Gill installed as inaugural Nash professor in pediatrics
Physician-scientist noted for research involving respiratory diseases in children
Mena DarréMichelle A. Joubert Gill, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the inaugural Homer E. Nash Jr., MD, Professor in Pediatrics. Shown at Gill's installation in June are (from left) Gary Silverman, MD, head of the university's Department of Pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children's Hospital; Gill; Trish Lollo, president of St. Louis Children's; and David H. Perlmutter, MD, dean of WashU Medicine.
Michelle A. Joubert Gill, MD, PhD, a nationally recognized physician-scientist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the inaugural Homer E. Nash Jr., MD, Professor in Pediatrics.
The honor was bestowed by St. Louis Children’s Hospital through a gift funded by an anonymous donor to honor the legacy of Nash, a beloved pediatrician who spent decades caring and advocating for underserved children in the St. Louis area. He was also a renowned clinical professor at Washington University and part of the medical staff at St. Louis Children’s and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Gill, who joined the faculty in 2021, is a professor of pediatrics and director of a developing research center focused on pediatric pulmonary diseases and asthma. The research center is supported by the Children’s Discovery Institute, a partnership between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University.
Recognized as a skilled and compassionate clinician, Gill also has earned national and international acknowledgment for her work on the role of a particular subset of immune cells — dendritic cells — in childhood asthma and respiratory viral infections. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Dr. Gill has made and will clearly continue to make significant contributions to our knowledge of respiratory conditions in children, and her studies will guide our approaches to therapies for these children,” said Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD, the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics. “She enthusiastically leads by example and has set a very high bar for the early-career faculty, fellows, residents and students.”
Added Trish Lollo, president of St. Louis Children’s: “In the realm of pediatric medicine, Dr. Gill shines not only as an innovator but also as a compassionate healer. Her commitment to understanding and combating childhood asthma is unparalleled, and her work is a beacon of hope for countless families. As we honor the legacy of Dr. Homer E. Nash Jr., it is evident that Dr. Gill is charting a path forward with the same spirit of service.”
Gill led a study testing a monoclonal antibody, omalizumab, in asthma patients as part of the multicenter NIH-funded Inner City Asthma Consortium. Most recently, Gill’s research has focused on understanding how allergens influence immune responses to common respiratory viruses, resulting in asthma exacerbations in children, and how therapies targeting these factors improve asthma outcomes.
Some of her work is conducted as a member of the NIH Childhood Asthma in Urban Settings (CAUSE) network, a multicenter childhood asthma research consortium.
Gill serves as a guideline-development panel member on community-acquired pneumonia in infants and children for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She was elected vice president, advanced to president and now serves as an ambassador for the North American Regionals of the Society for Pediatric Research.
Gill earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1988, a doctorate in cell biology and anatomy in 1993, and a medical degree in 1995, all from Louisiana State University.
She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1998 and a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in 2003. She then spent nearly two decades at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she was promoted to professor of pediatrics, internal medicine and immunology and served as assistant director for the Medical Scientist Training Program.
