The goal of the Kiwanis Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship is simple: Save and improve the lives of children by training doctors in the latest in pediatric treatment. Each Kiwanis Doctor treats more than 3,500 children each year, and, to-date, we have trained more than 1,000 first responders throughout our District.

Why the Kiwanis Doctor Program?
The Kiwanis Doctor program is unique because it addresses the need to train medical personnel throughout our District on current techniques and advances in pediatric emergency medicine. Babies and children have physical, emotional and physiological needs that are vastly different from an adult's. Unfortunately, most medical personnel are trained to treat an adult and receive very little medical training on how to treat a child. They mostly see and treat adult patients and have very little opportunities to treat a child in an emergency. Our Kiwanis Doctor provides the missing link by traveling throughout our District teaching medical personnel how to treat a pediatric patient.

Our Kiwanis Doctors have collaborated with Kiwanis to share their knowledge gained during their training in pediatric emergency medicine with paramedics, nurses, and other doctors who care for critically ill and injured children within the rural areas of the Cal-Nev-Ha District. These Kiwanis sponsored training seminars have been conducted as far north as Eureka, California, and as far south as El Centro, California, with many areas in between.

As we prepare to welcome our next Kiwanis Doctor (see below), Dr. Thorp continues to lead the program and host advanced trainings in the most remote areas of our District, closing the gap on the number of children who die each year from serious injury or illness.

To learn more about opportunities to support the Kiwanis Doctor program, please click here.

To see what an average day is like for our Kiwanis Doctors, please click here.

The first Kiwanis Doctor

Andrea Thorp, MD, FAAP

Dr. Andrea Thorp, the recipient of the 2005-2007 Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation PEM Fellowship, has completed her educational and training responsibilities, as well as her Kiwanis commitments. She is currently serving as Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine and as Associate Program Director for the PEM Fellowship at Loma Linda University. She has shown commitment to the Kiwanis PEM Fellowship program by serving as the Medical Director for the program. She currently has many open research projects as she mentors the current PEM fellows as Chair of the Scholarship Oversight Committee for scholarly activity. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Emergency Physicians. Since completing her fellowship, she has published many research articles, written book chapters, and continues to lecture to the medical community.

The second Kiwanis Doctor

Tim Young, MD

Dr. Timothy Young, the recipient of the 2007-2009 Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation PEM Fellowship, has completed his educational and training responsibilities, as well as his Kiwanis commitments. He currently is serving as Assistant Professor at Loma Linda University and Instructor at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine. He takes an active role in mentoring and lecturing the current PEM fellows at Loma Linda University. He has demonstrated a commitment to research by publishing articles and writing book chapters. He has continued to perform research and lectures to the medical community since completing his training. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Emergency Physicians.

The third Kiwanis Doctor

Sarah Christian-Kopp, MD

Dr. Sarah Christian-Kopp, the recipient of the 2010-2012 Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation PEM Fellowship, has completed her educational and training responsibilities, as well as her Kiwanis commitments. She completed two research projects and upon completion of her training she will be moving on to serve the community.

The forth Kiwanis Doctor

Kristin Ratnayake, MD

Dr. Kristin Ratnayake was awarded the 2012 Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation PEM Fellowship and will complete her training in September 2014. Please click here to learn more about our newest Kiwanis Doctor.