8/27/2020
PITTSBURGH - The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics announced today the appointment of Drs. Loreta Matheo and Sylvia Owusu-Ansah to new diversity, inclusion, and equity leadership roles.
Dr. Loreta Matheo will serve as Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Matheo is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Medicine. She graduated from New York University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Following her residency, she was selected to be the first Chief Resident in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Matheo turned from general pediatrics to AYA Medicine in 1994. She served as the Supervising Physician at Duquesne University Health Service for the subsequent 22 years, and as Division Chief for Adolescent Medicine at Mercy hospital from 2003 to 2006, before joining the Division of AYA Medicine.
Dr. Matheo has been Program Director for the Fellowship in Adolescent Medicine since 2014. Her clinical interests include bringing AYA medicine to community pediatrics offices through an embedded model of care and leading the Bridges to Transition Clinic, which provides multidisciplinary assistance to patients with chronic medical conditions as they transfer to adult care. She has worked on system-level change as chair of the Children’s Hospital Transition Task Force. She also has been an advocate for telemedicine and serves on the Children’s Hospital Task Force for Telemedicine.
Dr. Matheo has been a member of both the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force and the Trainee DEI Committee. In her new role as Vice Chair, she will ensure that DEI is recognized as essential for excellence and woven into the fabric of Pitt Pediatrics and clinical departments at Children's. She will work with departmental leaders to improve recruitment and retention, thereby increasing our representation of trainees and faculty from disadvantaged and marginalized backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities (URM). She also will coordinate growth in departmental commitment to anti-racism, equity, and justice through formal and informal learning opportunities, community collaborations, and change in policy and practice.
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah will serve as Associate Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Owusu-Ansah is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Emergency Medicine. She graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, completed her pediatrics residency at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and completed her fellowship training in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also earned a Master’s in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah has served as Emergency Medical Services (EMS) - Prehospital Medical Director since joining the Pitt Pediatrics faculty in 2017. She has developed curricula and provided education for EMS personnel as well as government agencies including the United States Secret Service. She has authored or co-authored numerous papers, chapters, policy statements, and technical reports. She serves on the Health Resources and Services Administration National Committee for Pediatric Prehospital Readiness and is a member of the board for the National Registry of EMTs, for which she serves as chair of the research committee and member of the diversity task force. She also serves on the pediatric committee for the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP).
Throughout her career, Dr. Owusu-Ansah has been dedicated to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she co-founded the first Black Student Union. She inspired and co-authored the first anti-racism statement for UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and led the hospital’s first #whitecoatsforblacklives rally. Dr. Owusu-Ansah also co-authored anti-racist statements for NAEMSP and is now the Inaugural Chair of the Diversity Task Force of NAEMSP. She was appointed by Dean Anantha Shekhar to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Rapid Response team to aide in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the institution.
In her new role as Associate Vice-Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Owusu-Ansah will assist Dr. Matheo with leadership and coordination of all activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion with a focus on faculty development for URM in medicine. She will establish a mentoring program for URM faculty, foster integration of URM faculty in educational and clinical initiatives, and nurture efforts to achieve diversity among Department of Pediatrics residents, fellows, faculty, and leaders.
Drs. Matheo and Owusu-Ansah will assume these new responsibilities on September 1, 2020.