal wellness.

She designed and leads the quality improvement educational effort for pediatric residents, who now engage in 6-month longitudinal projects coached by QI-trained faculty members under her supervision.

Dr. Unaka also served as the director of the Continuing Medical Education program for the 2016-17 academic year, and recently assumed the role of chair elect of the executive committee of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors.

Mentoring Achievement Award

Dominick “Nick” DeBlasio, MD, MEd

Division of General and Community Pediatrics

Nick DeBlasio, MD, MEd, directs the continuity clinics for the Pediatric Primary Care Center (PPCC) and the Hopple Street Health Center, and also is PPCC site director for third-year medical students. In these roles he mentors and oversees the education of about 80 residents and 100 medical students annually.

Learners and mentees consistently give him the highest evaluations. He has been honored with the Outstanding Resident Teaching Award, General Pediatrics Graduating Resident Award, and the Raymond Baker Excellence in Primary Care Education Award.

Dr. DeBlasio takes a scholarly approach to educational projects. After earning his MEd in 2014, he entered the Academic Pediatric Association’s Educational Scholars Program, a highly competitive educator faculty development program. He is currently collaborating with educators at three sites on evaluating the impact of parent feedback on resident performance in primary care.

His educational and mentoring contributions include evaluating the impact of ACGME changes to duty hour regulations, creating the resident as teacher curriculum, developing bedside evaluation tools, and writing and critiquing questions for the General Pediatrics certifying exam.

Mentoring Achievement Award

Samir Shah, MD, MSCE

Division of Hospital Medicine

Samir Shah, MD, MSCE, has been primary research mentor to more than 75 medical students, residents, fellows, junior faculty and post-doctoral students. He has developed young, promising clinical leaders in the Division of Hospital Medicine and contributed nationally to the growth of the field. Eleven of his grateful mentees at Cincinnati Children’s nominated him “for his generous mentorship of us . . . and on behalf of many, many more.”

Dr. Shah pushes mentees to critically evaluate issues, formulate research questions that address knowledge gaps, answer critical questions and improve care. He gives mentees independence, but is there with a guiding hand when it’s needed.

Over 100 of his research publications were co-authored with mentees, and his mentees have been extremely successful in securing external funding. Five are currently funded by career development awards. Many of his mentees—including a large number of women—are now in leadership roles, including leaders in operations, safety, quality and education; division director; associate chief of staff; senior medical director; and residency director.

Research Achievement Award

Samantha Brugmann, PhD

Division of Plastic Surgery; Division of Developmental Biology

Samantha Brugmann, PhD, has achieved a remarkable level of success at an early stage of her research career. She was recruited to Cincinnati Children’s in 2011, after she completed postdoctoral training at Stanford, where she developed an interest in craniofacial development.

Dr. Brugmann’s research focuses on the molecular, cellular and genetic basis for craniofacial anomalies caused by defects in the primary cilia. Her research has resulted in significant external funding and national honors.

In 2016, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, presented at the White House. This highly prestigious award documents her insight and effectiveness. In 2017, she received a Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation endowed scholar chair to support her ongoing investigations. And in another achievement in 2017, Dr. Brugmann received a coveted R35 grant from the NIH.

Describing her as one of our most outstanding research faculty, Daniel von Allmen, MD, wrote: “There are many senior investigators across the country who would love to list these accomplishments on their CV.”

Research Achievement Award

Punam Malik, MD

Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology

Punam Malik, MD, has focused much of her career on the possibility of curing sickle cell disease through gene transfer techniques.

Dr. Malik has worked persistently and creatively over 20 years to achieve her goal. She has been at the forefront of vector development for safe gene transfer. She devised effective strategies and novel approaches. She optimized the gamma globin gene sequence to produce a “super fetal hemoglobin” model that is ideally suited for gene transfer studies in humans. '

Dr. Malik worked for years to design a gene therapy protocol that could pass scientific and ethical review by study sections and the IRB, while also receiving approvals by the federal Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and our local patient interest group.

These years of effort culminated with the first gene transfer procedure into a sickle cell patient at Cincinnati Children’s in 2017. The patient is doing well. While it is too early to say whether Dr. Malik’s procedure will be curative, the entire scientific process has been a resounding success.

Service Achievement Award

Christopher Mayhew, PhD

Division of Developmental Biology

Christopher Mayhew, PhD, director of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility (PSCF), has been a driving force behind establishing and providing cutting-edge pluripotent stem cell technologies at Cincinnati Children’s.

Following the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, Dr. Mayhew realized Cincinnati Children’s needed this technology. Within a year, he was able to provide generation of iPSCs as a core service. The PSCF has now generated hundreds of iPSC lines, resulting in dozens of papers and millions of dollars of new NIH funding.

He also established one of the first human PSC training facilities and the first human intestinal organoid training course in the world. The PSCF and its training facilities have been the crown jewel in numerous program project grant applications. Dr. Mayhew realized the importance of bringing genome editing to the users of the human PSC core.

He was able to develop CRISPR editing technologies and now offers it as a core service. His initiative and innovation have kept the PSCF at the forefront of the field, allowing our scientists to explore new areas of translational research.

Service Achievement Award

Paul Samuels, MD

Department of Anesthesia

Paul Samuels, MD, has stood out as an outstanding physician, educator and collaborator throughout his 23 years at Cincinnati Children’s. As a longtime member of the Medical Staff’s Professional Health Committee and chair since 2014, he has had a significant impact on the professional and personal lives of clinicians through advocacy for physician health and well-being. He has championed assistance, rehabilitation, resiliency and optimizing clinical performance for impaired physicians and those in crisis.

In 2016, Dr. Samuels partnered with the Lindner Center of HOPE to give members of the Medical Staff direct, immediate access (within 24-48 hours) to an adult-trained psychiatrist/psychologist.

During a 2017 meeting of tristate medical staff leaders interested in improving physician well-being, it became apparent that no other Medical Staff had developed a process for immediate access to mental health services. This group, now the Physician Wellness: Community Leadership Committee, is developing a system modeled on the process Dr. Samuels designed. Thanks to his leadership and collaborative style, hospitals are partnering to support and advocate for the well-being of the physicians on their staff.

Clinical Team Achievement Award

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center

Drs. Lee Denson, Michael Rosen, Phillip Minar, Richard Falcone, Jason Frischer, Michael Mellon, Peter Margolis, Margaret Collins, Simon Hogan

The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center—with physicians from Gastroenterology, Surgery, Behavioral and Clinical Psychology, the Anderson Center, Pathology and Allergy and Immunology— provides innovative, well-coordinated multidisciplinary care for children with very challenging diseases.

The IBD team aligns individual expertise with the continuum of care, including timely review of medical records prior to visits, consultations, and biopsy review in an IBD-Pathology session with team members. Care protocols meet and exceed QI principles, optimizing nutritional and medical treatment, drug level monitoring and clinical response.

The IBD team also excels in research and innovation. The team engages patients in ongoing QI projects. Patient blood and tissue biopsies are analyzed in studies of genetics, pathogenesis and biomarkers of IBD, and as part of clinical trials. The team is one of the founding members of the ImproveCareNow network, a clinical consortium that sets the national standard of care for IBD patients across the US.

The IBD Center’s innovative, collaborative approach has become a model for other centers in the US and abroad.

Research Team Achievement Award

Learning Networks Team

Drs. Jeff Anderson, Jennifer Angeli, Julia Anixt, Andy Beck, William Brinkman, Maria Britto, Courtney Brown, Adam Carle, Stuart Goldstein, Samuel Hanke, David Hartley, David Hooper, Srikant Iyer, Robert Kahn, Heather Kaplan, Uma Kotagal, Carole Lannon, Ellen Lipstein, Angela Lorts, Maurizio Macaluso, Peter Margolis, Keith Marsolo, Esi Morgan, Steve Muething, Lisa Opipari, Carley Riley, Michael Seid, Kathleen Walsh

The National Academy of Sciences has called for development of a learning healthcare system to improve functioning of the healthcare system and patient outcomes.

Over the last 10 years, the Anderson Center has designed, developed, implemented and studied networked learning health systems. Today it supports nine learning networks encompassing 558 teams across 286 care organizations in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and five countries.

These networks have reduced serious safety events (50%), decreased mortality from hypoplastic left heart syndrome during the inter-surgery period (40%), reduced elective preterm delivery (75%), and increased the proportion of children with IBD in remission (26%).

Anderson Center and affiliated faculty have been awarded over $50 million in federal research funding to develop and study learning networks, and to conduct clinical studies using the learning network infrastructure.

These accomplishments were only possible because of large scale, multidisciplinary participation. This is truly a “big science” model that involves close to 100 individuals across Cincinnati Children’s who have developed the infrastructure for the science and practice of learning networks.