Wonderous Journey as Board Member of ILADS from 2019 to 2025
Happy New Year to all.
As 2026 begins a new year so the creation of the Pediatric Committee of ILADS begins.
I am so excited to be asked to Chair this much-needed Committee. This vision began back in 2019 when I received a call from Dr Bob Mozayeni letting me know I was nominated to be on the ILADS Board and would I accept the nomination. We discussed the great need for education and understanding of the treatment for children. Without hesitation I said yes.
After having served on the board for the past 6 years and I reflect on where we were as an organization and where we are going, I do so with great enthusiasm and hope for ILADS.
The board I have served with has been an exceptional group of physicians and practitioners, united by leadership grounded in service and deep commitment to the mission of ILADS. The incoming board – bringing together returning, continuing, and new members – will carry forward the strong momentum built over the past several years. Through shared guidance and collaboration over the last six years, ILADS has reached a pivotal moment in its growth, strengthening its role as a leading medical organization dedicated to the care of patients with complex clinical conditions.
When joining ILADS and taking Fundamentals in 2018, I felt like I was drinking from a firehose. So, for you new members joining and wanting to learn more, join the crowd. There are still times when a new patient presents and I think now where do we begin with this one. To me it is the puzzle of care that inspires me to continue to search, seek and gain knowledge. I hope to bring this to the Pediatric Committee in its education towards the care of children from preconception to adulthood.
While on the ILADS Board, I chaired the Membership Committee and was a member of the Annual Program Committee, the Medical Education Committee, the Bylaws Committee and given the opportunity to teach in the Fundamentals course. I also participated in the new Executive Director Search.
I love bringing people together and networking. This occurred very naturally with attending my first MedMAPS meeting in the Spring of 2022 and saw the opportunity bring information to our members. Today, ILADS and MedMAPS continue collaboration with each annual meeting providing more information related to care of pediatric population.
As I reflect on more than 30 years in medicine, I see a journey that began long before I ever imagined becoming a physician. As a teenager visiting my grandparents in Damascus, Syria, we traveled two hours into the desert to the ancient Holy Monastery of Saidnaya, built around 547 AD and dedicated to caring for orphaned children of all faiths and walks of life. At age nineteen, standing atop the bell tower in quiet prayer and asking what I was meant to do, I received a clear sense of calling to become a physician – something I had neither aspired to nor welcomed at the time.
The steps that followed, though often taken with uncertainty, now reveal themselves as part of a much larger plan. I began in pharmacy school with the goal of earning my PharmD, which led to completing the first pediatric pharmacy residency in the United States (1983–1984), serving as the first senior clinical pharmacist in the PICU at Johns Hopkins, and later working at Squibb Pharmaceuticals managing protocols evaluating antihypertensive agents through the angiotensin system. My path into medicine was unconventional, but in hindsight, it could not have been any other.
Ultimately, I followed a path I had not chosen, and in doing so found deep fulfillment as a pediatrician. It has been a privilege to care for complex and unique patients and to feel so at home within the ILADS community. Serving on the board and working alongside dedicated colleagues has taught me much, and I am deeply grateful for those who walk beside me in this work. Together, we are entrusted with the care of those who seek us out, and that trust is a profound gift.
Years later, I learned that St. Luke – himself both a physician and a painter – is the patron saint of the Holy Monastery. Within its chapel is one of the four icons believed to have been painted by St. Luke himself, depicting the Holy Mother, the Theotokos. One enters this sacred space barefoot, in reverence. In caring for our patients, young and old, we are offered a similar sacred opportunity: to be present, to heal, and to care as a loving, compassionate parent might.
Looking forward to this coming year and meeting many of you.
Warmly
Christine L. Saba MD, Pharm.D, F.A.A.P , ABIHM