• More than 170 pediatric physicians and surgeons
• More than 700 specially trained pediatric nurses
• Last year, UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital cared for 77,068 patients from every county in Iowa, nearly every state in the United States, and several other countries.
• 190 pediatric beds
• Nursing awards
• Honors and awards
• About the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

Will I receive excellent clinical training at the University of Iowa?

Yes. While we have traditionally been known as a research institution, we are a full service clinical division of Neonatology. We have very busy clinical services with a rich diversity of neonatal pathology. A wide range of patient conditions allows us to educate our trainees so they are ready for any clinical situation. Fellows completing our program are ready to excel in the highest level NICUs caring for the most critically ill infants.

What makes your NICU so special?

We have an incredible NICU team that works together to provide our patients with the highest level of care. We realize that dozens of people need to make thousands of good decisions for our babies to do so well. We respect our families and our co-workers and we appreciate the various roles that we all play in the outcome of each baby. 

How will I identify a research mentor and project?

We realize that you may need help here and we take your research training very seriously. During the first few months of training, fellows usually meet with several clinical and basic science investigators who have ongoing projects that match their own interests. Should a fellow enter the program with a strong background in research or an identified project, a mentor with similar interests will be identified. A strong mentor-fellow relationship is imperative to success in research.

How ethnically diverse are the patients?

Like many university towns, we have a large international community. Growing cultural diversity is another reason Iowa City is an interesting place to live. Diversity is embraced and celebrated with city and university events, festivals, clubs and programs. The University works hard to recruit and retain minorities with its affirmative action policies. About 13% of Iowa City residents are non-white, as are almost 13% of the patients seen in our pediatric clinic.

Where is Iowa City?

Iowa City is 220 miles directly west of Chicago on Interstate 80. It's also within a 4-5 hour drive to Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis. It has the cultural, educational, social and political opportunities of a bigger city with the values and ambiance of a midwestern town. Its clean, safe, nothing is farther than a 15 minute car ride, it has a great city bus system (with bike racks!), wonderful parks, sports, schools and even sailing. Those who have lived here and left, frequently return because what they were looking for was in their own back yard. What is there to do in Iowa City when you're not working?

There are 15 different festivals and art fairs, plus concerts and race events. There are many music venues, sports events and neighborhood street fairs and garden walks. We also have a really big mall and several smaller ones, 41 parks, 9 golf courses, 6 public tennis courts, 6 public pools, some lakes and a reservoir with trails, camping and boating. There are bike trails, some famous bookstores, a ton of galleries and excellent museums. There are half a dozen or more performing arts venues including Hancher Auditorium. There's always something going on. Find more information from the Iowa City/Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

What's Iowa City like for kids and families?

There's ice skating, bowling, organized sports, 50 public parks, miniature golf, a great public library, a toy library, fun centers, swimming pools and 3 beaches, 9 museums including a children's museum, dance companies and public recreation centers that feature many activities for kids and families at little or no cost. We also have 20 movie screens and 50 licensed daycare providers. The Iowa City schools are perennially ranked among the top schools in the nation. Iowa City is unique in the facilities and services available for individuals with disabilities. Many families who have a family member with a disability are reluctant to leave Iowa City because they cannot duplicate those services in another location.

Orientation

Fellows will spend the first two weeks of July in orientation. Orientation will start at the department level and with our GME office before starting with our program-specific orientation. Orientation will introduce you to the key clinical and research aspects of our program. This time will include learning procedural skills and performing a simulation on the Golden Hour. After the first two weeks of orientation, each first-year fellow will pick one night to shadow a senior fellow for the evening to get an idea of how the call night flows before their first call night. New fellows will shadow senior fellows in the unit for up to a week to learn about the flow before starting in the NICU.

Education

Clinical Care

All clinical activities take place in the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. Our Level IV NICU has 88 beds. Our NICU is divided into four teams:

1.  Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU)
2.  Nurse Practitioner Team
3.  Teaching & Transport Team
4.  Level 6 of the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

The NCCU is the unit with the highest acuity. Delivery room experience occurs when rotating on the NCCU. On the nurse practitioner team, the fellow and faculty member lead a team that manages our patients with chronic lung diseases/BPD and a variety of other diagnoses. Most of our long-term ventilated babies, and babies with tracheotomies are on this team. On the teaching and transport team, the fellow and faculty lead a team of residents and the neonatal transport team. This team also provides run reviews to the transport team. Our lowest acuity unit is on level 6 of the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. This is the unit that does the bulk of discharges. Fellows rotate here in their third year unless they decide to do an elective here. 

Fellows also rotate in two clinics. The fellows maintain a panel of patients in the high-risk infant follow-up clinic. The fellows also see patients in the Perinatal Care Clinic, which allows them to provide consultation to families with known complications in pregnancy that will likely result in a NICU admission. 

Research

Non-clinical time is devoted to research and quality improvement projects. Each fellow participates in a research project that will result in a scholarly work product by the end of their training.

Vacation

Vacation is included in the 3 weeks per year of paid time off.

Benefits

On Call Schedule

Call nights are divided equally among fellows. A senior fellow makes the service and call schedule each year with the program director providing oversight. All call nights are in-house. Each year, there is at least one night covered without any fellows prior to the annual departmental fellow retreat. 

Divisional educational offerings include:

• Perinatal mortality conferences
• Journal club
• Board study
• Neonatology-surgery conference
• Radiology rounds

Core Curriculum for Fellows

Our Fellows' Weekly Stead Family Department of Pediatrics Core Curriculum Seminar Series provides fellows with opportunities to:

• Enhance professional development
• Improve teaching skills
• Develop written and oral presentation skills
• Present their own research
• Explore research options
• Interact with faculty and other fellows
• Learn about responsible conduct of research
• Accelerate career development

University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital is the only children’s hospital in Iowa nationally ranked for pediatric care by U.S. News and World Report. Read our June 21, 2023 news release. 

• No. 21 in neonatology 
• No. 23 in pediatric diabetes and endocrinology 
• ​No. 28 in pediatric orthopedics 
• No. 42 in pediatric nephrology 
• No. 47 in pediatric neurology and neurosurgery 
• No. 48 in pediatric urology

The annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings recognize the top 50 pediatric facilities across the U.S. in 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and lung surgery, and urology. 

University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital and the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics are recognized nationally for a number of achievements.

Pediatric researchers at the University of Iowa have a long history of breakthrough discoveries in both the clinical and laboratory setting. Meet members of our research team:

• Faculty Research Profiles
• Researchers in the News

The Incubator Podcast recently reviewed "a series of interesting papers, notably the effect of azithromycin to prevent maternal and neonatal sepsis/death, screening and management of hemodynamically significant PDA from the amazing folks at the University of Iowa, and much more." Dr. Regan Geisinger's PubMed paper, Impact of early screening echocardiography and targeted PDA treatment on neonatal outcomes in "22-23" week and "24-26" infants is one of the reviewed publications.

Structured mentoring of fellows by neonatology faculty and by faculty research mentors elsewhere in the College of Medicine enhances training experiences and fosters career planning. 

• Faculty Research Mentors - Clinical Research Interests
• Faculty Research Mentors - Translational or Basic Research Interests
• Faculty Research Mentors - Educational, Advocacy, and Health Services Interests

Stead Family Department of Pediatrics Research

There are many research opportunities available to pediatric fellows, including outstanding training in perinatal research to prepare fellows for careers in academic neonatology. Research training is carried out with experience investigators in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics and other departments. Prior fellows have conducted both clinical and laboratory research.

Fast Facts

• Nine of our Division of Neonatology 20 full-time faculty lead clinical or laboratory research programs funded by the NIH, American Heart Association, or March of Dimes.
• Our NICU is one of 15 centers participating in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network.
• Neonatology fellows are eligible to apply to 15 NIH-T32 training programs to help support their research.
• Our Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, with its 119-member faculty, ranks among the top 20 in total NIH funding dollars among publicly supported medical schools.
• The UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine (CCOM) and the College of Public Health have outstanding basic and translational science program infrastructure and faculty.

Fellow Opportunities in Perinatal Research Include:

• Receiving individualized guidance in the initial selection of their research area, research mentor, career mentor, and research project, and in subsequent scholarship and career planning and progress.
• Receiving mentoring from one or more funded research faculty within the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics or other Carver College of Medicine departments.
• Receiving research training and support from one of Iowa’s 15 NIH-T32 training programs or from Iowa’s NIH CTSA supported Institute for Clinical and Translational Science KL2 training awards.
• Becoming involved in studies being carried out by the NICHD Neonatal Research Network.
• Courses in the Graduate College
• Participating in weekly interactive Fellows’ Core Curriculum seminars

Academic Outcomes of Iowa Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellows Since 1992

• 100% of fellow graduates have presented their work at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies spring meeting.
• 100% of Iowa’s fellow graduates have had one or more first author papers published in peer review journals.
• At the conclusion of training 54% accepted positions at the following academic centers:
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Alabama
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Arkansas
  • University of Kansas
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Montreal
  • Northwestern University
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Texas – San Antonio
  • Uniformed Services University
  • University of Wisconsin
  • University of Washington
  • Washington University
• Nearly 50% of our program graduates remain in academic settings and continue to devote significant time and effort to their research.

Advanced degree options are available. Currently, we are unable to fund training for all fellows. However, each year the department allows new fellows to apply for funding for one of these training pathways. Fellows have the opportunity to pursue a graduate degree or certificate in one of the following programs:

Post-Graduate Program in Translational Biomedicine
One of a few such clinical graduate programs in the U.S., the GPTB trains scientists in the principles and techniques of scholarly, patient-oriented research, including epidemiological and translational research and clinical trials. The GPTB has attracted a stellar team of trainees from a multitude of diverse disciplines and backgrounds, and has proven unparalleled in providing a strong, interdisciplinary core curriculum and expansive cutting edge research opportunities and mentoring.

College of Public Health
Iowa's COPH helps society respond to new and emerging threats, as well as other long-standing public health concerns, including air and water quality, aging, cancer, health care quality and services, obesity, tobacco, and substance abuse.

Masters in Clinical Investigation 
A 2-year interdisciplinary program designed for post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Pharmacy pursuing careers in clinical research. This program is supported by Iowa’s NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award and provides a structured didactic curriculum in research methods in the context of a mentored research experience.

Masters in Medical Education
A 2-year program coordinated through the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education (OCRME). The program requires the completion of 30 semester hours and is designed for post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty from the Colleges of Medicine wishing to pursue careers in medical education. The program includes all facets of medical education, including the practice and principles of educational research

ACGME

American Board of Pediatrics

Stipend

Benefits

Paid Time Off Policy

ERAS opens for the Fall Match in July.  The deadline for receiving an application through ERAS will be September 30 to allow ample time for reviewing and interviewing prospective fellow applicants.

We will conduct interviews in September and October.

Under special circumstances we will consider applications submitted at other times.

Applicants to our program must be currently enrolled in, or have successfully completed, an ACGME-accredited pediatric residency program.

We will interview prospective fellow candidates in September and October. Orientation for all new fellows begins July 1, so you must be available for that start date and be licensed in Iowa by June 30.

I got an interview! Now what?

What should I expect the night before my interview?

• We will contact you prior to your visit to set up dinner for the evening before your interview day.
• Dress is informal.
• Casual attire—no tie or skirt needed—but remember to bring/wear a coat/jacket appropriate for the weather.
• This get-together is an opportunity for you to meet us, your potential future colleagues, and we are here to answer your questions.
• Don’t be shy about asking about the things that are on your mind.

What should I expect on the interview day?

• We will meet you at 7 a.m. in the lobby of your hotel.
• We suggest business attire for your interview day.
• The components of your day include an overview of the program, briefly attending NICU rounds, individual meetings with faculty within the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.
• If there is a specific person you would like to visit with during the interview day, please let us know and we will arrange this.
• Lunch with current fellows allows you to ask questions directly to trainees in the program.

Melanie Reyes, MD

(2019 – 2022)
Medical School: Universidad Internacional del Ecuador
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
melanie-reyeshernandez@uiowa.edu

Timothy (TJ) Boly, DO

(2020-2023)
Medical School: Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University
Residency: University of Iowa Hospital & Clinics
timothy-boly@uiowa.edu

Mohamed Al Kanjo, MD

(2020-2023)
Medical School: University of Damascus Faculty of Medicine Syrian Arab Republic
Residency: Brookdale Hospital Medical Center
mohamed-alkanjo@uiowa.edu

Stephania Cavallaro Moronta, MD

(2020-2023)
Medical School: Universidad del Zulia Facultad de Medicina Venezuela
Residency: Holtz Children's Hospital, University of Miami
stephania-cavallaromoronta@uiowa.edu

Numra Aleem, MB, BS

(2021-2024)
Medical School: Aga Khan University Medical College Pakistan
Residency: University of Texas Medical Branch
numra-aleem@uiowa.edu

Amy Hobson, DO

(2021-2024)
Medical School: Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
amy-hobson@uiowa.edu

Nadine Kibbi, MD

(2021-2024)
Medical School: American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine
Residency: Virginia Commonwealth University
nadine-kibbi@uiowa.edu

Jeremy Sandgren, MD, PhD

(2022-2025)
Medical School: Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
jeremy-sandgren@uiowa.edu

Erin Mustonen, MD

(2022-2025)
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: University of Minnesota
erin-mustonen@uiowa.edu

Trassanee (Pearl) Chatmethakul, MD (2018-2021)
Medical School: Phramongkutklao Medical College Thailand
Residency: University of South Alabama Children’s & Women’s Hospital

Brian Juber, MD (2018-2021)
Medical School: University of South Dakota, Sanford School of Medicine
Residency: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, McGaw Medical Center – Northwestern University

Matthew Rysavy, MD, PhD ​(2018-2021)
Medical School: Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Residency: University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

Amy Stanford, MD (2017-2020)
Medical School: Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

Jennifer Berger, DO (2016-2019)
Medical School: Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Residency: University of Minnesota

Ana Tracey Morgan-Harris, MD (2016-2019)
Medical School: University of South Carolina College of Medicine
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Patricia Watkins, MD (2016-2019)
Medical School: University of North Dakota School of Medicine
Residency: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Stacy L. Kern, MD (2015-2018)
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: Sanford School of Medicine

Baiba Steinbrekera, MD (2015-2018)
Medical School: Rigas Stradina Universitale Medicinas Fakultate
Residency: University of Iowa

Timothy Elgin, DO (2014-2017)
Medical School: Des Moines University
Residency: Ohio State Nationwide Children's Hospital

Lia Sabalo, MD (2014-2017)
Medical School: University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Residency: Southern Illinois University

Dinushan Kaluarachchi, MB, BS (2013-2016)
Medical School: University of Colombo Sri Lanka
Residency: Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center

Kok Lim Kua, MD (2013-2016)
Medical School: Dalhousie University, Faculty of Medicine
Residency: University of South Alabama

Michelle Kompare, MD (2012-2015)
Medical School: University of Nebraska
Residency: University of Iowa

Jessica White, MD (2012-2015)
Medical School: Creighton University
Residency: Creighton University

Gary Kummet, MD (2011-2014)
Medical School: University of North Dakota School of Medicine, Grand Forks
Residency:University of Iowa

Erica LeClair, MD (2011-2014)
Medical School: Sanford School of Medicine, Vermillion
Residency: University of Iowa

Larry Meyer, MD (2011-2014)
Medical School: Sanford School of Medicine, Vermillion
Residency: University of Iowa

     
Glenda K. Rabe, MD
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program Director
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Phone: 319-384-6531
Email: glenda-rabe@uiowa.edu

Jill Kinnaird
Program Coordinator

Phone: 319-384-5258
Email: jill-kinnaird@uiowa.edu

Alexander G. Bassuk, MD, PhD

Chair and Department Executive Officer

Welcome to the University of Iowa's Stead Family Children's Hospital. We are proud to showcase our extraordinary clinical care, dedication to the education of students and young physicians, and our world-class research programs.

Our comprehensive medical, surgical, and nursing services span the full spectrum of pediatric care. The consistently high rankings we receive on national and international benchmarks attest to the exceptional quality of care we provide. With more than 127,000 annual outpatient visits and more than 10,000 admissions to the 165 beds at University of Iowa's Stead Family Children's Hospital, we draw patients regionally, nationally, and internationally. Our commitment to family-centered care and our outstanding facilities have been praised for their innovative and patient-friendly design.

We are dedicated to excellence in the education of medical students, residents, and fellows, as reflected by a competency-based curriculum that is designed to provide practitioners with comprehensive knowledge and outstanding skills. The clinical and research efforts of trainees are closely mentored and nurtured. Our graduates move on to successful careers in clinical practice and academic pediatrics.

From genomics to cancer biology, from clinical trials to outcomes research, the department consistently ranks among the top National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Pediatric Departments nationally. Our faculty and staff are engaged in cutting edge basic science and patient-oriented research in our unwavering quest to improve the health and well-being of all children.

We have a diverse faculty with wide-ranging clinical and research interests. Many are internationally known and have been in the department for many years. We also have bright young faculty who bring new interests and enthusiasm to the practice and teaching of neurology. All clinical faculty participate in resident training, clinical practice, and research.

• Division Faculty
• Research Faculty
• Division Head
• Department Directory A-Z