Committees and Sections – American Academy of Pediatrics

committees

Note that the list of committees outlined below does not reflect all the committees in current development. Please be sure to click the green box below (Join a Committee) to see the all inclusive list, and to sign up.

Adverse childhood experiences (aces)

Chaired by Dr. Adam Schickedanz, MD, FAAP who is a faculty researcher examining the impacts of poverty and ACEs on children’s health, this committee has taken off in the last few month s educating our chapter members on ACEs and exploring how the Governor’s desire to screen for ACEs can be implemented in our clinics. This committee will also attempt to align with the work of our Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris in this area. Consider joining this committee if you work in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or with vulnerable populations such as children in the foster care system or who have been abused or neglected or if this issue is important to you.

Visit our Page: https://aapca2.org/aces/

Advocacy committee

Chaired by Marti Baum, MD and Susan Wu, MA, FAAP, representatives for the AAP-CA2’s State Government Affairs.

Be the voice in your County. Share local issues that need to be addressed with grassroots efforts. This committee is comprised of concerned pediatricians and public health advocates, who meet to address legislative needs for the children and the Pediatric community, as well as the local advocacy opportunities.

Visit our page: https://aapca2.org/advocacy/

Anti smoking/vaping

Chaired by Casey Nagel, MD, Preventative Medicine internist at UCLA. Dr. Nagel has been at the forefront of advocacy against vaping and flavored tobacco in Los Angeles, and has maintained the activity of the Anti-Vaping Champions, a contract with the California Department of Public Health. So much news is coming forth on the youth vaping epidemic that the narrative changes on a weekly basis. Vaping is now associated with serious lung injury and possible death, and many governmental leaders, including Governor Newsom and President Trump, have called for people to stop vaping. Locally, we have had many wins, as we have banned all tobacco sales in Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, and banned flavors in Los Angeles County and Long Beach. These local ordinances have also sparked other anti-tobacco legislation to come back, including smoking in public areas and smoking in multi-unit housing. We need to identify chapter members who can provide testimony about the hazards of smoking/vaping in local city council meetings around Los Angeles County and in other counties in our chapters.

Visit our page: https://aapca2.org/vaping/

Breastfeeding/Lactation Committee

Chaired by Candace Gragnani, MD, MPH, FAAP; Hanna Siddiqui, MD, MPH, FAAP; and Kelly Fong, MD, FAAP in collaboration with Grace Deukmedjian, MD, and Asaiah Harville, IBCLC – two providers who founded an outpatient lactation clinic at MLK Community Group with wrap-around services that can serve the needs of local mothers, especially those from disadvantaged communities. This committee comprises pediatricians, residents, and undergraduate students, and is dedicated to addressing (1) the inequitable access to lactation care, support, and services families in South LA face; (2) provider education and skills around breastfeeding support, assessment, and treatment plans; and (3) racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and infant mortality and gaps in knowledge around how to provide the best care for Black moms and babies.

CLIMATE CHANGE

As the greatest health threat of our time, climate change impacts children and underserved communities. The Climate Change Committee is co-founded and chaired by pediatricians Priyanka Fernandes, MD FAAP, Karina Maher, MD, Aditi Mhaskar, MD, FAAP and Trisha Roth, MD, FAAP Please join us to find ways to protect and improve pediatric environmental health through education and advocacy efforts. Visit our page: https://aapca2.org/climate/

COVID-19 Committee

Chaired by Nava Yeganeh, MD, FAAP, an attending physician at Mattel Children’s Hospital, teaching infectious disease fellows, pediatric residents and medical students

We want to thank all pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists, surgeons, nurses and health care professionals in general for continuing to stay in the front lines during this pandemic. Your input and contribution would be most valued in the COVID-19 committee. In this page you will find links to Testing, Isolation Guidelines, and Guidance for Health Care Providers – all categorized by county, There are also links to National AAP recommendations, Telehealth and information for parents. Lastly, there are links to COVID-19 websites of neighboring health departments, CDC, WHO, and the Johns Hopkins global dashboard. HIPPO Education has created specific content available at no cost to all providers, including “COVID;19: Pregnancy and Newborns” Thank you again for all that you do on behalf of children.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Chaired by Lindsay Wells, MD, FAAP, specialist in Pediatric Internal Medicine and Assistant Clinical Professor, UCLA Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. Her primary focus includes patient empowerment, health literacy, and health care of the underserved

“Our mission at AAP-CA2 is to combat discrimination by promoting justice, respect, inclusion, opportunity, and camaraderie in the medical community and the diverse populations we serve. We are committed to anti-racism. We work to eliminate disparities, prejudice, and bias in education, nutrition, healthcare, neighborhood, and society. We believe in creating, fostering, and ensuring access to a safe, nurturing environment where all children can thrive. We aim to increase the representation of physicians and other healthcare providers from marginalized, minoritized, and oppressed backgrounds within the field of pediatrics and our AAP-CA2 communities.”

Visit our page: https://aapca2.org/edi/

Immigrant health

Chaired by Sural Shah, MD, MPH who is also an inaugural member of the national Council on Immigrant Child Health, this committee has been very active for more than a year as the AAP has been fighting for the health and welfare of immigrant children everywhere, including those detained at our borders and separated from their caregivers. This group has monthly meetings and activities such as planning town hall meetings, campaigns to comment on impending regulation changes from the federal government, as well as general advocacy efforts in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Visit our Immigrant Toolkit page: https://aapca2.org/toolkit/

Immunizations

With the recent passage of SB 276, along with the passage of SB 277 in 2015, we have a need to have a group of experts who can provide support for our chapter members in implementing the guidelines set forth in these pieces of legislation. Our chapter immunizations liaison is Candace Gragnani, MD, FAAP, who recently authored the guidelines for medical exemptions for vaccines which is being adopted throughout the state by the Health Officers in each county. We also have Dr. Ken Zangwill who is an infectious diseases specialist and member of the national Section on Infectious Diseases, along with several vaccine experts in our chapter. We will work on bringing this committee together and providing resources for our chapter members for implementing new vaccine guidelines, along with providing support on how to address anti-vaccine sentiments in your practice.

Membership

Chaired by the Vice-President of the Board of Directors (this year, Dr. Grant Christman, MD, FAAP), this committee is comprised of our Members-at-Large on the Board and our Area Representatives of each of the seven counties in our chapter. This committee is responsible for welcoming new members and following up with individuals whose membership dues have lapsed. They have monthly calls to brainstorm on how to recruit new members and promote our chapter activities, such as our Annual Symposium and Life After Residency events. This committee is vital to our chapter because we want to be the go-to organization for pediatricians and children’s health in our counties.

Media & communication

Chaired by Tanya Altman, MD, FAAP AAP-CA2 Secretary & Co-chair by Dr. Ilan Shapiro, MD, FAAP, AAP-CA2 Member at Large. Dr Altmann and Dr. Shapiro have had extensive experience in communicating with the press on behalf of children and pediatricians, through media appearances, and other public engagements.

Do you have an interest in media and communications? Would you like to learn how to structure sound bytes when speaking with the media? Or perhaps how to be a more effective Tweetrician?

Physician wellness

Chaired by Dr. Pallavi Karma. This is a new priority for our Board, as many physician groups, including National AAP, have recognized that physician burnout and unfortunately, physician suicide is becoming an important issue. We have several members of our chapter very interested in this issue, and we want to support bringing them together tog suggest what we can do as a chapter to support our members who are experiencing burnout or struggling with mental health issues. One aspect that the Board has been concerned about is the requirement to disclose whether a physician is receiving mental health treatment on the licensing renewal application for the California Medical Board, and we are pleased to report that due to physician advocacy on this topic, this question will soon be removed. Please consider joining this important committee to come up with ways to support our fellow chapter members to both prevent and address physician burnout.

practice management

Chaired by Ken Saul, MD, FAAP, AAP-CA2 Ambassador for Ventura County, co-chaired by Tim Watson, MD AAP-CA2 Ambassador for Riverside County. This is another area that was identified at our strategic planning retreat as an important activity for chapter members, particularly those in private practice. We are planning to hold regular conference calls for chapter members interested in learning more from each other about billing and coding, office management and operations issues, and quality improvement efforts for practice optimization. Stay tuned for more information as this committee is launched.

School Health Committee

Co-Chairs: Alice Kuo, MD, PhD, (AAP-CA2 Immediate Past President)
Casey Nagel, MD
Nava Yeganeh, MD, FAAP

The COVID-19 Pandemic has placed various challenges in ensuring safe and healthy learning environments for children and adolescents. The AAP-CA2 has actively solicited for guidelines for social-distanced learning and for a safe, manageable reopening process. We encourage the participation of pediatricians who would like to contribute to conversations around school health guidelines.

Visit our page: https://aapca2.org/toolkit/

Sections

Section on early career physicians

Chaired by our SOECP liaisons (this year, Melissa Ruiz, MD, FAAP and Christine Thang, MD, FAAP), this committee is comprised of physicians who are transitioning out of residency and fellowship as well as those who are within their first years of practice. After our strategic planning retreat, this was an area that members wanted more activities, particularly around work-life balance. We are hoping to plan an annual networking event in which child care would be provided to bring together the early career physicians in our chapters to discuss work-life balance and other challenges facing this group.

section on pediatric trainees

Chaired by our SOPT liasion (this year, Alexa Manrriquez, MD and Alyssa Morse, MD), this committee is comprised of medical students, pediatric and med-peds residents and pediatric-trained fellows who are currently in training. It is a very active group and is responsible for organizing the Life After Residency event each year, in addition to the trainee poster session at the Annual Symposium. Our members have indicated that supporting pediatric trainees is a priority for our chapter, and we welcome anyone who wants to get involved to support them.