Lara S. Shekerdemian, MD, MHA, is Pediatrician-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine. She brings 23 years of experience on three continents — 11 of those at Texas Children’s, where she has served as Chief of Critical Care since 2010. She is a tenured Professor of Pediatrics and previously served as Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor.
Dr. Shekerdemian earned her medical degree from the University of Birmingham Medical School in the United Kingdom and trained in pediatrics, pediatric cardiology, and pediatric and adult intensive care in the UK and Toronto. She obtained her research doctorate in pediatric cardiac intensive care, also from the University of Birmingham in 1997, and earned a Master of Health Administration from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, in 2009.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (UK), and a Fellow of the College of Intensive Care Medicine (Australia). Prior to joining Texas Children’s, Dr. Shekerdemian served as Chief of Paediatric Intensive Care Services at The Royal Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
She has co-authored more than 140 papers and has contributed to 15 textbooks as an author or editor. Her research interests include cardiovascular physiology, mechanical cardiopulmonary support, and long-term outcomes after critical care admission, particularly after surgery for heart disease. Throughout her career, she has conducted clinical and laboratory studies, participating as a principal investigator and co-investigator for numerous collaborative studies. She is a co-principal investigator for Baylor and Texas Children’s for the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Heart Network (PHN), where she also chairs the PHN Scholars’ study section.
During her tenure at the nation’s largest children’s hospital, Dr. Shekerdemian has participated in every aspect of administration and has led growth in all areas, expanding critical care services from 88 beds on one campus to 172 over three campuses, most recently with the opening of the award-winning Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower in 2018. During the pandemic, the nimble Critical Care team adapted to care for critically ill children with COVID-19, and also to care for critically ill adults when the other Texas Medical Center ICUs were at capacity.
Under her leadership, the Division of Critical Care Medicine has grown to include a talented team of 140 physician and advanced practice provider faculty, including many who trained overseas, and a high proportion with training and certification in a range of pediatric subspecialties, as well as critical care. Their diversity of backgrounds and training has served to create a truly unique and multifaceted ICU service at Texas Children’s Hospital.