Department of Pediatrics

Program Leadership Message

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Our Team

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With more than 1,200 full-time faculty members and over 350 trainees, Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics is nationally recognized for excellence in teaching and clinical service. We are proud to have the nation’s best trained faculty members as part of the team because of their ongoing efforts to advance medical knowledge to continuously improve the health of children in Houston and worldwide.

Our pediatrics faculty members achievements are reflected in their authorship of major texts in the discipline, election to leadership positions in pediatrics, and receipt of national and international recognition.

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Message from the Interim Program Director

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Welcome to the pediatric residency training program at Baylor College of Medicine! Your time in residency will be a process of self-discovery, packed with new and exciting experiences that will nourish your personal and professional growth. Our goal is to provide you with world-class training in pediatrics and expose you to a variety of new and challenging clinical situations that will allow you to hone the skills needed for the next phase in your career.

Much of our program’s long history of success has resulted from fostering a collaborative learning environment that encourages knowledge sharing, innovation, and continuous quality improvement. Our house staff office and faculty educators are dedicated to helping residents become competent, compassionate, and resourceful pediatric providers, researchers, and academic leaders. With unparalleled support from our chairman and a department that is dedicated to resident education, we have continued to grow, innovate, and succeed in our educational mission.

Our curriculum provides residents with a strong foundation in patient-centered care, evidence-based decision-making, quality and safety, and medical education. Whether your plans include completing a highly competitive fellowship, entering clinical practice, or caring for the sickest children in resource-limited settings around the globe.  

Here are just a few highlights:

Clinical exposure: Texas Children’s Hospital, located in the Texas Medical Center, is the largest pediatric hospital in the nation, and provides care in more than 40 pediatric specialties. Virtually all types of medical problems, from the common cold to rare genetic syndromes, will be encountered during your training.

Combined training programs: Residents may individualize their curriculum based on their anticipated post-residency career. Specialty tracks include Global Health, Neurology, Genetics, PSP, and Primary Care LEAD.

Resident education: Multiple educational sessions are held each week for our residents, including: Intern Pedi 101 curriculum; daily morning report, an interactive case review to stimulate critical thinking and approaching diagnostic dilemmas; daily board-prep style noon conferences; simulation experiences focused on recognizing and stabilizing critically ill patients; intern procedural skills curriculum.

Prioritizing the education of our residents is at the forefront of our program, and we have set aside resident educational time daily that is protected from clinical duties to ensure that residents are learning through high-quality didactic teaching in addition to the hands-on learning that occurs on clinical services. Sessions included in the daily educational time range from interactive case conferences presented by our own residents, to professional development series, to hands-on monthly simulation skills sessions.

Residents as teachers: Residents have an essential role in supervising and teaching Baylor medical students rotating on clinical rotations. The Safety and Teaching as Resident Supervisors (STaRS) curriculum was specifically designed to prepare residents to become autonomous medical educators.

The Baylor College of Medicine Pediatrics Residency Program seeks to attract the best possible candidates from throughout the nation and world. If you are interested in training for a career in Pediatrics in one of the most rapidly-growing, diverse cities in the nation (and having fun while doing it), I encourage you to explore what our program has to offer!

We welcome your visit to Houston and look forward to your questions and feedback.

Mark Ward
Interim Director of House Staff Education
Interim Pediatric Program Director
Department of Pediatrics / Division of Emergency Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine / Texas Children’s Hospital
 

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Message from the Chair

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Lara Sevanne Shekerdemian
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Dear Future Pediatricians,

A warm welcome to the website for the Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric Residency training program. I invite you to learn about the exceptional training opportunities that we offer at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital as well as the vibrant and diverse community of the city of Houston. I am incredibly proud of our Department of Pediatrics Faculty, with outstanding general and sub-specialty pediatricians from around the world who are leaders in clinical care, research, education, policy and advocacy. 

Our residents are intelligent, enthusiastic, and compassionate individuals who thrive in an environment of mutual respect and inclusion for all colleagues. We aim to provide patient-centered education that supports life-long inquiry and growth by providing every trainee a robust foundation in general and subspecialty pediatrics.  Our faculty are dedicated to ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion for all, while leading our trainees to provide complete health care to infants, children and adolescents from Houston, the state of Texas and beyond. Our patients reflect the multicultural nature Houston, which is the most diverse city in the United States, and, in addition, we receive referrals from across the globe to our tertiary and quaternary care teams. All of these facets come together to provide our residents with exceptional and unparalleled training. 

Whether you are interested in general pediatrics, sub-specialty training, basic, translational or clinical research, or are as yet undecided, Baylor provides a community of pediatricians who are dedicated to teaching, mentoring and learning together. If you have never been to Houston, it is a very special city and an amazing place to live and work. On a personal level when I moved here, having lived in many places around the world, I was amazed by how much Houston has to offer in terms of the local cultural scene including arts and music, wonderful dining, sports, outdoor activities, and access to beaches, lakes and so much more. Houston is a national and international ‘hub’ which makes it very easy to travel for short breaks, and for friends and family to visit from all over the US. 

Thank you for visiting our website, and, truly, I hope that you will consider applying to our program and learning more about all that Houston, Baylor, and Texas Children’s have to offer. 

Cheers, 

Lara Shekerdemian, M.B.Ch.B, M.D., M.H.A.
Pediatrician-in-Chief,
Texas Children's Hospital 
Professor and Interim Chair of Pediatrics,
Baylor College of Medicine
 

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Associate Program Directors

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Teri

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Teri Turner, M.D., M.P.H., MEd

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Vice Chair of Education, Martin I. Lorin, M.D., Endowed Chair in Medical Education, Assistant Dean of Graduate Medical Education, and Professor of Pediatrics

Lanessa

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Lanessa Bass, M.D., MEd

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Associate Program Director and Associate Professor

Jolie

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Jolie Britt, M.D.

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Associate Program Director and Assistant Professor

Asha

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Asha Morrow, M.D.

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Associate Program Director and Assistant Professor

Stacy

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Stacy Pierson, M.D.

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Associate Program Director and Assistant Professor

Brian

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Brian Rissmiller, M.D.

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Associate Program Director and Assistant Professor

cat

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Linessa Zuniga, M.D., MEd

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Associate Program Director and Assistant Professor

Mark

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Mark Ward, M.D.

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Program Director Emeritus