Dear Colleague: 

Children's Hospital Colorado Remains in Top 10
Last week, U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings of the nation’s top children’s hospitals and Children’s Hospital Colorado maintained its place among the Top 10.

We are so proud to be partners with Children’s Colorado! Special thanks to all members of our faculty, particularly the Department of Pediatrics, who power this success. In addition to its place as one of the nation’s best, Children’s Colorado ranked No. 1 in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.

U.S. News also provides rankings in 11 areas of specialty care. Impressively, Children’s Colorado was recognized for excellence across all ranked specialties. Five specialties landed in the national Top 10:

• Cardiology and heart surgery, No. 2
• Diabetes and endocrinology, No. 3
• Pulmonology and lung surgery, No. 4
• Cancer, No. 4
• Gastroenterology and GI surgery, No. 7 

“When it comes to the big things, Children’s Colorado has it covered, but it’s the moments in between that set us apart,” Jena Hausmann, President and CEO of Children’s Colorado said in an announcement of the rankings. “Our team members know that every little word and tiny gesture can be monumental, and that taking care of children and their families while delivering exceptional outcomes is what drives us forward. With our world-renowned experts, ground-breaking surgeries, and research discoveries that change lives, we are building a healthier world where children not only survive but thrive.”

Welcome, Dr. Lisa Horowitz!
Lisa Horowitz, PhD, a nationally renowned expert in suicide prevention, has joined the School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Colorado's Pediatric Mental Health Institute (PMHI) as Director of Suicide Prevention and Hospital-based Services Research, effective September 1, 2025. At the PMHI, Dr. Horowitz will lead the Preventing Suicide Initiative, a quality, safety, and population health priority for the hospital and for the state of Colorado.

Dr. Horowitz brings deep expertise, visionary leadership, and a powerful national voice to our mission, most recently serving as Director of Patient Safety & Quality at the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health, where she also served as a Senior Associate Scientist (Intramural).

Dr. Horowitz is widely respected for her collaborative spirit, systems-thinking approach, and unwavering dedication to patient and family-centered care. Her arrival marks a major step forward in our shared commitment to innovation, science, and the health and well-being of children and families.

Faculty and Staff Updates
The STEP In Colorado project has received a $4.65 million four-year award from the Administration for Community Living, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to support an effort to build statewide capacity to deliver evidence-based fall prevention programs for older adults, including those in rural and frontier communities. STEP stands for Scaling Trusted Evidence-based Prevention. Project leaders are Elizabeth Goldberg, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, with colleagues Bethany Kwan, PhD, MSPH, Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Research of Emergency Medicine, and Cari Levy, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Division Head of Geriatric Medicine.

Jamie Studts, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Co-Leader of the Cancer Center and Control Program at the CU Cancer Center, is co-principal investigator of a recently awarded $1.5 million National Cancer Institute grant that will support the first step in a multi-phase process to improve lung cancer screening efforts at 60 sites across the United States. The grant is centered around the Quality Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening system that Studts developed with colleagues from the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. Details about the grant are described in this article in the cancer center’s newsroom.

DAWN Health, a student-run clinic serving patients without insurance, honored three members of our campus community at its 10^th anniversary fundraiser, “Soaring to New Heights,” in late September. Honorees are:

• Julie Michalek, NP, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Preceptor of the Year.
• Erica Chan, a fourth-year medical student, Volunteer of the Year.
• Deanna Schroder, Associate Director of Human Resources, Heart of Service Award for her work on the Board of Directors and as liaison between DAWN and the School of Medicine and other University partners.

Recent Publications
Lilia Cervantes, MD, Professor of Medicine, is a co-author of a research letter, “Emergency Medicaid Spending for Undocumented Immigrants in the US,” published October 9 by JAMA.

Lawrence A. Haber, MD, Professor of Clinical Practice in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Denver Health, is corresponding author of a Viewpoint article, “Rights of Immigration Detainees to Acute Medical Care,” published October 6 by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Sarah Parker, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, is a co-author of an article, “What’s Old is New Again: Pertussis,” published October 3 by Pediatrics.

Daniel R. Ambruso, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, is corresponding author of an article, “Interferon-gamma 1b-induced gene expression alters neutrophil function in patients with chronic granulomatous disease,” published September 8 by PLOS One. Seven co-authors are from our campus.

Researchers from the Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center at CU Anschutz are authors of a correspondence, “A Naturally Occurring Gain-of-Function Mutation in Factor VIII,” published in August by The New England Journal of Medicine. Joshua T. Wischmeyer, a Colorado native who is an undergraduate biology student at Davidson College in North Carolina, is corresponding author, and Marilyn J. Manco-Johnson, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, is senior author.

Dean's Distinguished Speaker
Blanche Capel, PhD, Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs and James B. Duke Professor of Cell Biology at Duke University School of Medicine, will deliver the Dean’s Distinguished Seminar lecture, “The Amazing Plasticity of Gonadal Sex Determination in Genetic- and Temperature-Dependent Systems,” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 14, in Hensel Phelps West Auditorium. A reception in the first-floor atrium will occur after the lecture. The Dean’s Distinguished Seminar Series brings notable scholars to campus to discuss their work. All are invited. You can find more information about this and other events on the campus events calendar, where you can also sign up for event notifications.

Nominate Dean's Distinguished Speakers
The Dean’s Office is seeking nominations for the 2026-2027 Dean’s Distinguished Seminar Series. Each year, this prestigious series brings leading experts to our campus to share insights and foster academic engagement. Previous speakers have included Nobel laureates and directors of leading medical research institutions from across the country. To nominate a speaker, please fill out this form by 3 p.m. Friday October 17. For questions, contact Judy Sherman, [email protected].

Learning to Be Prepared
Learning at CU Anschutz takes many forms. Take, for example, the live disaster-preparedness drill that occurred earlier this month on our campus.

The exercise simulated a chilling scenario: A helicopter landing at a hospital helipad was hit by lightning, careened into a building, then crashed onto the Parade Grounds, where people were setting up for a campus fall festival. The exercise simulated that 100 people were injured or killed, and it even included a UCHealth helicopter that landed at the site.

This half-day exercise was designed to provide hospital emergency department personnel as well as first responders, campus emergency teams, and others an opportunity to practice responding to a mass-casualty disaster under conditions approximating the real thing. There were dozens of actors with important roles to play in the elaborate simulation.

Among the actors were young students of Tiffeny O’Dell, a science teacher at Byers Junior-Senior High School, in rural eastern Colorado. She teaches classes that offer certified nursing assistant, phlebotomy, and emergency medical technician certification.

“I try to introduce them to all aspects of health care, and I have some kiddos who are very interested in moving on with that,” she said, adding that some may want to come to CU Anschutz for medical school someday.

The exercise directors for the UCH emergency department were Jessica Ryder, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and an emergency physician at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, and Natasha Vandeford, a charge nurse at UCH and coordinator for disaster preparedness in the hospital’s emergency department. They and many others began planning the exercise in March.

You can read more about this important training program and see more photos in this article in the Department of Emergency Medicine newsroom.

Federal Government Shutdown
The federal government shutdown continued through the past week, and we remain on alert to potential impacts. We are confident that the federal relations team and our campus partners are keeping us updated on the latest developments. I encourage you to monitor governmental news affecting our school by checking the CU System Federal Updates and Actions webpage and the CU Anschutz Federal Updates webpage.

I share your concerns about the potential impacts of the shutdown, but I know together we can get through this uncertainty. We have a strong team here and we have been actively preparing. I ask you to keep your focus on our mission to serve others. By giving attention to your work, you will be fulfilling that higher purpose.

Have a good week,

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine

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