We are pleased to announce the appointment of Maya Haasz, MD (Assistant Professor, Section of Emergency Medicine) as Director of the Resident Advocacy Rotation. Dr. Haasz graduated from McGill University with her medical degree in 2006. She did her pediatric residency at Montreal Children’s Hospital/McGill University, followed by a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship in Toronto at Hospital for sick Children. She spent seven years at Albert Einstein School of Medicine before coming to the University of Colorado in 2018.
Advocacy has always been a passion of Dr. Haasz. Her extensive experience includes research focused on firearm injury prevention, including multiple publications and grant funding, along with serving as a mentor to residents and fellows in this field. From a legislative lens, she has testified on potential firearm laws at the state level and was invited to testify at the federal level regarding safe storage of firearms. She has mentored colleagues and trainees on delivering effective legislative testimony. She is heavily involved in Colorado’s American Academy of Pediatrics Chapter and has been a member of the Chapter Executive Committee since 2020.
Dr. Haasz is currently enrolled in a 3-year Health Policy Scholar’s Program, a policy fellowship developed by the Academic Pediatric Association. The program allows for further development of advocacy skills, connection with important mentors within the field, and networking across the US toward build a comprehensive advocacy portfolio.
Dr. Haasz is excited to use her lived experience in advocacy from the individual patient level to community to level to population level in the role of the new Director of the Resident Advocacy Rotation. She will continue to build on the foundational work of her predecessors. One of her ideas is weaving more advocacy experiences throughout the 3-year residency program.
As we welcome Maya to her new role, the Residency Program and the Department would like to thank Hilary Stempel, MD (Assistant Professor, Section of General Academic Pediatrics) for her excellent leadership of the advocacy rotation over the last several years.
