Inside Pediatrics Magazine Fall/Winter 2025

LEADERSHIP

th e F u t ure

YUNG LAU’S VISION AS NEW PHYSICIAN-IN-CHIEF

A fter serving as interim chair for five months, Yung Lau, M.D., was officially named chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Pediatrics and physician-in chief at Children’s of Alabama in March 2025. The only real change, Lau says, was that he could now formally begin planning for the future. His vision for the department is expansive— centered on collaboration and faculty support. But he believes the path to those big goals lies in the small things everyone does every day. Lau stepped into the interim chair role in November 2024, following the announcement that then-chair Mitch Cohen, M.D., would be departing at year’s end to join Stanford. “Dr. Cohen led for a decade and helped build this department into a strong and vibrant place,” Lau said. “It has consistently thrived, and I’ve considered it a privilege to be

a part of the department as a faculty member for over three decades. Now, it’s an awesome responsibility to carry on this tradition of excellence.” The role is unique, requiring close collaboration between two major institutions: Children’s of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. With more than 30 years of experience across both organizations—including in leadership roles—Lau understands their individual missions and how they intersect.

two institutions. At the time, UAB housed the pediatric cardiac program. But as Children’s leaders planned to build a new hospital building, they wanted to bring the program under their roof. Over the next five years, Lau played a significant role in bringing physicians and other clinical staff to assist in the design of the cardiac intensive care units, operating rooms, catheterization labs, step-down units and cardiovascular perioperative areas. He then worked closely with Children’s leadership on staffing and operations planning. On October 14, 2012, the program moved into the new building—seamlessly. The success of the move laid the foundation for a quantum leap in the ability of the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center of Alabama to provide state-of the-art care. Today, the program consistently ranks among the top heart centers in the nation.

That understanding came into sharp focus in 2007, when Lau led the UAB group in a major collaborative effort between the

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Inside Pediatrics | Children’s of Alabama