WANDA T. KING’s daughter was diagnosed with diabetes when she was a child. It was not until she and her daughter visited Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and learned how to successfully manage the illness that Mrs. King’s fears were calmed. She felt reassured that they were moving in the right direction with her daughter’s care after their first visit with Dr. Leslie Plotnick and the pediatric nurse educator Loretta Clark. Dr. Plotnick and Ms. Clark developed the pediatric diabetes team program at Hopkins consisting of the patient and family members, a diabetes nurse educator, nutritionist, pediatric endocrinologist, and social worker. Motivated by the desire to allow countless other children and their families the opportunity to be treated and educated in a caring and supportive environment, and as a way of thanking Dr. Plotnick and Ms. Clark, Mrs. King chose to support this professorship. (Wanda King is shown, above, with chairholder Leslie M. Plotnick.)
Professorship in the Clinical Care & Research of Pediatric Endocrinology
School of Medicine
Established in 2007 with gifts from Wanda King, Terry and Peter Nicholl, and numerous other supporters
Held by Leslie M. Plotnick
LESLIE M. PLOTNICK, the Lawson Wilkins Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology, has established a national and international reputation as a clinical scholar and educator in the field of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes. She trained in pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1970 to 1972, then did a clinical and research fellowship in pediatric endocrinology and joined the Hopkins faculty in 1974. She became a full professor in 2001. Dr. Plotnick’s major clinical interests are in type 1 diabetes and growth. She has published widely in the areas of general pediatric endocrinology and diabetes particularly on growth, growth hormone therapy, and Turner Syndrome. She was chosen to be one of the few pediatric diabetes specialists to write pediatric standards for care for the American Diabetes Association. With Loretta Clark, she developed and implemented the “team” concept in diabetes education and care, building it into a successful and well-respected program.