Biography

Dina El-Metwally, MD, Ph.D., is the Mary G. Cobey Endowed Professor and Chief of the Division of Neonatology, Pediatrics Department, University of Maryland, School of Medicine. During her tenure as a Medical Director (2012-2020), she led the establishment of the $33-million, single-family room Drs. Rouben and JiJi Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She is the Co-Director of the UM Center of Excellence for Substance Use in Pregnancy (SUP) and assumes the position of an Associate Editor in Pediatric Research.

She completed a Pediatrics residency and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship at the Warren Alpert Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI, after graduation from the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University in Egypt. She completed a Master's in pediatric visual evoked potentials and a Ph.D. in Neurodevelopment of ELBW with brain injury. She also held positions as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) in program evaluation and health workforce development. She led national programs to decrease neonatal and childhood mortality in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), as Child Survival (UNICEF), Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (WHO/UNICEF). As a MENA regional trainer, she disseminated neonatal resuscitation to prevent Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. In recognition of her efforts, she received the Sheila Wallace Award from the International Child Neurology Association.

Dr. Metwally mentored more than 40 US and International medical students, pediatric residents, and neonatology fellows, who played pivotal roles in promoting health among neonates and children and held academic and leadership positions in prestigious universities in the US and globally. She is still actively contributing to the reform of the medical school's curriculum in the MENA region.

She held workshops to raise community awareness and advocacy for babies with NOWS among Judges at the Maryland Judicial College and Circuit Court for Baltimore, Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC) for infant and Toddler Program (ITP), Maryland State Department of Education. 'Ready at 5'. She is an Advisor on the Baltimore Network of Early Services and Training (B-NEST) board for opioid exposure. She was profiled in JAMA (May 2017) for her efforts.

Dr. El Metwally's research focuses on neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). She collaborates with Departments of Neurobiology, the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), School of Pharmacy, and the Center of Health Information Decision System, Smith School of Business; in the use of artificial intelligence to study SNP arrays and small RNAs as biomarkers for withdrawal, and the impact of substance use in pregnancy on neurodevelopment. Her other contributions to research are in NICU Environmental Toxicants as heavy metals and volatile organic compounds and biomarkers for brain injury in neonates. She has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She presented at more than 75 national and international conferences.