Child Health Advocacy

Our Advocacy Mission

The Department of Pediatrics seeks to advance pediatric healthcare access, outcomes, and discovery through evidence-informed advocacy for systems change.

Our Advocacy Values

Our Advocacy efforts are guided by several core values:

Advocates: We leverage our expertise and relationships to advocate for policy changes benefiting children’s health access, outcomes, and discovery.
Champion for Children & Their Families: We are passionate champions for children and their families across the pediatric continuum, centering their unique needs and capacities. 
Community-Engaged: With cultural humility, we cultivate mutually beneficial partnerships, locally, regionally, and globally. 

Our Advocacy Goals

We seek to:

  • Generate new evidence to inform policy change in order to promote children’s health.
  • Disseminate research to inform policy makers and key decision makers on key child health issues.
  • Train the next generation of child health advocates.
     

Grand Rounds on Advocacy

View a list of Advocacy-related Grand Rounds recorded presentations.
For more information about the University of Minnesota's Pediatric Grand Rounds, click here.

Academic Careers in Advocacy: Defining and Clearing the Path!

Sara Bode, MD
Associate Professor
Division of Community Wellness
Department of Pediatrics
Nationwide Children's Hospital

Thinking Beyond our Walls: Education, Research and Growth in Community-Based Pediatric Hospital Medicine

Jordan Marmet, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota

Sean O'Brien, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota

Christina Russell, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota

Finding the Elephant in Global Child Health and Advocacy Education

Amy Rule, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Division of Neonatology and Hospital Medicine
Emory School of Medicine & Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

When the Shooting Stops: Comprehensive Care for Pediatric Survivors of Gun Violence

Ashley Bjorklund, MD, FAAP
Assistant Professor
Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota

Faculty Spotlight - Excellence in Child Advocacy

Each year the Department of Pediatrics recognizes a faculty member for their "Excellence in Child Advocacy".

Calla Brown
Calla Brown - 2023

Calla Brown, Assistant Professor, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, is an internist and pediatrician with clinical and research interests that include primary care, care of complex chronic medical conditions in children and adults, community health, and health justice. 

Paul Orchard
Paul Orchard - 2022

Dr. Paul Orchard is the Medical Director of the Inherited Metabolic and Storage Disease Program and a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Blood and Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy.

Muna Sunni
Muna Sunni - 2021

Dr. Muna Sunni joined the Department of Pediatrics in September 2013 in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and became Associate Director of the Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program in 2020.