To recognize Women’s History Month, NASPGHAN would like to highlight Dr. Karen Murray. Karen is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist whose career has evolved over the years. She attended Cornell University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and did her residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital, extended for a year to serve as Chief Resident. She then returned to the East Coast for fellowship at Boston Children’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals but was drawn back to Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she built her faculty career as an academic Pediatric Hepatologist. She enjoyed decades of NIH and corporate research funding to advance knowledge and treatments for children with viral hepatitis and chronic liver diseases and was privileged to develop the GI Fellowship in Seattle, enabling her love of mentoring, teaching, and developing people. Her passion for mentoring and building programs was further enabled through a number of local, regional, and national leadership opportunities, including Medical Staff President, Chair of the ABP GI Sub-Board, Chair of the Practice Plan, Division Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Interim-Chair of the Department of Pediatrics in Seattle, and President of NASPGHAN. Excited by new challenges and new adventures, and enabled by an incredibly supportive, encouraging, and flexible husband and the acceptance to college of her youngest child, she moved to Cleveland Clinic Children’s in 2019.
Full Name and titles:
Karen F. Murray, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatric Medical Subspecialties and Vice Chair of Research
Children’s Institute, Cleveland Clinic
DeBartolo Family Endowed Chair in Pediatrics
Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Hometown: North Wales, Pennsylvania
Favorite GI disease: Chronic Liver diseases and viral hepatitis, but I really enjoy clinical care in general; I can do without functional diseases, though.
Hobbies: Doing things with our 2 children was my favorite for 22 years (son Michael is now 27 years old, and daughter Katrina is 23 years old), but now I enjoy distance road biking, gardening, wine tasting, and travel—the more culturally different, the better!
Favorite Vacation Spot: Oh goodness, too many…being with the family and exploring a foreign land
Favorite Activist: Those who push for change because it is the right thing to do!
Book You Recommend: For those of you who have horseback ridden across Mongolia, I recommend The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag
Best Career Advice You’ve Received: Decide what you want to be or do and stay focused on those goals, but be open to opportunities and say YES, as career paths are rarely straight, and the best adventures often happen with turns in the road.
If you have other people you’d like to see highlighted for future months, please nominate them by sharing their names and contact information through this link.
They can be any full member of NASPGHAN, CPNP, or APGNN (attendings, RDs, APNs, RNs, PAs). It’s also fine to e-mail Faith Ihekweazu (faith.ihekweazu@bcm.edu) or Eyad Hanna (He/They) (eyad-hanna@uiowa.edu).
April Arab American Heritage Month
May Asian Pacific American Heritage
June PRIDE month
September National Hispanic-Latine/x Heritage Month (Sept 15 to Oct 15); Women in Medicine Month
October National Italian American Heritage Month; National Disability Employment Awareness Month
November National American Indian Heritage Month
