Renée Shellhaas, MD, MS, was named associate dean for faculty promotions and career development in 2022. Dr. Shellhaas, the David T. Blasingame Professor of Neurology, came to the school from the University of Michigan, where she was an associate chair for career development and a pediatric neurology clinician-investigator.
In this position, Dr. Shellhaas will work with the School of Medicine’s leadership team to develop innovative institutional programming aimed at improving faculty career development, including the promotion and tenure process. She will explore new ways to bring coaching, management and leadership training programs to the school’s departments, institutes and divisions.
Dr. Shellhaas’ research focus is neonatal neurology and early-life epilepsy, including approaches to seizure detection, improved treatment paradigms and prediction of long-term outcomes for affected infants. She is also a leader in studies of sleep and sleep-disordered breathing and their impact on neurodevelopment in high-risk newborns, for which she was awarded the Sleep Science Award by the American Academy of Neurology.
She has published extensively and is a principal investigator for two active R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has served as associate editor of the journal Neurology, and continues on the editorial boards of the Journal of Child Neurology, Pediatric Neurology, and Annals of the Child Neurology Society. Earlier this summer, she was appointed president-elect of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation®.
In addition to her leadership roles at the University of Michigan and in multiple professional organizations, Dr. Shellhaas has been elected a member of the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research, and a fellow of the American Epilepsy Society. Further, she has a strong track record of mentoring and teaching; she received the inaugural Chair’s Award for Outstanding Mentorship from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Shellhaas is a graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Michigan Medical School. She trained in pediatrics, neurology/child neurology, and clinical neurophysiology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty at Michigan in 2007, and was promoted to professor in 2019 and into career development leadership in 2020. She also completed a master’s degree in clinical research design and statistical analysis at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health in 2009.