Dr. Shao Jiang Receives Endowed Chair to Help Advance Care for Cleft and Craniofacial Patients
(From left) Nancy and Rick McCoy; Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, Section Chief-Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Director of the CM Multidisciplinary Craniofacial Center; Dr. Jiang; and Tucker and Mandi Trotter at the surprise chair announcement at the Adele Hall Campus. Tucker is the grandson of Dr. Frederick J. McCoy, who founded the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic at Children’s Mercy.
It was business as usual as Dr. Shao Jiang updated the McCoy family on the cleft and craniofacial program at Children’s Mercy, as he does annually. Except this year, there was a big surprise in store for Dr. Jiang. The McCoys shared they were funding an endowed chair position in his name to carry on the work of Dr. Frederick J. McCoy.
“I did not see it coming. I was absolutely speechless,” said Dr. Jiang, Director of the Frederick J. McCoy Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic at Children’s Mercy. “It’s impressive Dr. McCoy was so forward-thinking philanthropically to designate his estate to help the children he served and cared about so much. That gift endowed our clinic in 2014. Now, with the McCoy family funding this chair, I’m blown away. They have always been extraordinarily supportive of our vision, and I’m honored to carry on Dr. McCoy’s legacy.”
As the hospital’s first craniofacial surgeon, Dr. McCoy founded the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic at Children’s Mercy and established the first team-care model in the midwest in the early 1980s. This multidisciplinary approach has been carried on ever since. The team includes nursing, lactation, nutrition, occupational therapy, social work, speech and hearing, dental, ENT, plastic surgery and, if needed, developmental medicine and genetics.
Currently, the Frederick J. McCoy Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic has four fellowship-trained, full-time cleft and craniofacial surgeons and a craniofacial orthodontist. This makes Children’s Mercy one of the largest cleft and craniofacial centers in the country. Annual volume in the clinic has increased significantly since the McCoy endowment. Approximately 1,400 patients are seen annually with cleft lip/palate being the most common treatment.
“The McCoy family means so much to this hospital,” Jiang said. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without their support. It has allowed us to purchase equipment critical to our patients’ care, conduct meaningful research using the latest technology and chart an exciting path for the future.”
Learn more about Craniofacial Surgery at Children's Mercy.