Q3 2025

Kansas Pediatrician

The August KAAP Quarterly Newsletter highlights major Medicaid updates, including new payment rates, expanded coverage for nutrition formulas, and the opening of new rates and codes, along with important AAP developments such as the new immunization schedule, reaffirmed depression guidelines, and Dr. Sue Kressley’s upcoming keynote. It also celebrates quality improvement gains in vaccination, member achievements, new members, and upcoming opportunities for education, resilience building, and statewide advocacy to strengthen child health in Kansas.

• President’s Perspective
• AAP Publishes New Immunization Schedule
• Boosting Immunizations, Building Confidence
• AAP President Speaks at CMH Symposium
• AAP Reaffirms Adolescent Depression Guidelines
• Gretchen Homan, MD, FAAP: Kansas’ 2025 AIM Immunization Champion
• Welcome New Members
• Fall 2025 Progress in Pediatrics
• HCBS Webinar Series Coming This October
• Building Resilience Through Everyday Care
• Free Mental Health Support for Kansas Providers
• Be Part of a Statewide Effort to Improve Care for Young Children
• Big or Small, Your Ideas Can Advance Children’s Health
• Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris is a Keynote Speaker at CCNK Conference

Members

Boosting Immunizations, Building Confidence

From January to June 2025, KAAP partnered with 19 pediatricians across 11 practice sites to increase childhood and adolescent immunizations through a quality improvement project. Participants earned 25 MOC Part 4 credits and a stipend while testing strategies such as offering vaccines at every visit, using recall systems, and starting HPV vaccine conversations as early as age nine.

The project led to measurable gains: childhood vaccination rates rose across multiple series, influenza coverage increased from 52% to 64%, and adolescent Tdap, HPV, and meningococcal rates all improved. Just as significantly, physician satisfaction with immunization efforts grew dramatically—from 24% at baseline to 88% reporting they were satisfied or very satisfied by the end of the project.

Members

Welcome, New Members!

Ghadeer Alnajjar, MD, FAAP

Dr. Alnajjar is a board-certified pediatrician at Children’s Mercy Broadway Primary Care Clinic in Kansas City and serves on the faculty at both the UMKC and the KU School of Medicine. A graduate of the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine with residency training at the University of Florida–Shands Children’s Hospital, Dr. Alnajjar is known for her compassionate, family-centered care and commitment to advancing child health.

Melissa Jane Conroy, DO, FAAP

Dr. Conroy, a pediatrician with more than 20 years of experience, is a graduate of Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine and now practices at Redbud Pediatrics in Wichita. Inspired by her family’s legacy in healthcare, Dr. Conroy provides compassionate, individualized care in partnership with parents.

Connor Hosty, MD, FAAP

Dr. Hosty, a Lenexa native, practices at Preferred Pediatrics in Olathe. He completed medical training at KU School of Medicine and a pediatric residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Washington University. Dr. Hosty has special interests in adolescent health, newborn care, and promoting children’s mental health and healthy lifestyles.

Maria Paz Deza Leon, MD, FAAP

Dr. Paz Deza Leon is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the UMKC School of Medicine. She completed training at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Dr. Paz Deza Leon’s work centers on respiratory viruses, preparing for future pandemics, and improving outcomes for children facing complex infections.

Adam Schifman, DO, FAAP

Dr. Schifman is a board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physician and Medical Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. With more than a decade of experience, he trained at Children’s Mercy and Nationwide Children’s Hospital/Ohio State University and is a strong advocate for dedicated pediatric emergency care environments.

Craig Sitzman, MD, FAAP

Dr. Sitzman is a board-certified neonatologist with Heartland Neonatology Associates at Bryan Medical Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. He serves as Chair of Pediatrics and Women’s & Children’s Services, overseeing the NICU program as well as neonatal transport and outreach education. Dr. Sitman’s leadership is noted for promoting evidence-based, family-centered care that enhances outcomes for premature and critically ill infants.

Please welcome the following Students, Residents, and Candidate Members to KAAP

• Peace Alabi, MD; Resident Member
• Hunter Cave, DO; Resident Member
• Muhammad Chughtai, MD; Resident Member
• Hannah Eckstein; Medical Student
• Roy Ghanem, MD; Resident Member
• Rana Harhay, DO, FAAP; Candidate Member
• Gabriela Luthje, MD; Candidate Member
• Caroline Ichura, MD; Resident Member
• Caroline Kinchler, MD; Resident Member
• Gibran Merchant; Medical Student
• Nishit Patel, MD; Resident Member
• Aakanksha Rana, MD; Resident Member
• Anthony Saad, MD; Resident Member
• Philippe Saad, MD; Resident Member
• Reem Siblini, MD; Resident Member
• Aqsa Tariq, MD; Resident Member
• Aishani Vengala; Medical Student

Members

HCBS Webinar Series Coming This October

Join the Statewide Effort to Strengthen Child Abuse Response

KAAP is partnering with KDADS, KDHE, and KSKidsMAP to present a five-part HCBS Webinar Series this October for pediatric healthcare professionals. The series will provide an overview of Kansas’ HCBS Waiver Programs – Technology Assisted, Brain Injury, Autism, Serious Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual/Developmental Disability, and Community Support Waivers – to help clinicians better support children and families. A fifth session will focus on the EPSDT.  Sessions will be held on Wednesdays from 12–1 p.m. via Zoom, and your input is needed to shape the content—complete a brief survey.  Registration details are coming soon.

Members

Building Resilience Through Everyday Care

Tools for Pediatric Practice

by Dena Hubbard, MD, FAAP

Resilience is not just a trait but a process of adapting positively to adversity. As Ann Masten, PhD, explains, children build resilience through relationships, exploration, and predictable routines. From infancy, play, bonding with caregivers, and managing challenges lay the foundation for lifelong coping skills. Resilience reflects the interplay of biology, environment, and human connection. By viewing it as a process, we empower families to foster growth, recovery, and hope.

Pediatricians can help build resilience by encouraging caregivers to establish routines, promote safe exploration, and model healthy emotional expression. Trauma-informed care reinforces these practices through the 3Rs—Reassure, Return to Routine, and Regulate—by building trust with consistency, creating stability through predictable routines, and using co-regulation strategies like mindful breathing or naming feelings. Together, these approaches buffer stress and strengthen children’s ability to adapt throughout life.

Pediatricians also face stress and can use the 3Rs themselves and within teams. Reassure by fostering trust and psychological safety, return to healthy routines that promote stability, and regulate through shared practices like mindful breathing and peer support. Modeling trauma-informed care helps pediatricians and colleagues adapt, recover, and serve with compassion.

Amid public mistrust of medicine, resilience also means staying grounded in purpose, listening deeply, and rebuilding trust through transparency and empathy. In doing so, pediatricians can strengthen relationships and advocate for more equitable, responsive healthcare.

MEmbers

Big or Small, Your Ideas Can Advance Children’s Health

Pediatrician in Action Award applications are now open! KAAP members with ideas to enhance health care, increase access, foster healthy development, strengthen mental health, promote early literacy, ensure preventive care, and so much more can apply for up to $5,000 from the Kansas Pediatric Foundation, Kansas Kids Fund.  Apply today and bring your vision to life!

MEmbers

A National Voice, Here in Kansas

Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris is a Keynote Speaker at the Community Care Network of Kansas Annual Conference

Community Care Network of Kansas will host Nadine Burke-Harris, MD, as their keynote speaker on Thursday, September 25 – their annual conference Riding the Waves. Dr. Burke-Harris is a nationally recognized physician, researcher, and public health leader known for her groundbreaking work on childhood adversity. As California’s first Surgeon General, she helped steer the state through the public health challenges of 2020 and launched a first-in-the-nation effort that trained more than 20,000 primary care providers to screen for and respond to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Kansas AAP Officers

Kelly Kreisler, MD, MPH, FAAP
President

Sonder Crane, MD, FAAP
President-Elect

Julianne Schwerdtfager, MD, FAAP
Treasurer

Gretchen Homan, MD, FAAP
Past President

Board of Directors

KAAP Committees & Task Force

Kansas AAP Team

Denise Cyzman
Executive Director
denise.cyzman@kansasaap.org

Martha Atkinson
Accountant
martha.atkinson@kansasaap.org

Michelle Horst
Foundation Operations Manager
michelle.horst@kansasaap.org

Mallory Laur
Program Manager
mallory.laur@kansasaap.org

Marissa Guerrero
Outreach and Event Coordinator
marisa.guerrero@kansasaap.org