Presenter Details

Dr. McElroy received his medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, PA. He completed his Pediatric training at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA, and his Neonatal-Perinatal medicine training at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.  He was a faculty member at Vanderbilt University and the University of Iowa before moving to the University of California at Davis, where he is now an Endowed Professor in Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Neonatology. Dr. McElroy received his medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, PA. He completed his Pediatric training at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA, and his Neonatal-Perinatal medicine training at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.  He was a faculty member at Vanderbilt University and the University of Iowa before moving to the University of California at Davis, where he is now an Endowed Professor in Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Neonatology.

Dr. McElroy has a long-standing interest in understanding the injury and repair mechanisms of the developing small intestine, specifically how these relate to neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis.  His laboratory has made seminal discoveries linking Paneth cells and goblet cells to the protection of the immature intestinal tract, has developed novel complementary models of necrotizing enterocolitis that shed light on pathways to develop the disease, has investigated the link between maternal chorioamnionitis and subsequent intestinal disease in offspring, and is now looking at the link between total body sodium and neonatal sepsis.  Dr. McElroy has received funding from the NIH, the Children’s Miracle Network, and industry partners. He has lectured nationally and internationally and sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for the NEC Society. 

He has served in leadership positions in the Midwest Society for Pediatric Research and the Perinatal Research Society, as well as Interim Division Director of Neonatology at the University of Iowa from 2016 to 2018. He co-founded the Pediatric K-Club at the University of Iowa, a bi-weekly meeting designed to assist junior and mid-level physician-scientists with grant writing and is currently the co-facilitator for the Society for Pediatric Research's Grant Writing 101 program. Dr. McElroy has 60 published manuscripts with 2,965 citations and an h-index of 28, as per Scopus/Google Scholar (June 2025).