Children’s Health, UT Southwestern Expand Leadership Team for Joint Pediatric Enterprise

DALLAS (May 11, 2021) – Children’s Health℠, the leading pediatric health care system in North Texas, and UT Southwestern Medical Center, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, announced Dr. Andrew Gelfand, Dr. Brad Tate and Dr. Maeve Sheehan as newly installed Associate Chief Medical Officers (CMO) for their respective Children’s Health hospital campuses, appointed by the Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Joint Pediatric Enterprise (JPE), reporting to Dr. Dai Chung, JPE CMO. These appointments are effective June 2021. Dr. Gelfand will serve as Associate CMO at Our Children’s House, and Drs. Tate and Sheehan will lead medical teams at Children’s Medical Center Plano and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, respectively.

As Associate CMOs within the organization, Drs. Gelfand, Tate and Sheehan will have the primary responsibility of overseeing and providing physician leadership at their respective facilities to provide safe, effective and reliable medical services to patients.

“Andy, Brad and Maeve are experts in their medical fields and have proven themselves as leaders at Children’s Health and UT Southwestern,” said Dr. Dai Chung, CMO for the Joint Pediatric Enterprise. “These appointments are a natural next step in further defining and building our Joint Pediatric Enterprise. Their clinical expertise coupled with their strategic orientation will be invaluable as we further align our operations and strengthen our care model to better meet the needs of children across our growing region. I’m honored to have Drs. Gelfand, Tate and Sheehan join me on the leadership team, and I look forward to the great work we will do together. Our enterprise has a bright future ahead.”

Dr. Andrew Gelfand has been appointed Associate CMO for Our Children’s House. He is a pediatric pulmonologist and served as Chief Clinical Officer at Our Children’s House, Chief of Respiratory Medicine at Children’s Health, as well as an associate professor at UT Southwestern. His practice focuses on the care of young patients who have lung diseases, such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and neuromuscular weakness. In addition to his medical and administrative roles, Dr. Gelfand also provides mentorship to physicians in the pediatric pulmonary fellowship program. Throughout his career, Dr. Gelfand has earned recognition numerous times on D Magazine’s list of “Best Pediatricians.” He also appears on the list of “Mom-Approved Doctors for Pediatric Pulmonology” in Dallas Child parenting magazine. He has been named a “Texas Super Doctor” in Texas Monthly magazine.

Dr. Brad Tate has been appointed Associate CMO for Children’s Medical Center Plano. He served as Vice President and Medical Director of Enterprise Care Management and Service Chief of Medicine at Children’s Health Plano. Dr. Tate started with Children’s Health in 2010 as a Hospitalist on the Plano Campus. He subsequently served as Medical Director for the Children’s Health Medical Group Hospitalist Group and successfully led its transition from the Children’s Health Plano campus to the Children’s Health Dallas and Our Children’s House campuses. During his tenure with Children’s Health, Dr. Tate has assisted the Emergency Department on the Dallas campus, served as a Medical Director for the Nurse Advice Line, Home Care, Health Plan, and led as Service Chief of Pediatrics and President of the medical staff at Our Children’s House.

Dr. Maeve Sheehan has been appointed Associate CMO for Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She served as Chief of Inpatient Services at Children's Medical Center and is currently a professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Operations in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Sheehan is a graduate of University College Dublin. She furthered her training in pediatrics and neonatology by completing an Adolescent Medicine Residency at the Cleveland Clinic followed by a Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“Caring for our region’s children has never been more essential than now,” said Dr. Chung. “Through the Joint Pediatric Enterprise, we are bringing together the best resources from Children’s Health and UT Southwestern, and the addition of these leaders are further proof that the combined expertise and leadership of both organizations will bring more medical breakthroughs and better care to the children of North Texas and beyond.”

The JPE was formed in 2019, and it builds upon a nearly 60-year affiliation between Children’s Health and UT Southwestern. The JPE is structured to facilitate shared decision-making and operational alignment to meet the rapidly growing needs of the North Texas pediatric community. Through the JPE, UT Southwestern and Children’s Health pediatric operations are aligned under a single governance infrastructure that will facilitate operational improvements and closer integration in both hospital and clinic settings. This alignment in strategic priorities and collective work supports the delivery of the highest quality pediatric care and strengthens patient outcomes by providing necessary access to world-renowned faculty, biomedical research and clinical trials to children in North Texas and beyond.

About Children’s Health

Children’s Health℠ is committed to making life better for children. As one of the largest and most prestigious pediatric health care providers in the country and the leading pediatric health care system in North Texas, Children’s Health cares for children through more than 750,000 patient visits annually. The Children’s Health system includes its flagship hospital, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, as well as Children’s Medical Center Plano, Our Children’s House inpatient rehabilitation hospital, the Children’s Health Care Network, specialty centers, rehabilitation facilities and physician services. Children’s Medical Center Dallas continues to be the only North Texas hospital to be ranked in 10 out of 10 pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. Through its academic affiliation with UT Southwestern Medical Center, Children’s Health is a leader in life-changing treatments, innovative technology and ground-breaking research. This affiliation led to establishing the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute in 2011, committed to pursuing research in regenerative medicine, cancer biology and metabolism. For more information, follow Children’s Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube or visit Childrens.com.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,800 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 117,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 3 million outpatient visits a year.