CHEER Webinar: Parents and Neonatal Research
Georg Schmolzer
Dr. Georg Schmölzer is a clinician-scientist with a focus on neonatal, infant, and pediatricresuscitation research and large clinical trials. He is the Director or CSAR (Centre for the Studies ofAsphyxia and Resuscitation) at the University of Alberta and a neonatologist within the NorthernAlbertan Neonatal Program, providing care to critically ill newborns. Dr. Schmölzer obtained his MDat the Medical University Graz in Austria and trained in Pediatrics and Neonatology at the MedicalUniversity Graz and The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He obtained his PhD atMonash University, Melbourne, Australia, before completing a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at theUniversity of Alberta. He is currently a Professor of Pediatrics and an Adjunct Professor ofPharmacology at the University of Alberta. He received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for thiswork on lung health for preterm infants. Dr. Schmölzer research focuses on understandingphysiological changes during fetal to neonatal transition to improve outcomes for newborns,improve approaches to neonatal, infant and pediatric resuscitation, and examine how physiologicalchanges can be used to improve short- and long-term outcomes of newborns, infants, and children.
Betsy Pilon
Betsy Pilon is the Executive Director of Hope for HIE, the premiere global nonprofit patient advocacy group dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and families impacted by neonatal and pediatric-acquired Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy through awareness, education and support. Hope for HIE connects over 10,000 families, researchers, clinicians, and the greater community, worldwide, through a comprehensive network. After her own son, Max, was born in 2012 with HIE, it was difficult to find educational resources or connections with other families. Eventually, she found a small group of families gathering on social media. Working with the existing group, she led the efforts to start the grassroots nonprofit foundation in 2013, and has been relentlessly growing out the organization in awareness, advocacy, education, research and support since that time with many other families. She is based out of Detroit, Michigan, and is an accomplished speaker, writer, advocate, and connector with a background in marketing and corporate communication in healthcare, education and automotive. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Newborn Brain Society, co-chairing the Communication & Networking Committee, as well as many neonatal and neurology-related workgroups, task forces, and committees elevating the lived experiences of the HIE community through patient advocacy.
Rebecca Pearce
Rebecca is a high school vice-principal who lives in Montreal (and a Queen's graduate!). She is themother of a surviving twin who was born at 25 weeks and 5 days gestational age in 2009. Over theyears Rebecca has been a co-author on a number of papers discussing parental views of prematurityand has become an advocate for trying to improve outcomes of prematurity by including parentvoices and perspectives in research. She is also the chair of the Canadian Premature BabiesFoundation Family Advisory Committee.