Pediatrics honors, June 2026
Faculty and staff
Don’t miss the 2026 Department of Pediatrics recipients of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards.
Residency and Fellowship Program Coordinators Melodie Allison and Judith Cerino (pictured above) won the First Place Viewer’s Choice award for their poster “Everyone Needs CANDY – A Peer-led Model for GME Program Coordinators” at the 2026 Association for Hospital Medicine Education (AHME (external link)) Institute Poster Session.
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- Neethu Menon, MD
Associate Professor Neethu Menon, MD, has been selected to receive the 8th Annual John P. McGovern Foundation Champion in Women’s Health and Wellness award from The Women’s Fund (external link).
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- Maria del Mar Romero López, MD, MS, PhD
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- Michael Chang, MD
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- Chiamaka U. Aneji, MD, MPH, FAAP
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- Jessica Gomez, MSN, APRN, NNP, BC, IBCLC
Assistant Professor Maria del Mar Romero Lopez, MD, PhD, MS, led a team who won second place with a McGovern Medical School Graham Award for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement for their poster entitled A Quality Improvement Initiative to Improve the Use and Adherence to the Kaiser Calculator and Reduce Empiric Antibiotic Duration in NICU for Infants ≥35 Weeks Gestational Age. The research team included Department of Pediatrics faculty Chiamaka Aneji, MD, MPH, FAAP, and Michael Chang, MD, as well as Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Jessica Gomez, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, and many from Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.
Dr. Romero Lopez has also been invited to speak at the 27th International Vitamin D Workshop (external link).
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- Hope Northrup, MD
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- Mary Kay Koenig, MD
A paper written by Hope Northrup, MD, and Mary Kay Koenig, MD, is now “among the most widely read papers” on Wiley: Preventative treatment of tuberous sclerosis complex with sirolimus: Phase I safety and efficacy results (external link).
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- Tina Findley, MD
Tina Findley, MD, was selected to receive the inaugural Fetal Institute Collaborative Research Award (external link): $30,000 in support of her research efforts.
Trainee honors
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- Caitlin Stoll, DO
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow Caitlin Stoll, DO, received a Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) Regional Research Award (external link) recognizing talented child-health researchers from the SPR Regional Societies.
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- Timothy Mok, MD
PGY-1 resident Timothy Mok, MD, was elected to the McGovern Medical School Housestaff Executive Council through the Office of Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Mok will serve a one-year term as member-at-large.
PGY-1 resident Kevin Nguyen, MD, (above left) received 1 of 6 Resident Excellence in Humanism and Teaching Awards from the McGovern Medical School Office of Admissions and Student Affairs and the Class of 2027. “It has been so rewarding to be able to work with, to teach, and to learn from our wonderful students here. This wouldn’t have been possible without our program’s leadership and the chiefs. They have been so supportive and encouraging,” Dr. Nguyen said.
Separately, Dr. Nguyen also received the Best Resident award from the MS3s he supervised during their rotation that ended May 1. Director of Undergraduate Medical Education Amalia Guardiola, MD, honored him with a gift card. Dr. Nguyen also received the Intern of the Year Award from Pediatric Residency Program Director Emma Omoruyi, MD, MPH.
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- Julianna Quinn
Wang Lab graduate student researcher Julianna Quinn won Outstanding Oral Presentation at The Weinstein Cardiovascular Development and Regeneration Conference (external link).