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Congenital Heart Early Career Exchange Program

The U-M Medical School Department of Pediatrics Division of Pediatric Cardiology's Congenital Heart Early Career Exchange Program was launched in 2022 as a collaborative effort across several U.S. congenital heart centers.

Traditionally, visiting professorships have been reserved for more senior faculty. However, it has become increasingly recognized that junior faculty can benefit from earlier opportunities to establish collaborations, further their research networks, learn about unique clinical programs, and gain experience in disseminating academic work.

For More Information

Goals of the Program

This program aims to promote advancement of early career faculty through providing career development and networking opportunities, including:

  • Increasing national visibility and reputation
  • Supporting research collaborations
  • Advancing dissemination of academic work
  • Developing new clinical skills and/or learning about new clinical programs
  • Fostering further collaboration and a supportive environment across partner institutions

     

Collaborating Sites

  • Congenital Heart Center, U-M Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital
  • The Cardiac Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Heart Center, Texas Children’s Hospital
  • Benderson Family Heart Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
  • Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, Stanford Children’s Health

How to Apply

Faculty less than 10 years out (from training at the institutions listed above) are eligible to apply. Faculty in pediatric cardiology, adult congenital heart disease and pediatric cardiac critical care are eligible. The focus of the visit may include any area relevant to pediatric or adult congenital heart disease, or pediatric-acquired heart disease.

For questions, contact Sara Pasquali

The application window will open on 9/15/2025. The deadline to submit your application is 10/13/25 at 11:59 pm.

Submit your application

What You Will Learn

Early career faculty submit a proposal to visit a collaborating site. Visits are tailored to their career interests and strengths of the host site and typically last around 3 days, although may be longer. During this time, guest and host faculty meet to discuss potential research collaborations, learn about unique clinical programs or skills, deliver invited talks within the heart center to foster exchange of ideas and participate in other activities of interest.

Hear From Our Participants

This program allows exposure to new ideas and practices for both the junior faculty member and the host institution. We are thrilled to be participating."

Anne Dubin, MD
Division Chief, Pediatric Cardiology, and Director, Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, Stanford University

This has been one of the best experiences I had as junior faculty. I learned a lot about the institutional and faculty experience in my areas of interest and I made strong connections to support my work."

Previous Program Participant
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