Champions for Children

Episode 191: Running with Passion - Checking in with Dr. Manuel Gonzales

In 2010, when he was 15, Dr. Manuel "Manny" Gonzales was a sophomore in high school and a varsity cross-country runner when he received a stunning diagnosis: cancer. At that time, he underwent a grueling regimen to battle the disease: 10 rounds of chemotherapy, thirteen lumbar punctures, and countless hours spent in both the inpatient and outpatient settings of the hospital where he was being treated: Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware. His experience changed his life, creating a passion ...

Episode 190: Can Grow Garden

The season of rebirth, renewal, and growth is here: Spring. And for many, it brings with it thoughts of putting our hands in the soil and planting seeds or transplanting seedlings in gardens. That’s exactly what is happening right now on the Nemours Estate in Wilmington, Delaware. The Can Grow Garden is a collaboration between the estate and Nemours Children’s Hospital Delaware to grow plants and provide a place for patient, family, and associate education and respite. The grown plants - mai...

Episode 189: Healthcare Workforce Well-being - An Update

Nemours' Chief Well-being Officer Dr. Maureen Leffler provides an update on the well-being of the healthcare workforce, both nationally and at Nemours. We'll explore the burnout that is plaguing the healthcare workforce and what Nemours is doing to counteract that, get an update on the enterprise peer support program launched in 2020 and now open to all associates, and the newly created Nemours Center for Associate well-being.  Well-being resources for Nemours associates. Nemours' Employ...

Episode 188: A Mobile Clinic Goes Well Beyond Medicine

As the pandemic was settling in on the world in 2020, a Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando resident was pondering a way to take her work out of the hospital and into the community. Her vision of well beyond medicine: a mobile clinic providing health care (and so much more) to underinsured or uninsured children and families in Greater Orlando. A fortuitous encounter with a Nemours grant writer yielded the seed money to make this resident’s dream a reality. Featuring Nemours Associates D...

Episode 187: Advocacy for Tomorrow's Pediatric Workforce

Episode 186: Pediatric Workforce Development

Ensuring the U.S. has a well-trained pediatric workforce is critical. Listen in as Dr. Larry Moss, President and CEO, Nemours Children’s Health, and Amy Knight, President of the Children’s Hospital Association, discuss Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education funding. They offer policy recommendations to address the current pediatric workforce shortage, including a call to Congress to increase CHGME funding, reauthorization of the program, and more. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 185: A Momentous Gift

On Mar. 2, 2023, the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation of Wilmington, Delaware donated $78 million to dramatically expand Nemours' capacity to provide clinical care for children with cancer, sickle cell disease, and other blood disorders. Learn more about this donation, including how it happened, from William (Bill) Martin, President of the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation, and Mark Mumford, Chief Operating Officer for Nemours Children's Health.  Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 184: Raising Resilient Kids with Michael and Nicole Phelps

This episode features conversations about raising resilient kids based on the video series of the same name. It’s a partnership between Nemours Children’s Health and the Michael Phelps Foundation and features the most decorated Olympian of all time and his wife, Nicole, as your hosts. Together, they talk with Nemours experts about the world’s hardest job: being a parent. Nicole and Michael are the parents of three young sons and face the same concerns and challenges that all parents do when ...

Episode 183: If Only They Came with Instructions (Parent Training Program)

We’re talking about how parents learn to become parents, focusing on a parent training management program launched last fall at Nemours Children’s Hospital Floridie for parents whose children have been diagnosed with ADHD. Our guests on this episode developed it: Dr. Lisa Spector, division chief of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics at Nemours Children's, Florida, and her colleague Dr. Corinne Bria, a pediatric emergency medicine physician. Dr. Bria holds a master's of medical education wit...

Episode 182: The Importance of Employee Engagement (REBROADCAST)

Nemours' Director of Talent Services Dr. Allison Craft is an ardent advocate for associate engagement across the enterprise. In this podcast, she'll share high-level results of the most recent employee engagement survey. She'll also reveal the very personal reason why she's so passionate about employee engagement, which has its origins in an experience so profound that it led her to leave her dream job with NASA to join Nemours and further the engagement mission. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 181: Powering Voices

For more than forty years, Nemours has been leading the way in voice synthesis, voice banking and related assistive technology. This is thanks to the leadership of Dr. Tim Bunnell, Director of the Center for Pediatric Auditory and Speech Sciences at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware. He also heads up Model Talker, a small group of Nemours scientists who helps create synthetic voices for people worldwide, applying the latest technology and research, including predictive analytics. They ...

Episode 180: Child's Play

Strange as it may sound, spite was exactly why Child’s Play was founded in 2003. Child’s Play - based in the technology hub of Redmond, Washington, home to Microsoft and Nintendo in America - is a gamer-led charity driving the movement to bring video gaming to pediatric hospitals like Nemours and other non-profits that serve children across the nation and across the world.  Hear more about Child’s Play - its background, mission, and partnership with Nemours in both Delaware and Florida - f...

Episode 179: Let's Play! Video Games in Healthcare

Video games and virtual reality (VR) have long been a staple in the pediatric healthcare setting, and it's now becoming a part of the Child Life mission of leading pediatric hospitals like Nemours. In this episode, we talk with Scott Shaw, Nemours' Child Life Gaming and Technology Specialist. He is one of just 50 such people in the burgeoning field of gaming in healthcare. He joined Nemours in 2022 to take a position funded partly by a grant from Child’s Play, a game industry charity. Chil...

Episode 178: BRIC by BRIC - Building Predictive Analytics

It's our first episode of 2023, featuring the final episode in our occasional series on Precision Medicine at Nemours. Our topic is predictive analytics for the purpose of research. Collecting it, preparing it, analyzing it, and protecting it are the realm of the Nemours Biomedical Research Informatics Center (BRIC). BRIC provides consultation, training, and computational resources to biomedical research investigators across the enterprise and beyond. Our guests are BRIC Director Dr. Timothy...

Episode 177: From Volun-teen to Child & Teen Healthcare Professional (REBROADCAST)

Nemours Pediatric Psychologist Dr. Danika Perry reveals that her Nemours experience began when she was a high school volunteer - a volun-teen - at what is now the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware.  For Dr. Perry, this and other volunteer opportunities would point her to her life's passion: a career as a pediatric psychologist. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 176: Haircare for Champions - Styled Just Right (REBROADCAST)

Respiratory therapist L'Tanya Pierce talks about the Nemours Hair Care for Champions project she started in the Delaware Valley Region. It's aimed at providing hospitalized Nemours patients with clean, healthy-looking, and attractive hair as a matter of dignity and pride. It's also a grassroots, bedside example of how Nemours associates go beyond medicine daily.  Please be advised: There are two patient stories in this podcast. Certain details have been left out to ensure their privacy. De...

Episode 175: French Fries for the Holidays

It’s our year-end holiday remix, and at the center of this podcast episode is what’s likely at the center of many traditional holiday celebrations: food. Whether its Ghanaian groundnut stew or Nigerian jollof rice for Kwanzaa, the traditional “seven fishes” served in many Italian-American homes on Christmas Eve, latkes for Chanukah, pork pie for boxing day, or buckwheat soba noodles served at midnight on New Year's Eve in many Japanese homes, traditional foods and holidays seem to go hand in...

Episode 174: A PICU for Nigeria

Nigeria is a multicultural country of 218 million people, nearly half of whom, according to UNICEF, are under 15. Over the past five years, infant and under-five mortality rates have remained steady and alarmingly high in Nigeria:  one in every eight children born in Nigeria does not survive to their fifth birthday. Nemours intensivist Dr. Odiraa Nwankwor is working with a team of his colleagues from Nemours, Cooper University HealthCare in Camden, New Jersey, and his medical school alma mat...

Episode 173: Answering Parents' Tripledemic Questions

On Nov. 29, 2022, The Nemours Community Relations team put together a webinar featuring Dr. Alexander along with board-certified pediatrician Dr. Maria Petrini from Nemours Children’s Health Delaware and moderated by pediatrician Dr. Laura Chilcutt, a policy advisor to the external affairs team at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. During the webinar, they opened the chat room to parents’ pressing questions about each of the tripledemic viruses - for example, how they spread, how they a...

Episode 172: The Tripledemic Basics

The word of the season -  you’re hearing it everywhere - is tripledemic. What is it? How might it affect you and your family, especially your children, and, perhaps most importantly, what can you do to keep yourself and your family safe and healthy?  On Nov. 29th, The Nemours Community Relations team put together a webinar featuring Nemours experts in pediatrics and infectious diseases to provide information on the current tripledemic landscape and answer parents' questions about it. It’s ...

Episode 171: Genetic Medicine and Genetic Counseling for Kids

Our occasional series on precision medicine at Nemours continues with a look at medical genetics and genetic counseling. According to the American Society of Human Genetics, medical genetics is any application of genetic principles to medical practice. This includes studies of inheritance, mapping disease genes, diagnosis and treatment, and genetic counseling, all offered here at Nemours.  Featuring: Karen Gripp, MD, Pediatrician, and Genetic researcher, NCH Delaware Laura Baker, Genet...

Episode 170: Navigating the Health Care System

It's Thanksgiving week when families gather to celebrate that for which they are grateful. With the family together in one place, it's a rare opportunity for relatives to talk about and even record family history, including family health histories. That's one lesson that is being learned by teenagers across the nation whose teachers have chosen to avail themselves of a no-cost, evidence-based health education curriculum called "Navigating the Health Care System," developed here at Nemours....

Episode 169: The U.S. Fights Hunger

At the September 28, 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, a transformational vision and action plan for ending hunger and reducing diet-related disease by 2030 was introduced.  Achieving these goals that lie therein requires commitment and action across government, business, civic and nonprofit organizations, academia,  faith communities, healthcare, and the public at large. This conference showed that such commitment exists and that leaders across all sectors are re...

Episode 168: Biobanking at Nemours

Biobanking is the process by which samples of bodily fluid or tissue are collected for research use to improve our understanding of health and disease. As part of our occasional series on precision medicine, we explore the past, present, and future of biobanking at Nemours.  Featuring Nemours associates Dr. Diana Corao-Uribe, Dr. Deepti Anand, and researcher Jennifer Holbrook. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 167: Driving Mental Wellness and Health Equity

Dr. Roger Harrison joins us on this episode of the podcast, and together we'll delve into his work as a pediatric psychologist in the greater Wilmington Delaware area, a role he's had at Nemore for 19 years, and his longstanding passion for health equity and inclusion, which has led to his more recent role with the diversity, anti-racism, inclusion value, and health equity initiative called DRIVE.  Carol Vassar, producer  

Episode 166: Live, Love, Woof

Animals are healers. They've been proven to reduce pain, anxiety, and blood pressure, and release endorphins, and even bring joy to what can be a scary place: a hospital. So it's not a surprise for hospitals, health care systems, and long-term care facilities to have pet therapy teams who bring tested, certified, and well-tempered animals - mostly dogs - to comfort patients and families. Nemours has volunteer pet therapy teams at both NCH locations.  Recently, Nemours took the next step in...

Episode 165: Celebrating Research

Throughout the history of Nemours Children's Health, research has been a crucial part of our mission. As a natural companion effort with clinical work, it has been central to serving patients and families in Delaware, Florida, and beyond.  Nemours' Executive Director of Research, Dr. Vicky Funanage, visits the podcast to provide an overview of research across the enterprise and a preview of Delaware Valley Research Week events happening from Oct. 17 through Oct. 21.  Agenda for 2022 Dela...

Episode 164: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month (part 2 of 2)

We continue to honor Hispanic Heritage Month by talking with associates of Hispanic background about their personal experiences with being Hispanic in America and at Nemours. In this episode, we talk with Allen Garcia, PhD., Pediatric Psychologist based at Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando.  Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 163: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month (part 1 of 2)

We're honoring Hispanic Heritage Month by talking with associates of Hispanic background about their personal experiences with being Hispanic in America and at Nemours. In this episode, we'll talk with first-year pediatric residents Dr. Natalia Cordona and Dr. Gabriela Guadalupe-Rios from NCH-Florida.   Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 162: Saving Lives Worldwide

Dr. Stephen Dunn is the Chair of the Department of Surgery and Division Chief for the Nemours Solid Organ Transplant Program at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware. We're talking with him about his international work, his background as a surgeon, as a public health service veteran, and his determination to bring training, technology, and treatment for children with liver and kidney disease to a wider world, starting at the place where the seeds of his interest in medicine were sewn: rur...

Episode 161: Pharmacogenomics in Practice

Under the broad umbrella of precision medicine falls pharmacogenomics, and within the field of pharamocogenomics, Nemours is involved with both researching and clinically applying pharacogenomics. In the second of two episodes on pharmacogenomics, we'll check in with pharmacists Dr. Benjamin Duong and Dr. Kelsey Cook about what's current in clinical pharmacogenomics, and what's on the horizon, too.  Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 160: Changing Medicine through Pharmacogenomics Research

Pharmacogenomics is a field of research that studies how a person's genes affect how an individual responds to medications. Its long-term goal is to help doctors select the drugs and doses best suited for each person. It's research that is happening within the walls of Nemours. We'll hear more about it from researcher Dr. Kathryn Blake, Director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics and Translational Research, and research scientist Dr. Ed Mougey.  Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 159: Advanced Delivery Program

It's Labor Day, and we're talking labor and delivery within the Advanced Delivery Program (ADP) at the Nemours Children's Hospital (NCH) in Delaware. It's a two-and-a-half-year-old program that started as a partnership between ChristianaCare and Nemours Children's Health aimed at having mom's deliver at NCH Delaware if their child had been diagnosed with a fetal anomaly requiring treatment immediately following birth. Nemours is taking on this program solo starting this month, and here to te...

Episode 158: Breastfeeding Beyond Barriers

Breastfeeding is not easy. It's a learning experience for moms and babies, especially the first time around. Nemours associate Lindsey Killian faced more barriers than most when it came to her first-time breastfeeding experience: her son was diagnosed with the metabolic disorder PKU when he was just four days old. This required the introduction of specially blended PKU formula to his breastfeeding routine - a staple of his diet (and that of his father, Tom, who also has PKU) to this day. ...

Episode 157: Supporting Breastfeeding

It is breastfeeding awareness month. And in previous podcast episodes this month, we've talked to the clinical experts on the benefits of breastfeeding to moms and their babies and breastfeeding across cultures. In part three of our Breastfeeding Awareness Month podcast, we'll talk with a breastfeeding mom and a lactation consultant - both Nemours associates- about family and community support and the key role it plays in a mother's breastfeeding journey. Fathers, grandparents, sisters, au...

Episode 156: Breastfeeding Across Cultures

August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and in this episode, we'll explore some of the cultural aspects of breastfeeding with Dr. Tara Williams, Nemours General Academic Pediatrician and Breastfeeding Medicine Specialist based in Orlando, and Karina Charra, site coordinator in the Emergency Department of the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, and co-lead of the Adelante Associate Resource Group.  Carol Vassar, producer  

Episode 155: Breastfeeding - An Overview

August is National Breastfeeding Month. According to the March of Dimes, though natural in many ways, breastfeeding is also a skill learned through practice. The benefits of breastfeeding are numerous and long-lasting. Nemours associates and breastfeeding counselors Ainger Walker and Shamiya Gould are here to talk about the benefits, the struggles, the stigmas, and ultimately the triumphs of breastfeeding. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 154: Six Degrees of Separation - Nemours Edition

Since 2021, retired healthcare executive Elliot Joseph has been a member of the Nemours Foundation Board of Directors. Prior to his retirement in 2019, he was the CEO of Hartford HealthCare, a fully integrated, multi-specialty healthcare network serving the state of Connecticut. Mr. Joseph brings that expertise, experience, and leadership to Nemours. We'll talk about his Nemours journey,  the path that led him to the business side of healthcare, the function of a board of directors within a ...

Episode 155: Six Degrees of Separation - Nemours Edition

Since 2021, retired healthcare executive Elliot Joseph has been a member of the Nemours Foundation Board of Directors. Prior to his retirement in 2019, he was the CEO of Hartford HealthCare, a fully integrated, multi-specialty healthcare network serving the state of Connecticut. Mr. Joseph brings that expertise, experience, and leadership to Nemours. We'll talk about his Nemours journey,  the path that led him to the business side of healthcare, the function of a board of directors within a ...

Episode 153: What is Precision Medicine?

Today we begin an occasional series within the podcast to highlight precision medicine and the associates here at Nemours who are researching and implementing these innovative approaches to medicine, specifically pediatric medicine.  Answering the basic question of "What is precision medicine" are two Nemours geneticists with 73 years of combined experience in genetics and at Nemours: Dr. Pamela Arn, Nemours Division Chief for Genetics, and Dr. Vicky Funanage, Nemours' Operational Vice Pre...

Episode 154: What is Precision Medicine?

Today we begin an occasional series within the podcast to highlight precision medicine and the associates here at Nemours who are researching and implementing these innovative approaches to medicine, specifically pediatric medicine.  Answering the basic question of "What is precision medicine" are two Nemours geneticists with 73 years of combined experience in genetics and at Nemours: Dr. Pamela Arn, Nemours Division Chief for Genetics, and Dr. Vicky Funanage, Nemours' Operational Vice Pre...

Episode 153: Dr. Wade Shrader

Dr. Wade Shrader has seen Cerebral Palsy (CP) from two important perspectives: that of a physician, a surgeon, and the Chief of the Division of Cerebral Palsy inside the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, and as the father of four children, two of whom are young adults living with CP.  His perspective as both family member and provider has proved influential in his decision to specialize in CP.  Carol Vassar, producer  

Episode 152: Dr. Wade Shrader

Dr. Wade Shrader has seen Cerebral Palsy (CP) from two important perspectives: that of a physician, a surgeon, and the Chief of the Division of Cerebral Palsy inside the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, and as the father of four children, two of whom are young adults living with CP.  His perspective as both family member and provider has proved influential in his decision to specialize in CP.  Carol Vassar, producer  

Episode 152: Opera, Optimism, and Elton John

We catch up with performer, singer, Nemours respiratory therapist, and optimist Mary Ann Douglas, who we first met on Episode 4 of the podcast from 2019. In a new interview recorded in July 2022, she provides an update on enduring the COVID-19 pandemic with her PICU team at NCH Orlando, providing stories of lessons learned and stresses born, along with patient stories from that time, which includes singing! Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 151: Opera, Optimism, and Elton John

We catch up with performer, singer, Nemours respiratory therapist, and optimist Mary Ann Douglas, who we first met on Episode 4 of the podcast from 2019. In a new interview recorded in July 2022, she provides an update on enduring the COVID-19 pandemic with her PICU team at NCH Orlando, providing stories of lessons learned and stresses born, along with patient stories from that time, which includes singing! Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 150: HOPE for Oklahoma

We're taking a deeper dive into Project HOPE by examining a partnership between Nemours and the State of Oklahoma that brings capacity-building skills and technical assistance to that state to help them in the work of preventing social adversities in early childhood. Featuring Nemours Associate Trevor Lee, Program and Policy Analyst in the Nemours Office of Policy and Prevention in Washington, DC., and  Carrie Williams, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness.  ...

Episode 151: HOPE for Oklahoma

We're taking a deeper dive into Project HOPE by examining a partnership between Nemours and the State of Oklahoma that brings capacity-building skills and technical assistance to that state to help them in the work of preventing social adversities in early childhood. Featuring Nemours Associate Trevor Lee, Program and Policy Analyst in the Nemours Office of Policy and Prevention in Washington, DC., and  Carrie Williams, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness.  ...

Episode 149: Engage!

Nemours' Director of Talent Services Dr. Allison Craft is an ardent advocate for associate engagement across the enterprise. In this podcast, she'll share high-level results of the most recent employee engagement survey. She'll also reveal the very personal reason why she's so passionate about employee engagement, which has its origins in an experience so profound that it led her to leave her dream job with NASA to join Nemours and further the engagement mission. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 150: Engage!

Nemours' Director of Talent Services Dr. Allison Craft is an ardent advocate for associate engagement across the enterprise. In this podcast, she'll share high-level results of the most recent employee engagement survey. She'll also reveal the very personal reason why she's so passionate about employee engagement, which has its origins in an experience so profound that it led her to leave her dream job with NASA to join Nemours and further the engagement mission. Carol Vassar, producer

Episode 148: Meet Dr. Rachel Thornton

Joining us in conversation on this episode of the podcast is Dr. Rachel Thornton, who arrived at Nemours on March 1, 2022, as the inaugural holder of a new leadership position within the enterprise: Enterprise Chief Health Equity Officer. Together, let's get to know Dr. Thornton, her path to becoming a doctor, and her vision for further advancing the health equity work that has been underway here at Nemours for a decade.