Faculty Awards

Research Achievement Award

Satoshi Namekawa, PhD

Division of Reproductive Sciences
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Satoshi Namekawa has made outstanding progress as an independent investigator in his six years at Cincinnati Children’s, and has already made great contributions in his field as a scientist and mentor. 

His research primarily focuses on epigenetic regulation of sex chromosomes in germ cell development − work that may have major implications in basic reproductive biology as well as male infertility and birth defects. 

He has obtained continuous funding, including an NIH R01 on his first submission, as well as grants from March of Dimes and a Cincinnati Children’s Trustee Award. He has consistently published in acclaimed, peer-review journals. 

His achievements are being recognized within the field. He has been a guest speaker at prestigious international conferences, and in 2015 he received the Society for the Study of Reproduction New Investigator Award. 

Namekawa is also establishing a reputation as a mentor who invests in the education of his postdoctoral students. His students have flourished, as evidenced by their securing awards and positions at prestigious universities.

Research Achievement Award

Marc Rothenberg, MD, PhD

Director, Division of Allergy and Immunology
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders

Marc Rothenberg is one of the most productive researchers in the field of Allergy and Immunology. The scope of his work includes basic biology, translational research, genetics and epigenetics, and clinical trials of novel agents. 

Rothenberg primarily focuses on molecular analysis of allergic inflammation, particularly the pathogenesis of eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases (EGIDs). He is a pioneer in identifying, studying and treating EGIDs, and has built a comprehensive program, making Cincinnati Children’s the leading site for study and treatment of these disorders. He also founded and directs the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers. 

Rothenberg’s research has resulted in over 300 peer reviewed, and in some cases, landmark articles, published in the highest-impact journals. His work has been cited over 17,000 times. He has received a number of prestigious national awards and has served as a research mentor to students and colleagues around the world. 

Rothenberg’s research also sheds light on other atopic diseases, including asthma. He was instrumental in basic research and clinical trials that resulted in FDA approval in 2015 of the first new drug in over a decade to treat severe asthma.

Research Achievement Award

James Wells, PhD

Division of Developmental Biology
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility

James Wells’ studies of the mechanisms of organogenesis provide insight into the molecular and cellular synergy among embryonic layers during tissue formation. His research has been transformative. It makes translational embryology a reality, provides powerful experimental models for the study of the mechanisms of human disease and opens opportunities for regenerative medicine. 

Wells pioneered approaches to direct in vitro differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into digestive tissue. With his team, he invented a novel approach to generate 3D intestinal tissue in a dish. Today the use of human intestinal organoids in basic and translational GI research is becoming a requirement for publication in high-impact journals, and the concept of “tissue in a dish” is being extended to other organs, including the lungs. 

Through the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility that Wells developed, he is making his iPSC-organoid available to our researchers, a collaborative approach that enables other investigators to expand their research programs by developing organoids to study human cell and tissue function.

Wells not only leads an extremely innovative, productive and internationally-recognized research program, but he is also a highly collaborative colleague, and an outstanding, committed teacher and mentor.

Clinical Care Achievement Award

Patrick Brady, MD, MSc

Division of Hospital Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Patrick Brady has contributed to patient care through wide-ranging clinical improvement work. He helped develop a system of proactive assessment, risk stratification and huddles that significantly reduced inpatient serious safety events and emergency transfers. In a study of safety huddles, he and his colleagues identified four behaviors associated with better treatment and monitoring of the patients discussed and began testing methods to improve consistent use of these behaviors. 

Brady led a Hospital Medicine unit to sustained improvement as demonstrated by multiple metrics. He has worked in inpatient, outpatient, surgical and emergency settings to improve situation awareness and patient safety, and is leading the effort to spread successful interventions to the seven other children’s hospitals in the Ohio’s Solutions for Patient Safety collaborative. 

Brady also co-leads a team that developed a user-designed data display to help clinicians understand oxygen saturation trends and better titrate oxygen delivery for patients in the NICU and the Hospital Medicine units. The web application they’ve built has the potential to revolutionize clinical care.

Clinical Care Achievement Award

Norbert Weidner, MD

Department of Anesthesia
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology

Norbert Weidner is a pioneer in symptom management and palliative care for children with life-threatening illness. 

Weidner was the first director of the Pain Service at Cincinnati Children’s. At a time when pain was poorly assessed and few interventions were considered safe in children, he pioneered the use of ketamine for cancer patients with opioid refractory pain, and introduced techniques to control pain in children at the end of life. 

Weidner was medical director of the Palliative Care Service and Starshine Hospice for more than a decade, addressing the suffering of children and families facing death. He offered empathetic disclosure of diagnoses, support for realistic decision-making, aggressive symptom management, and support for families delivering care at home and preparing for their child’s death. He also addressed the distress of staff caring for patients as they die. 

He helped the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine develop clinical competencies for pediatric palliative care fellowships, and established a palliative care fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s.

Educational Achievement Award

Christopher Peltier, MD

Division of General and Community Pediatrics
Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Community Pediatrics Section of the Division of General and Community Pediatrics

Christopher Peltier serves as director of the Continuity Clinic and of Community Practice Rotations for the Pediatric Residency Program, while maintaining his own busy clinical practice at Pediatric Associates of Mount Carmel. 

Peltier is highly committed to outstanding teaching and the development of effective, innovative educational programs locally, regionally, and nationally. He not only understands educational theory, but also expertly puts it into practice. He is a dynamic, enthusiastic teacher who ensures that learners are engaged partners in the educational process. Trainees praise him for pushing them to think, problem solve and advocate for patients under his guidance. 

In addition to his own teaching, Peltier coordinates the private practice and continuity clinic experiences for over 150 residents and medical students, assuring they have quality experiences as they train in community pediatrics. 

Peltier also is a leader in educating educators. Since 2012, he has been course director for our Basic Healthcare Educator Development Conference and the Regional Faculty and Healthcare Educator Development Conference. Nationally, he holds key leadership positions in educational committees of the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Advocacy Achievement Award

Lori Crosby, PsyD

Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology
Professor of Pediatrics

Lori Crosby, PsyD, is a passionate advocate for reducing health-related disparities, with a particular interest in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD). She contributes energy and leadership for the annual Sickle Cell Research and Education Day, an event for youth with SCD and their families. She has worked to improve the quality of care for young adults with SCD who find it difficult to transition their care.

Crosby is co-founder and co-director of Innovations in Community Research and Program Evaluation, which partners with community organizations to address health disparities, child mental health, early child development, school readiness and community violence.

She also directs the Community Leaders Institute (CLI), which helps organizations build capacity and partner with academic researchers and with each other. Graduates have applied the skills they’ve learned through CLI to obtain more than $3 million in funding for health programs in Greater Cincinnati.

Her dedication, positive attitude, warmth and compassion have made Crosby an effective advocate and an inspiration to others.

Entrepreneurial Achievement Award

Randy Giaquinto

Department of Radiology
Instructor of Radiology
Senior Engineer, Imaging Research Center

Randy Giaquinto joined Cincinnati Children’s five years ago, after a long, productive career as the principal radiofrequency coil designer at General Electric’s Global Research and Development Center. He has made many important contributions to the field of magnetic resonance imaging, holds 17 patents, and has published extensively. 

His most significant contribution is the design and construction of phased-array imaging coils, a major technological advance and a feature in every MR scanner in the world. He built the world’s first phased array coil in the mid-1980s, and was the first to build 32-channel and 128-channel arrays. 

His innovations at Cincinnati Children’s include a 32-channel breast coil that can make full bilateral images with an isotropic resolution of 1mm in only 28 seconds, and can acquire 0.3mm isotropic resolution bilateral images in five minutes – providing in-plane resolution comparable to X-ray mammography, but in three dimensions. He has received international recognition for this advancement. 

Giaquinto also is a key contributor to the NICU MRI system and to hyperpolarized gas imaging initiatives.

Entrepreneurship Achievement Award

Kenneth Setchell, PhD

Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Mass Spectroscopy Facility

James Heubi, MD

Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training

Kenneth Setchell (left) and James Heubi have collaborated for over 30 years to study and treat inborn errors of bile acid metabolism. They discovered six genetic defects that cause life-threatening liver disease, developed a successful therapy, and created an international diagnostic and treatment center. 

Their work culminated in 2015 with FDA approval of cholic acid to treat children with these rare defects. 

The journey to approval began in 2004. When the first company they worked with abandoned the project, Setchell approached the CEO of Sanitarium. Ultimately, Sanitarium created a new company, Asklepion Pharmaceuticals, to develop cholic acid and other products. 

Setchell and Heubi were involved in the company’s business decisions and provided clinical and scientific input to get cholic acid through the FDA approval process. Today it is being marketed as Cholbam® in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Basin. 

Thanks to their groundbreaking research, persistence and success launching a new commercial venture, Setchell and Heubi are impacting children around the world.

Mentoring Achievement Award

Louis Muglia, MD, PhD

Division of Neonatology
Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Co-director, Perinatal Institute
Director, Center for Prevention of Preterm Birth

Louis Muglia is renowned for his research on preterm birth, but for many trainees and junior faculty, his most important role may be as an esteemed mentor. 

Despite the demands of running his own research program and his leadership responsibilities in the Perinatal Institute and the Department of Pediatrics, Muglia makes himself available to advise, support, encourage and promote the careers of junior faculty. 

He has mentored undergraduates, medical students, residents, and clinical and research fellows. He currently leads Cincinnati Children’s Medical Scientist Training Program, is advisor to four PhD candidates in Molecular Developmental Biology and mentor to six extramurally supported postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. 

Those he has mentored speak with gratitude of the hours he invested in them, his thoughtful advice and invaluable guidance in shaping their academic development and careers. One wrote that while Muglia is appreciated for what he has accomplished academically, “the most common words you hear spoken are in admiration for his ongoing commitment and involvement in education and mentorship.”

Service Achievement Award

Yueh-Chiang Hu, PhD

Division of Developmental Biology
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Transgenic Animal and Genome Editing Core Facility

Yueh-Chiang Hu joined Cincinnati Children’s in 2013 as director of the Transgenic Animal and Genome Editing Core Facility. He was recruited from MIT, where he was a postdoctoral trainee in the lab that developed CRISPR/Cas9 technology. 

Here, he was charged with transforming transgenic core services and keeping abreast of emerging technologies. 

Hu has demonstrated remarkable skill as a leader, team builder and service provider. His manner is always courteous, kind, patient and knowledgeable. His team operates like a well-tuned engine. 

In addition to traditional core services, such as sperm freezing, transgenic animals and gene targeting in ES cells, his team provides state-of-the-art CRISPR services, including highly efficient genome engineering. Hu continually innovates to improve the core. He performs research to improve existing technology and create new targeting tools, and he has developed new services. 

Hu provides an outstanding service to the research community. His leadership and drive to innovate ensure the success of our genomic aspirations.

Service Achievement Award

Richard Ruddy, MD

Professor of Pediatrics
Medical Director, Liberty Campus

Richard Ruddy, one of the fathers of pediatric emergency medicine, worked with a handful of colleagues to build the subspecialty and improve care for emergently ill children. 

Ruddy was recruited here in 1991 to create the Division of Emergency Medicine. Under his leadership, the division has grown from eight faculty to 40, who see over 155,000 children a year in two EDs and five urgent care centers. The division has educated 75 fellows, and incubated programs in child abuse, simulation training and pediatric transport. It was recently ranked No. 2 in the country by Parents magazine. 

Ruddy has chaired 13 committees here and participated on more than 30. He has been a national leader, advancing the practice of pediatric emergency medicine. He directs the Professional Practice Evaluation Committee at Cincinnati Children’s, a fitting role given his strong commitment to professionalism. He has led numerous national committees, and currently serves as the Steering Committee PI in the Pediatric Emergency Care Research Network. 

Ruddy is a master clinician, powerful advocate for children, dedicated mentor, and true servant leader. After decades of service to his profession and division, Ruddy accepted the role of medical director of the newly expanded Liberty Campus. At a time when others would be retiring, he is again serving Cincinnati Children’s by leading a major new initiative.

Team Award − Brain Tumor Center

Neuro-oncology

Maryam Fouladi, MD, Director; Mariko DeWire, MD; Lionel Chow, MD; Lindsey Hoffman, DO, MS; Trent Hummel, MD; Ralph Salloum, MD

Neuro-oncology research

Biplab Dasgupta, PhD, MS; Rachid Drissi, PhD; Qing Richard Lu, PhD; Ronald Waclaw, PhD, MS

Neuroradiology

Blaise Jones, MD; Jim Leach, MD

Neurosurgery

Charles Stevenson, MD

Pathology

David Witte, MD

The members of the multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Center at Cincinnati Children’s have worked together to create one of the leading brain tumor centers for pediatric patients, providing care to approximately 800 children from around the world each year. The Center has become a leader in the study of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a devastating brain cancer. 

Clinical trials in the last 30 years have failed to improve outcomes for patients with DIPG. The Brain Tumor Center now offers hope. It is working to attract an adequate number of patients to collect biological samples and molecular and clinical data needed to advance understanding of the biology of DIPG tumors, and to conduct investigative studies and clinical trials. Families are supporting this work. Patients have been transported from West Virginia, Kentucky, northern Ohio, Indiana and Duke University to participate in the effort. 

Basic research under way includes large-scale sequencing studies. Cincinnati Children’s also has become the operations and database center for the International DIPG Registry, and a member of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, which Maryam Fouladi chairs. 

Thanks to the Brain Tumor Center, a comprehensive and now evidence-based approach is potentially available for groundbreaking studies and innovative therapy.

Educational Achievement Award

Sue Poynter Wong, MD, MEd

Division of Critical Care Medicine
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Co-Director, Pediatric Residency Training Program

When Sue Poynter Wong accepted the position of associate director of residency training, she also accepted the challenge of preparing herself as an educator. She earned a master’s in medical education and participated in the Leadership in Educational Academic Development (LEAD) program of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors. 

As co-director of residency training, she plays a critical role in developing curriculum and evaluating residents. She excels at teaching the most complex of topics in a way that is practical, engaging and clinically relevant. She is a role model and outstanding mentor, and always happy to celebrate the successes of her trainees. 

Poynter Wong led the transition to MedHub educational software. With her leadership, our residency program has become a leader in milestones-based performance evaluation. Her impact extends far beyond Cincinnati Children’s through her role as the site principal investigator of multicenter studies testing a milestones-based assessment tool for residency programs, and comparing the impact on outcomes of shift-based versus call-based resident scheduling in the PICU.