Investing in Excellence: Children's Mercy Endows Chairs
Endowed chair positions are academic medicine’s highest and most prestigious honor. Children’s Mercy has made noteworthy progress toward a bold goal of growing its number of endowed chairs to 30 by 2020 as we now have individuals to add to the list, bringing the current number to 28.
On October 30, three Children’s Mercy leaders – CEO and President Paul Kempinski, MS, FACHE and Bradley Warady, MD, Director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology – were honored through donor support at an Investiture ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel.
“Endowed chairs are crucial for recruiting and retaining world-class talent and continuing to elevate us as an international destination for children and families,” Dr. Michael Artman, Senior Vice President, Pediatrician-in-Chief, said. “The generosity of our donors provides us the opportunity to honor individuals who have compiled exceptional records in the clinic, in research or in hospital-based education.”
THE HONOREES
Paul Kempinski, MS, FACHE, CEO and President
Paul Kempinski received the Alice Berry and Katharine Berry Endowed Chair in Executive Leadership thanks to a generous anonymous donor and is one of the first CEOs of a pediatric hospital to receive an endowed position. The anonymous donor purposely named this chair in honor of the hospital’s founding sisters with an aim to elevate the hospital’s academic profile and stature as a national leader in clinical care and research. This endowed chair is a “monument for good” to the CEOs who will hold the position into perpetuity, to the hospital employees who will benefit from exceptional leadership and to the children we serve.
Bradley Warady, MD, Director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology
Dr. Bradley Warady was named the McLaughlin Family Endowed Chair in Nephrology and will continue to pursue positioning Children’s Mercy as a worldwide authority on pediatric dialysis and chronic kidney disease. Dr. Warady is the founder of Camp ChiMer, a summer camp for kids with kidney disease, which is now in its 33rd year. Additionally, and in conjunction with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Warady has led a multicenter study of children with chronic kidney disease that has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 15 years. In May 2019, he was awarded the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology (ASPN) Founders Award in honor of his remarkable career to advance clinical care and education in the field of pediatric nephrology.