Maternal and Pediatric Health: Shaping Tomorrow’s Care

Director, Center for Child and Family Research, Advocate Aurora Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Dept Pediatrics,Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Lefaiver is the Director, Center for Child & Family Research for Advocate Aurora Research Institute. She has a clinical background in nursing, with over 20 years of research experience spent mentoring, managing and leading diverse research teams for administrative and operational support of research implementation. In her current role, she provides direction for a manager of clinical research and a team of 10 research coordinators servicing a portfolio over 100 active pediatric and maternal-child studies comprising clinical trials and investigator-initiated studies. She has served as the site lead for a variety of collaborative projects with industry and academic partners, ensuring success with those collaborations.

Director Scientific Research, Advocate Aurora Research Institute
Professor, Dept Obstetrics and Gynecology,Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Brandie DePaoli Taylor is the Director of Scientific Programs at Advocate Aurora Research Institute. As an NIH-funded perinatal epidemiologist, Dr. Taylor is deeply committed to advancing maternal and child health through multidisciplinary epidemiologic research. Her research program focuses on integrating biomarker discovery and multi-omics approaches to understand phenotypes of spontaneous abortion, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and preterm birth. Additionally, Dr. Taylor collaborates closely with bench scientists on various translational studies to uncover the mechanistic pathways leading to these complications. She is dedicated to serving the scientific community and currently holds the position of treasurer for the Preterm Birth International Collaborative.

Pediatric Hospitalist, Advocate Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Dept Pediatrics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr Marsh is an academic Pediatric Hospitalist at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge. She was the inaugural fellow for Nationwide Children's Hospital's Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) fellowship. She joined AAH after completion of fellowship and she currently serves as the Associate Program Director and Scholarship Oversight Committee chair for the PHM fellowship, the national co-lead for the PHM resident education task force and a Clinical Investigator for AARI. Her clinical research interests include providing safe and cost effective care to infants and young children hospitalized for febrile illnesses, in particular UTI. She has therefore led prior multisite studies invested in the reduction of unnecessary testing and improvement of antibiotic stewardship in this population. Her work has led to many peer reviewed publications and has culminated in authorship of the latest Pediatric in Review UTI guidelines.

Research Scientist, Advocate Aurora Research Institute
Associate Professor Dept Implementation Science,Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Fitzpatrick’s career has been dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable populations within healthcare systems. The overall goal of her research is to quickly and effectively translate research findings into clinical care while still being responsive and respectful to the patients and communities the system serves. Dr. Fitzpatrick’s research is largely in the perinatal and early pediatric space using both Human Centered Design and Implementation Science methodologies to maximize successful uptake of interventions. Current and past projects explore prenatal and pediatric healthcare delivery, low-income prenatal patient care adherence, mother-baby dyad linkages, and costs related to high burden care plans.

Attending Physician, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Advocate Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor, Dept Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Harrison is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist who practices at Advocate Christ Medical Center and is an Associate Professor through Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She completed her training at University of Illinois at Chicago for residency and Medical College of Wisconsin for fellowship. She is in charge of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine research program at Advocate Aurora Health. Her research interests include preeclampsia, maternal congenital heart disease, placenta accreta spectrum, and preterm birth prevention. She has many peer-reviewed publications and serves as a research mentor for many OBGYN residents and is a Clinical Investigator through the AARI. Her research presentation will discuss preterm preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction and maternal and neonatal outcomes.