Section of Nutrition

Fellowships for Physicians

Clin Fel 2 croppedPhysicians L Diab, J Moore, A King, & M Saint-Cyr

We offer both clinical and research fellowship opportunities for physicians

Pediatric Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Fellowship:

The University of Colorado School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics and Children's Hospital Colorado offer a Pediatric Obesity and Clinical Nutrition Fellowship program. The goal of the fellowship is to provide physicians who are board certified or eligible in pediatrics or family medicine with in-depth training in pediatric obesity and clinical nutrition that will prepare them for a career in clinical or academic medicine.

Program strengths include:

  • Superior academic subspecialty training in a professional, collegial atmosphere.
  • Teaching by national and international experts across multiple disciplines. Our fellows work with faculty across numerous fields including Nutrition, Endocrinology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, and Pulmonology. Faculty offer a broad range of complementary clinical and research expertise.
  • One-on-one working relationships between fellows and supervising faculty.
  • Broad exposure to clinical nutrition both inpatient and outpatient, with both common and rare diagnoses.
  • Opportunities to obtain in-depth training in each fellow’s specific area of interest.
  • Long-standing fellowship program with more than 15 years in existence. Fellows join the Section of Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, which was the 1st independent section of nutrition in pediatrics in the United States.
  • Participation in the education of residents and medical students.

The dedicated time of the fellowship enables trainees to develop the knowledge and skills needed to pursue a range of career options including academic medicine and inpatient and outpatient pediatric clinical care.

Potential career options:

  • General Pediatrics – Academic or community-based
  • Academic career including research and teaching
  • Nutrition specialty clinical care
  • GI related clinical care
  • Primary care specialist
  • Global Health

Recent fellows are currently engaged in weight management programs (in both academic and non-academic settings), growth faltering clinical programs, promotion of nutrition in health care at the national level, nutrition-related QI, GI-related research, obesity-related research including clinical care, pharmacotherapy and community-based research.

Nutrition Research Fellowship: Physicians are eligible to apply for the NIH T32 Research Fellowship. For most physicians, this will be upon completion of the Clinical Nutrition Fellowship.

 

Our fellowship program offers training in key areas including, but not limited to:

  • Obesity: Infant to Adolescent
  • Growth faltering/FTT
  • Malnutrition
  • Behavioral medicine
  • Nutrition support
  • Metabolism in critical illness
  • Well child nutrition, including breastfeeding and infant feeding

Through our program, fellows have unique opportunities to develop skills in:

  • Assessment and treatment of growth problems
  • Assessment and treatment of inpatient & outpatient nutrition problems
  • Body composition, calorimetry
  • Breastfeeding assessment and management
  • Inpatient/critical care nutrition support
  • Micronutrient requirements, deficiencies
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Multidisciplinary obesity assessment and treatment including pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgery
  • Public health nutrition policy

Clinical training consists of 12 months of clinical service in pediatric obesity and nutrition.

  • Pediatric obesity training occurs both inpatient and outpatient through the Children’s Hospital Colorado Lifestyle Medicine Program. This multidisplinary program involves numerous different disciplines including medical and surgical specialties, dietitians, clinical psychology, and exercise physiology. Training in related areas in adult medicine is also available as appropriate to the trainee's interests.
  • Nutrition (non-obesity related) training occurs during both inpatient consults, inpatient training (NICU, PICU) and outpatient clinics, including work in our Children’s Hospital Colorado Growth and Parenting clinic. Training covers assessment and treatment of growth and nutrition problems, breastfeeding assessment and management, and inpatient and outpatient nutrition support.
  • Other nutrition related training opportunities are tailored to individuals’ interests, such as cystic fibrosis, hyperlipidemia, short gut syndrome, and others.
  • For GI-trained physicians, our fellowship, through a partnership with our GI department, is able to offer the following experiences as a component of the 12-month fellowship program:
  • Outpatient GI clinic opportunities
  • Educational GI opportunities
  • GI career mentorship
  • Potential opportunities for GI/Nutrition-related research, if completing a research fellowship
  • Potential GI procedural opportunities
This training prepares fellows to sit for the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists (NBPNS) and American Board of Obesity Medicine exam.
Research training is available following the 12-month clinical training year under our NIH T32 Research Fellowship.
In additional to the clinical training, fellows participate in the following:

Nutrition Rounds: These are bimonthly meetings with nutrition faculty and hospital dietitians to discuss current clinical cases.

Collaborative Case review: Faculty, clinical staff and fellows attend this meeting aiming to collaboratively identify system level issues and solutions to improve the quality and safety of care provided.

GI/Nutrition Case conference: A joint meeting of faculty and trainees from both the Nutrition and GI sections.

Nutrition seminar series: A yearlong series of talks from experts sharing the latest in nutrition research.

Nutrition journal club: A joint faculty/fellow journal club.

Lifestyle Medicine meeting: Program planning for the Lifestyle Medicine program.

Department of Pediatrics Education Series: Fellows participate in this series as an adjunct to their clinical training. Session topics include mentorship, providing feedback, forming your research question, quality improvement, professionalism, presentation skills.

Motivational interviewing: We encourage all fellows to participate in on on-campus training course on this topic as an adjunct to their clinical practice.

Pediatric Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Fellowship Brochure  (PDF)

For information about the Pediatric Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Fellowship, please contact program leadership

at ClinicalNutrition@cuanschutz.edu.


Matthew A. Haemer MD, MPH

Fellowship Program Director

 

Stephanie P. Gilley, MD, PhD Fellowship Associate Program Director

 

Carolina Jensen

Fellowship Coordinator

 

We are currently accepting applications for a start date of July 1 of the following year.

Eligibility: This program is designed for motivated physicians with an interest in a career that involves nutrition medicine. We encourage applications from members of under-represented minority groups. Physicians who are in the process of completing or have completed an ACGME-accredited residency training program that includes substantial pediatric training may apply (e.g., Pediatrics, Med/Peds, Family Medicine). The Pediatric Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Fellowship complies with the GME Eligibility and Selection Policy  (PDF)

Living in Denver, Colorado: The Mile High City is nestled at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and is the largest city in the region with a population of 2.9 million. Denver enjoys one of the best climates in the country, with 300 days/year of sunny skies. Although it snows in the winter, the snow melts quickly and temperatures are usually moderate. Hot summer days give way to cool summer evenings. The city is the home to dozens of highly rated restaurants and a vibrant nightlife. The city attracts many outdoor enthusiasts with its extensive system of hiking and bike trails and the largest city park system in the country. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the largest performing arts complex under one roof in the country and attracts many of the top national theater tours each year. Red Rocks Amphitheater, a natural amphitheater in the foothills west of town attracts the nation’s top touring musical talent throughout the summer. Denver is home to the Denver Broncos (NFL), the Denver Nuggets (NBA), the Colorado Rockies (MLB), the Colorado Avalanche (NHL), the Colorado Rapids (MLS) and the Colorado Mammoth & Outlaws (NLL[JC3] ). 

The University of Colorado, the state flagship school, and a world-class educational institution, is based in nearby Boulder. In addition, Denver is the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, which offer abundant recreational and sightseeing opportunities year-round. The state of Colorado is home to over 20 major ski areas, many of which are within 2 hours of the city.

Diversity Mission Statement 

The students, residents, faculty and administration of the University of Colorado School of Medicine (SOM) believe that diversity is a value that is central to the School’s educational, research, community service and health care missions. Therefore, the SOM is committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse student body, house staff, faculty and senior administration. The SOM adopts a definition of diversity that embraces race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, political beliefs and socioeconomic status. The definition of diversity also includes life experiences, record of service and employment and other talents and personal attributes that can enhance the scholarly, clinical care and learning environment.

NOTE: Nutrition Fellowships are not ACGME-Accredited Programs.

Pediatric Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Fellowship Application  (PDF)

Current Nutrition Fellows

Anthony Wang, MD, PhD (2022-2023)

  • Medical School: University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
  • Residency: Saint Louis University School of Medicine
  • Clinical/Research Interests:


Recent Clinical Fellows:

Allison Ta, MD (2021-2022)

  • Medical School: Duke University
  • Residency: Inova Fairfax Children’s Hospital
  • GI Fellowship: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  • Clinical/Research Interests: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Exclusive Enteral Nutrition in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Pneumatosis, Malnutrition in critically ill patients, Gastroenterology Imaging, Sarcopenia

Stephanie W. Waldrop, MD, MPH (2020-2021)

  • Medical School: Wayne State University School of Medicine
  • Residency: Morehouse School of Medicine
  • Current Position: T32 Nutrition Fellow
  • Clinical/Research Interests:  My research interests include identifying potential epigenetic predictors of adiposity risk in childhood and the influence maternal 1-carbon nutrient intake may have on DNA methylation and adiposity in offspring.

Stephanie Gilley, MD, PhD (2019-2020)

  • Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine
  • Residency: University of Colorado, Pediatrics
  • Current Position: T32 Nutrition Fellow
  • Clinical/Research Interests:  My research focuses on how early nutritional exposures in the first 1000 days impact long term health and development through the gut microbiome.

Martine Saint-Cyr, MD (2018-2019)

  • Medical School: University of Connecticut School of Medicine
  • Residency: Maria Fareri’s Children’s Hospital at New York Medical College
  • GI Fellowship: Weill Cornell Medical College/New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Pediatric Gastroenterology fellowship
  • Current Position: T32 Nutrition Fellow
  • Faculty Position:   Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition on the Washington University School of Medicine’s (WUSM)/St. Louis Children's Hospital 
  • Clinical/Research Interests: Nutrimetabolomics, inflammatory bowel disease and short bowel syndrome

Alexandra King, MD (2017-2018)

  • Medical School: Ohio State University
  • Residency: University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Current Position:  Pediatric Primary Care, Assistant Clinical Director of the Child and Youth Center at UI Health
  • Boarded, National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists
  • Clinical/Research Interests:  Breastfeeding, Weight Counseling and Management

Carina Kugelmas, MD (2016-2017)

  • Medical School: Keck School of Medicine of USC
  • Residency: University of Kentucky Medical Center
  • Current Position: Emergency Medicine (Pediatric) Denver Health

Jaime Moore, MD, MPH (2015-2016)

  • Medical School: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Residency: The Ohio State University & Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Internal Medicine & Pediatrics)
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Section of Nutrition, University of Colorado
  • Clinical/Research Interests:  My research focuses on studying novel approaches to personalize obesity treatment using a combination of tools including lifestyle interventions, anti-obesity pharmacotherapy, and bariatric surgery to reduce obesity-related morbidity and to minimize disparities driven by the social determinants of health and by underlying diagnoses (e.g. intellectual/developmental disabilities, hypothalamic obesity).

Liliane Diab, MD (2014-2015) ​​

  • Medical School: Damascus University
  • Residency: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 
  • Current Position:  Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Nutrition, University of Colorado; Medical Director, Growth and Parenting Clinic, Children’s Hospital Colorado
  • Boarded, National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists

Matt Haemer, MD, MPH (2010-2011)

  • Medical School:  Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
  • Residency:  University of Washington
  • Current Position:  Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Section of Nutrition, University of Colorado
  • Clinical/Research Interests:  Childhood obesity treatment in tertiary, primary, and community settings, obesity-related health disparities, inpatient management of malnutrition, indirect calorimetry

 

 


Diversity / Equity / Inclusion

Diversity - Equity - Inclusion

We are committed to creating a diverse environment for students, residents, fellows, and faculty. We believe that an environment of inclusiveness and respect promotes excellence and that a setting where diversity is valued leads to the training of physicians who are prepared to practice culturally effective medicine and meet the needs of the various populations we serve.
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Well-Being / Resilience

Be well

By embracing wellness and improving personal resiliency, physicians can reconnect with the meaning of their work and fend off stress. Reducing or eliminating burnout also has practical implications for the entire department such as improving patient safety, student advancement, and the overall campus environment. 

Visit our Pediatric Well-Being and Resilience website...