Dr. Scott Anderson completed his surgical residency in general surgery and a fellowship in pediatric surgery at the University of Florida. Dr. Anderson is board certified in both general and pediatric surgery and has worked at UAB and Children’s of Alabama since 2010. He is the medical director of the ECMO program at Children’s of Alabama and is the associate program director of the UAB Pediatric Surgery Fellowship.

Current projects include:

• "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Registry"
• "Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry"

Dr. Beierle came to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2009, after spending over nine years on the faculty at the University of Florida. She specializes in the surgical care of children and neonates with a special emphasis upon pediatric surgical oncology. She has an active basic science research laboratory that focuses on novel therapeutics for pediatric solid tumors. She has mentored a number of undergraduate students, medical students, residents and graduate students in her lab.

Current projects include:

• "A Retrospective Study to Determine if Focal Adhesion Kinase is Present in Hepatoblastoma"
• "A Retrospective Study to Determine if Focal Adhesion Kinase is Present in Pediatric Renal Tumors"
• "A Retrospective Study to Determine if Focal Adhesion Kinase is Present in Pediatric Renal Tumors (MTA 7303)"
• "Case Report of Pentalogy of Cantrell"
• "FAK, JAK and STAT Cross-Talk in Neuroblastoma: A 20 Year Retrospective Study"
• "Human PDX tumor study"
• "Pediatric Tumor Analysis using The National Cancer Database (NCDB)"
• "PIM3 Kinase Promotes Tumor Metastasis in Hepatoblastoma"
• "Retrospective chart review of pediatric magnet ingestions"
• "Updates on use of extracorporeal life support in children with malignancy"
• "Use of Resonant Sensors in Pediatrics"

Dr. Mike Chen is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Children’s Hospital. His focus is on providing the best clinical care possible for infants and children and inspiring young surgeons to do the same. Dr. Chen’s clinical interests include all aspects of pediatric surgery with a particular focus on anorectal malformation, Hirschsprung’s disease, bowel management, congenital anomalies, thoracic defects, and minimally invasive surgery. 

Current projects include:

• "Gastroschisis Registry"
• "Improving Health Literacy in the Pediatric Surgical Population"

Dr. Vincent Mortellaro joined the pediatric surgery faculty at Children’s of Alabama in August 2015. He completed his surgical residency in general surgery at the University of Florida in 2010, along with postdoctoral research fellowships in 2010 - 2013 and a pediatric surgery fellowship in 2015. Dr. Mortellaro’s research interests include pediatric surgical outcomes and bioinformatics.

Current projects include:

• "Laparoscopic Surgery in Children with Congenital Heart Defects"
• "Outcomes of neonates on hemodialysis"
• "Retrospective Review Comparing Laparoscopic Hernia Repair Techniques"

Dr. David A. Rogers is a pediatric general surgeon with a primary appointment as a professor in the Department of Surgery with secondary appointments in the Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics.
He has been involved in a number of research programs related to clinical surgery, leadership development and medical education. Dr. Rogers's research has been focused on medical education and clinical pediatric general surgery. His past educational research programs have focused on feedback, technical skills instruction, and conflict management. His clinical research projects have investigated innovations that advance the quality of surgery in this unique patient population. Dr. Roger’s clinical interest spans across the spectrum of general pediatric surgery.

Current projects include:

• "Burnout: Systemic and Institutional Considerations"
• "The Physician Experience with the Rationalization of Healthcare Delivery"

Dr. Robert Russell joined the faculty at UAB in 2012 as an assistant professor of surgery. In February 2013, he was appointed the Director of Pediatric Trauma at Children’s of Alabama. Dr. Russell’s clinical interests include minimally invasive pediatric surgery, pediatric trauma, and neonatal surgery. Dr. Russell’s research interests focus on mechanisms and translational questions regarding acute traumatic coagulopathy in the pediatric trauma population. He also focuses research on quality improvement/clinical outcomes in pediatric surgery.

Current projects include:

• "A Prospective Registry of Single Incision Pediatric Endoscopic Surgery (SIPES) Cases at The Children's Hospital of Alabama"
• "A retrospective comparison of the effectiveness of small-bore pigtail catheters versus traditional chest tubes for hemothorax in pediatric trauma"
• "An Investigation of Factors that Lead to Tube Thoracostomy Failure in the Management of Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax in Children"
• "Association of Postoperative Antimicrobial Prophylaxis Use and Outcomes in Pediatric Surgery: A Multicenter Comparative Effectiveness Study"
• "BCH IRB - Optimizing Management of Suspected Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs) in Pediatric Intestinal Failure Patients: An Eastern Pediatric Surgery Consortium Multicenter Study"
• "Bowel Preparation in Pediatric Colorectal Surgery, EPSN Retrospective Review"
• "Children's Hospital Trauma Registry"
• "Children's of Alabama Burn Registry"
• "Collaborative Quality Improvement Registry for Pediatric Appendicitis"
• "Collaborative Quality Improvement Registry for Pediatric Spinal Fusion"
• "Determinants of trends and risks for mortality in pediatric firearm injuries"
• "Esophageal Foreign Body Pediatric Retrospective Review"
• "Esophageal Surveillance Practice in Esophageal Atresia Patients"
• "Evaluation of Pediatric Patients with Non-accidental Burns using NTDB"
• "Gastroschisis: A National Overview Utilizing the Patient Health Information System (PHIS) Database"
• "Gastrostomy Tube Placement in Children: A Pediatric NSQIP Analysis"
• "Geographical Distribution of Firearm Injuries in Birmingham and surrounding areas: Studying Social Determinants and the Social Vulnerability Indices"
• "Impact of neonatal vs. infant pull-through procedure on postoperative Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis and resource utilization"
• "Intestinal atresia reoperation rate and involved factors"
• "Intracranial pressure monitoring in pediatric traumatic brain injury at Level-1 ACS Verified Pediatric Trauma Centers - An ATOMAC Study"
• "Long Gap Esophageal Atresia Retrospective Review"
• "Mandatory vs. WBC-Dependent Postoperative Antibiotic Treatment in Children with Complicated Appendicitis"
• "Massive Bleeding in Children with Cancer or Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant: A Multicenter Retrospective Study"
• "MUSC IRB - Evaluation of Trauma Center-Based, Technology-Enhanced Stepped Care Intervention for Adolescent Traumatic Injury"
• "Outcomes after inguinal hernia repair in children"
• "Pediatric Cervical Spine Clearance: A Multicenter Prospective Observational Study"
• "Pediatric Trauma Society Scholarly Output Review from 2017 to 2023"
• "Pediatric Trauma Thoracotomy Outcomes in the United States. A 2010-2020 National Trauma Database (NTDB) Study."
• "Perforated Appendicitis: A National Retrospective Overview Utilizing the Patient Health Information System (PHIS) Database to Identify Factors that may be causing Higher Perforation rates in African-Americans and Hispanics"
• "Prospective Longitudinal Trial Evaluating Operative vs. Non-Operative Management of Pancreatic Injuries in the Pediatric Population"
• "Reliability of the Modified Percent Depth in Identifying Severe Pectus Excavatum Deformity"
• "Retrospective Review of Esophageal Atresia and Transesophageal Fistula"
• "Screening for Cerebrovascular Injuries in Pediatric Patients"
• "Surgical Management of Gastroesophageal Reflux in Children"
• "Survey of the Pediatric Trauma Society About Utilization of Viscoelastic Monitoring in Management of Pediatric Trauma Patients"
• "Utility of MRCP prior to ERCP in pediatric patients with suspected choledocholithiasis"
• "Utilization of Massive Transfusion Protocol in the Pediatric Population"

Dr. Eric Sparks began his residency in General Surgery at Texas A&M/Baylor Scott and White. He paused this training to pursue a post-doctoral research fellowship in pediatric intestinal failure at Boston Children’s Hospital. After completing the fellowship, he returned to Scott & White and finished his surgery residency in 2018. Dr. Sparks then completed a fellowship in pediatric surgical critical care at the University of Michigan/C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. In 2021, he joined the UAB Division of Pediatric Surgery as an assistant professor. His professional interests include intestinal failure, surgical critical care, the applications of machine learning, and surgical decision support systems.

Current projects include:

• "Ex-vivo ECMO circuit study: evaluating the effect of RPM and circuit flow rates on coagulation and hemolysis"
• "Predicting neonatal ECMO cannula size with pre-cannulation ultrasound measurements"

Dr. Laura Stafman joined the faculty of the UAB Department of Surgery as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery in October 2023. She graduated from medical school at the University of Florida and subsequently obtained her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Beierle. She also completed a general surgery internship and residency at UAB and a pediatric surgery fellowship at Vanderbilt University. 

Current projects include:

• "Clinical and Biologic Evaluation of Rare Liver Tumors in Children – A Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative Study"
• "Current Oncofertility Practices for Children Diagnosed with Extracranial Solid Tumors at High-Risk for Treatment-Related Fertility Loss: A Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative Study"
• "Diagnostic Accuracy of PET/CT and MRI in Detecting Regional Lymph Node Metastasis in Rhabdomyosarcoma in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: a Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative Study"
• "Improving Diagnostic Accuracy of Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules in Children and Adolescents by Utilization of TI-RADS and Molecular Characterization: a Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative Study"
• "Multi-Institutional Review of Immature Teratoma in Children and Adolescents: a Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative"
• "Non-syndromic, unilateral, multicentric Wilms tumor and risk for de novo metachronous lesions"