Lillie and Donnelly Seed Grant Award Winners
New SMCI Lillie and Donnelly Seed Grants Announced
by Kim Stern, Associate Director, Grants and Program Operations, Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute
On July 16, 2025, the SMCI Lillie and Donnelly Program received fifteen Statements of Interest for the 2025-2026 Seed Grant Cycle. Following a rigorous review process, ten proposals were invited for full submission and three were selected for funding.
We are thrilled to announce the following awardees for this cycle:
Sumit Bhargava, MD, Clinical Professor, Pediatrics (Pulmonary Medicine), awarded $100K, Fast-Tracking Pediatric Sleep Care: Streamlining Access and EnhancingTreatment through Innovative Analytics
Meghna Patel, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics (Cardiology), and Rebecca Kameny, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics (Cardiology), awarded $100K, Enhancing Access to Pediatric Cardiac Surgery through Optimizing Flow and Reducing Length of Stay at the Betty Irene Moore Heart Center
Kim Hoang, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatric (Hospital Medicine), awarded $25K, Maximizing Packard at El Camino to Minimize Diverts and Redirects at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford
Congratulations to all the awardees. These projects advance the core goals of the Lillie and Donnelly grants by improving patient and family experience, increasing caregiver satisfaction, and elevating the overall experience of care through enhanced patient flow and access across the SMCH continuum. They also strengthen access to and the quality of care for child and maternal health patients and families. We are grateful to our benefactors for allowing us to continue this program into its third cycle of awards!