The Millie & Richard Brock Visiting Professorship and Lectureship in Pediatrics: Previous Recipients

Selected Biographies of Previous Recipients

Mark W. Kline, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Retrovirology at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital

October 26, 2009
“Pediatric AIDS: Worlds Apart”

“Dr. Kline is one of the world’s most experienced pediatric HIV/AIDS clinicians and researchers, having worked for more than 20 years with HIV-infected children and families in the U.S., Africa and Eastern Europe. In the early and mid-1990s, he led pioneering studies of pediatric antiretroviral treatment that transformed the prognosis of HIV/AIDS in children from almost certain death to good health and long life.” - Jennifer DiPace, Associate Director, Pediatric Graduate Medical Education, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Mark W. Kline, M.D. Board-certified in both pediatrics and infectious diseases, Dr. Kline is a professor of pediatrics and chief of retrovirology (HIV/AIDS medicine) at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He is founder and president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI), the world’s largest university-based pediatric HIV/AIDS program.

Dr. Kline is one of the world’s most experienced pediatric HIV/AIDS clinicians and researchers, having worked for more than 20 years with HIV-infected children and families in the U.S., Africa and Eastern Europe. In the early and mid-1990s, he led pioneering studies of pediatric antiretroviral treatment that transformed the prognosis of HIV/AIDS in children from almost certain death to good health and long life.

Dr. Kline was among the first physicians worldwide to demonstrate that children and families living in resource-poor settings globally could benefit from antiretroviral treatment in the same way that American children and families had benefited. Working in collaboration with the Romanian government, he established Europe’s largest pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment center in the hard-hit port city of Constanta. The annual pediatric HIV/AIDS death rate in Constanta dropped from 15% to less than 1% in just three years.

Using the model first developed in Romania, Dr. Kline and BIPAI have established programs across Africa to markedly expand access of children and families to lifesaving HIV/AIDS care and treatment. Working everywhere in collaboration with host governments, BIPAI has built and operates Children’s HIV/AIDS Clinical Centers of Excellence in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and Uganda, with additional centers currently under development in Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Kenya. About 30,000 HIV-infected children and families currently are in care in these centers, more than with any other organization worldwide.

In 2006, Dr. Kline established the Pediatric AIDS Corps, which has trained and placed more than 100 American pediatricians and family doctors for two or three years each in nine African countries to immediately expand health professional capacity for HIV/AIDS care and treatment. In tandem with BIPAI’s Children’s HIV/AIDS Clinical Centers of Excellence, this program has had a powerful catalytic role in expanding access of HIV-infected children to lifesaving care and treatment.

Dr. Kline has authored more than 220 scientific papers and textbook chapters and given more than 300 invited national and international lectures and presentations. He has been the recipient of the Dag Hammarksjold Award of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (1998), the Association of American Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Award (2002), the Annual Award in HIV/AIDS of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention (2006), the Distinguished Faculty Award of Baylor College of Medicine (2007), the Ronald McDonald House Charities Medical Award of Excellence (2007) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Trinity University (2008).

Glenn Flores, MD, FAAP
Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health
Director of General Pediatrics
Judith and Charles Ginsburg Chair in Pediatrics
Director of the Academic General Pediatrics Fellowship at University of Texas Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas

November 17, 2008
“Racial and Ethnic Disparities in US Children’s Health and Healthcare: How We Can Level the Playing Field”

“Dr. Flores has dedicated his career to the care of underserved children and has contributed to the scientific knowledge of the medical, cultural and psychosocial issues of Latino children (who are a significant percentage of the poor children in New York). He has also focused on the growing problem of obesity, which is a major health problem for poor children. His research on the use of medical interpreters and the relationship of language interpretation to medical errors and clinical outcomes is very pertinent to New York City and its multicultural environment. His focus on racial/ethnic health disparities among children may allow the medical community of New York to begin a dialog about this important and neglected issue.” - Benard P. Dreyer, MD, Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, NYU School of Medicine

Glenn Flores, MD, FAAP is Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health, Director of General Pediatrics, the Judith and Charles Ginsburg Chair in Pediatrics, and the Director of the Academic General Pediatrics Fellowship at UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his medical degree from the UCSF School of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatrics at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University.

Dr. Flores is on the editorial boards of Ambulatory Pediatrics and the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Research, and the Executive Research Committee of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. He was a member of the Expert Panel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Care Language Services Implementation Guide.

Dr. Flores has testified in the United States Senate on Latino health and the Hispanic Health Improvement Act, and provided a Congressional Briefing on his work on uninsured children. He was an invited speaker at the 2007 National Summit on America’s Children, convened by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and co-chaired by Congressional Representatives DeLauro, Miller, and Fattah. In 2007, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission appointed him to be a member of the Frew Advisory Committee, tasked with helping the agency determine how to use new funding to enhance access to healthcare for Texas children with Medicaid coverage.

Dr. Flores has served as a consultant or national advisory committee member for the US Surgeon General, American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Hispanic Medical Association, and Sesame Street Workshop. He received the 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics Outstanding Achievement Award in the Application of Epidemiologic Information to Child Health Advocacy. He has published 94 articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in such journals as JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, and the Lancet, including many papers that address racial/ethnic and linguistic disparities in children’s health and healthcare.

John M. Leventhal, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Yale University School of Medicine
Medical Director for Child Abuse Programs
Yale-New Haven Hospital

Monday, November 6, 2006
Child Maltreatment: Can America Stop Hurting Its Children?

“Dr. Leventhal is nationally recognized as a distinguished leader in the field of Pediatrics and child abuse. . . he has published on a broad range of topics, but is especially recognized as a national authority on child abuse. Since the care of these children demands an extremely high level of expertise, both as a clinician and as a sensitive caring individual, this specialty has been advanced by his participation - as a clinician and a research scientist.” - David H. Rubin, MD, Chairman and Program Director, Department of Pediatrics, St. Barnabas Hospital

John M. Leventhal, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine and Medical Director for Child Abuse Programs at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Leventhal graduated from Brown University in 1969 and Tufts Medical School in 1973. Since 1973, he has been at Yale University School of Medicine where he trained as a pediatric resident and chief resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital and as a Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. In 1979, he joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics, and since 1992 he has been a Professor with a joint appointment at the Child Study Center.

For over 20 years, Dr. Leventhal has served as Medical Director of Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital’s Child Abuse Committee, one of the oldest such teams in the country. He also is Medical Director of the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic and the Child Abuse Prevention Programs at the Hospital, and serves as an expert consultant to Connecticut’s child protective service agency.

Dr. Leventhal is recognized nationally for his research in the areas of child maltreatment and developmental and behavioral pediatrics. He has published over 120 articles and chapters and has lectured throughout the United States and in England, South Africa, Turkey, and Australia. In 1998, he received the prestigious Research Award from the Ambulatory Pediatric Association in recognition of his research on child maltreatment and his research mentorship of medical students, residents, and fellows.

In 2001, he became Editor-in-Chief of the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, The International Journal. This journal, which was begun 30 years ago by C. Henry Kempe, was the first medical journal to focus on the problem of child maltreatment.

Dr. Leventhal has received several awards for his leadership in advocating for vulnerable children and families. In 2002, Prevent Child Abuse America selected him to receive the National Visionary Leadership Award for his significant impact on the field of child abuse prevention.

Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD
Medical Director
Foster Care Pediatrics
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
University of Rochester

Monday, September 19, 2005
Wellness Outcomes of Maltreated Children: An Oxymoron
“Moira Szilagyi is known nationally as an expert on health care and health care issues for children and adolescents in foster care. One cannot spend time with Dr. Szilagyi and not come away better able to address these children’s needs.” - Sheila L. Palevsky, MD, MPH, Medical Specialist-Provider Liason, Bureau of Immunization, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Moira Szilagyi MD, PhD, has been providing primary health care services for children in foster care since 1986, and has been Medical Director of Foster Care Pediatrics since February 1990. Dr. Szilagyi received her doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Rochester in 1980, after which her interest in people diverted from the cellular-molecular level to the whole person. She completed medical school in 1984 at the University of Rochester, after helping to establish the first Ethics in Medicine course at that institution. During residency, Dr. Szilagyi had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings, gravitating toward those sites serving the needs of children at risk because of poverty. She also had the opportunity to create an elective in developmental pediatrics that enabled her to observe healthy children and children with disabilities in a variety of settings.

In 1986, a moonlighting position at the local health department introduced her to the world of the child in foster care; since then she has focused her attention on these children. Dr. Szilagyi is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester, and was instrumental in starting the hospital’s child abuse program, REACH, and teaches in the resident continuity clinic. Dr. Szilagyi chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) District II Task Force on Foster Care Health Care, which recently published the second edition of Fostering Health: Health Care for Children and Adolescents in Foster Care. She continues to work closely with local, state, and national professionals on issues related to the health of children in foster care. Dr. Szilagyi is a member of the Healthy Foster Care America task force at the AAP and a similar task force at the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). She continues to teach about cross-systems collaboration and quality improvement for children in foster care. She is currently interested in creative strategies to address the mental health of children and families whose lives touch the foster care system, in improving the quality of care through setting national standards, health care financing, health care case management and educating the next generation.

Samuel Broder, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Celera Genomics

Monday, November 3, 2003
Implications of the Human Genome in Human Biology, Medicine and Social Policy

“The Millie & Richard Brock Lecture & Award in Pediatrics and The Sylvia & Herbert Berger Lecture for Excellence in Science & Medicine jointly honor Samuel Broder, MD for his outstanding contributions in human genome research.”

Samuel Broder was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Director of the National Cancer Institute in 1989, a position he held for six years. His laboratory interests include anti-retroviral therapy, and also, the relationship between immunodeficiency disorders and cancer. His laboratory focused on the role of suppressor cells in various immunodeficiency states and on neoplasms of immunoregulatory T cells. His laboratory was also instrumental in studying or developing several of the first drugs now widely used in the therapy of AIDS and its related disorders, especially nucleosides such as Retrovir? (AZT), Videx?(ddI), and HIVID?(ddC). He also oversaw the development of other agents, such as TAXOL? and an orally bioavailable form of paclitaxel. He is the author or co-author of over 330 scientific publications. He has received numerous scientific awards related to his research in cancer and AIDS. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Celera Genomics, which recently sequenced and assembled the human and mouse genomes. His current interests relate to applying knowledge of the human agenome, comparative genomics, and proteomics to the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics.

Otis W. Brawley, MD
Professor of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine

Thursday, November 21, 2002
Social Deprivation in Childhood and Life Long Health Habits

“Dr. Brawley has lectured extensively across the country and has particular interest in speaking to medical students, residents, and junior faculty for whom he serves as an excellent role model, integrating basic science with the mission of improving health outcomes for communities.” - Danielle Laraque, MD, Chief, Division of General Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Otis W. Brawley is Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health. He also serves as Associate Director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University and as Director of the Georgia Cancer Center of Excellence at Grady. Dr. Brawley's interest in the dissemination of medical knowledge has extended to ethical issues and the availability of new knowledge and technologies to socio-economically disadvantaged communities. His work concerning racial differences in patterns of medical care and the similar outcomes among racial and ethnic groups when there is equal treatment is widely cited in medical literature. Dr. Brawley is keenly aware of the origin of risks for cancer initiating in childhood especially with regards to smoking and diet.

Dr. Brawley is the recipient of numerous awards and was recently named a Georgia Cancer Coalition Eminent Scholar. He obtained his Bachelor of Science and MD from the University of Chicago. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University and trained in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

Paul H. Wise, MD
Director, Social and Health Policy Research
Boston University School of Medicine

Thursday, October 11, 2001
Child Beauty, Modern Medicine, and the Devaluation of Women

“Dr. Wise is an engaging lecturer that we believe will encourage the academic Pediatric community in New York City to take notice of the consequences of state and national policies for poor children.” - John M. Driscoll, Jr., MD, Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University

Paul H. Wise, MD, MPH is Director of Social and Health Policy Research and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University. He is a lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and is an Attending Physician at Boston Medical Center and Children's Hospital in Boston. In 1978 Dr. Wise received his MD from Cornell University and MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. In 1982, Dr. Wise was appointed Director of Emergency and Primary Care Services at Children's Hospital and in 1992 was appointed Director of the Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health. Dr. Wise has received many honors, most recently the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award presented by The March of Dimes. He has served in over 30 public service associations and has been invited as a visiting professor to major international medical centers in India and Africa. His major research interests are child health policy, social disparities in child health and the relationship between women's and children's health policies. Dr. Wise currently also co-directs a collaborative project between the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The Boston Medical Center entitled Finding Common Ground dedicated to integrating women's and children's health and social welfare policies. His commitment to improving social disparities in women's and children's health is apparent in his numerous publications and in the various positions he currently holds in professional societies.