Texas Children’s Hospital Selects Three New Leaders in the Department of Pediatrics

12/16/2023 Media

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HOUSTON (December 15, 2023) – Texas Children’s Hospital is pleased to announce three new division chiefs in the Department of Pediatrics:

•   Dr. Katy Ostermaier, Division Chief of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics
•   Dr. Debra Palazzi, Chief of Infectious Disease
•   Dr. Katri Typpo, Chief of Critical Care Medicine

“We are so delighted to announce Drs. Ostermaier, Palazzi, and Typpo as our three new division chiefs at Baylor and Texas Children’s,” said Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, Pediatrician-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “Each one of them is a brilliant, outstanding leader who is highly respected in their fields, and I am confident that the Department of Pediatrics and Texas Children’s will continue to make a life-changing difference under their leadership.”

Kathryn (Katy) Klish Ostermaier, MD, FAAP

For over 23 years, Dr. Ostermaier has been committed to providing life-changing care to children with special health care needs. She graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in genetics and she completed medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in 1996, as well as her Pediatric Residency at Baylor College of Medicine in 1999. After finishing her training, she joined Baylor as a faculty member. Pursuing her commitment to providing care for children with complex medical conditions, she started the Special Needs Clinic at Ben Taub General Hospital in 2001, one of only two such clinics in the area at the time. In 2007, she started the Special Needs Primary Care Clinic at Texas Children's Hospital, which is now the largest clinic of its kind in southeast Texas. She became Director of the Down Syndrome Clinic at Texas Children's in 2009 — and she continues to serve in this role. In 2023, she was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and is now thrilled to serve as Chief of Service for Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at Texas Children’s.

Dr. Palazzi graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in molecular biology in 1992, and she completed medical school at the University of North Carolina in 1998, her residency at the Carolinas Medical Center in 2001 and a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in 2004. A specialist who has been in practice for over 20 years, Dr. Palazzi treats children with a broad array of diseases caused by germs, viruses and fungi. In addition, she participates in the SHARPS group (Sharing Antimicrobial Reports for Pediatric Stewardship), a collaborative of more than 30 children’s hospitals focused on establishing best practices for the use of antimicrobials in children. She is honored to be serving in her new role as Division Chief of Infectious Diseases at Baylor and Texas Children’s.

Dr. Typpo has a broad background in large database analysis and epidemiology. Early in her career, she examined the epidemiology of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) during pediatric critical illness in large clinical databases. After graduating from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2001, she completed a health services research fellowship at the Houston VA HSR&D Center of Excellence in Houston while pursuing her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree at UT Houston, and she was an investigator in the division of Health Policy and Quality. Dr. Typpo was Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Pediatric Intensivist at Texas Children’s before moving to Arizona in 2009, where she served as Chief of Pediatric Critical Care and Medical Director of Pediatric Cardiac ICU at the University of Arizona College of Medicine — Tucson. Dr. Typpo’s current research is focused on the intestinal barrier and microbiome as a pathway to prevent multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in children. She is a site investigator for several federally funded multicenter trials and is supported through an R-01 grant through the National Institutes of Health. She is delighted to be back at Texas Children’s in her new role as Chief of Critical Care.

About Texas Children’s

Texas Children’s, a nonprofit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children’s hospital in Texas and among the top in the nation, Texas Children’s has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women’s health. The system includes the Texas Children’s Duncan NRI; the Feigin Tower for pediatric research; Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston; and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, the first hospital devoted to children’s care for communities north of Houston. The organization also created Texas Children’s Health Plan, the nation’s first HMO for children; Texas Children’s Pediatrics, the largest pediatric primary care network in the country; Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinics that specialize in after-hours care tailored specifically for children; and a global health program that s channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children’s Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. For more information, visit www.texaschildrens.org.