Nutrition & Growth Symposium: Quality Growth - Advancing Pediatric Nutrition for Growth & Development

Sanja Kolaček, MD, PhD

Pediatric Gastroenterologist 
Children’s Hospital Zagreb 
Zagreb, Croatia

Sanja Kolaček finished the University of Zagreb Medical School, where she also received her MSc and PhD degrees. Following her training in Paediatrics, she was trained in Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at various institutions, among which were also the Children's Hospital Birmingham, Liver Unit at the King's College Hospital London, and the Endoscopy Unit of the Gastroenterology Department at the Academish Medisch Centrum Amsterdam. In 2008, she was appointed as a Professor of Paediatrics at the Zagreb University Medical School. Within ESPGHAN, Kolaček is the current ESPGHAN President, elected in 2018. Previously, she served as the Secretary General, was/is an active member of the Working groups for IBD, acute diarrhea, and pre/probiotics, and for two terms was a member of the Committee of Nutrition. She is/was also serving in different ruling and educational bodies of the ECCO, ESPEN, UEG, and various Croatian medical associations. Her editorial activities include being Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (JPGN), and membership of the Advisory Board for the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis. Her main clinical interests include chronic enteropathies and chronic intestinal failure, clinical nutrition, and nutrition of healthy infants, while her present research activities are in the field of IBD, coeliac disease, probiotics, and disease-related malnutrition. Professor Kolaček has published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals, has written many book chapters, and edited several textbooks, mainly in the field of paediatric nutrition and gastroenterology.

Naama Fisch-Schvalb, MD

Schneider Children’s 
Medical Center of Israel 
Petah Tikva, Israel

Dr. Fisch-Schvalb received her medical degree from Gray Faculty of Medical and health Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, her residency in Pediatrics and her Fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at Schneider Children’s Medical Center Isreal. She is currently a Faculty member at the Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetes, National Center for Childhood Diabetes, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, a Lecturer in Pediatrics at Gray Facutly of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, and an Endocrinology course coordinator at the school of medicine, Gray Faculty of Medical and health Sciences, Tel-Aviv, Isreal. Her main area of research interest is the interplay between nutrition and linear growth in children. Several of her previous research projects were carried out in close collaboration with the Molecular Endocrinology and Diabetes lab at the Felsenstein Research Center at Rabin Medical Center. The laboratory studies processes that affect height and linear growth in children, particularly the effects of nutrition on growth. In previous studies, they collaborated in exploring both clinical and molecular effects of whey protein on linear growth of children. For the past 10 years Dr. Fisch-Schvalb has participated as a faculty member of the annual international conference on Nutrition and Growth. Working as a faculty member at Schneider's Institute of Endocrinology she has accumulated experience in the conduct of both industry-sponsored studies and investigator-initiated studies.

Robert Murray, MD, FAAP

Professor of Pediatrics, College of Medicine 
Associate Member, Primary Food Innovation Center
The Ohio State University 
Columbus, OH, USA

Robert Murray, MD, is an academic professor of pediatrics in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio in 1985. Since then, he has spent more than 25 years in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

Prof Murray’s primary areas of focus include biomedical nutrition and pediatric manifestations of malnutrition. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, including most recently “A First Step Toward Eliminating Malnutrition: A Proposal for Universal Screening”, which was published in Pediatric Practice in Nutrition and Dietary Supplements. He has contributed to numerous books and public education projects, as well as to projects involving pediatric wasting, stunting, and obesity. Dr Murray has served in many organizations; including but not limited to a member of the National Dairy Council Nutrition Advisory Committee, a member of the Children’s Hunger Alliance Governing Board, the vice-chair of the board of Action for Healthy Kids, and a collaborator with Abbott Nutrition International on nutrition education for pediatric practitioners. 

Prof Murray has received several awards. Most recently, he was a 2016 finalist for the Pathway to Populations Health Award for Columbus CEO Magazine. He was a recipient of the 2015 Child Advocate of the Year Award for Ohio Voices for Children. In 2008, he received a Special Achievement Award for obesity initiatives and Chairperson of the Year Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Within the AAP, Dr Murray is currently their representative to the National Dairy Council Health Advisory Committee. He is the former chair of the AAP Council on School Health and is a past president of the Ohio Chapter of the AAP.