Leonard Valentino, MD

Leonard A. Valentino, MD, earned his BS and MD degrees from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of Illinois and his fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Valentino specialized in blood coagulation and developed a research program to study the mechanisms of blood clotting. Subsequently, he took a full-time academic positions in the Bone Marrow Transplant Center at Rush. In 1994, he joined the Section of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Rush Children’s Hospital and in 1998 became director of the section. He is an associate professor of pediatrics and assistant professor of internal medicine and immunology/microbiology at Rush University.

Valentino is a member of the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, the World Federation of Haemophilia, National Hemophilia Foundation, American Society of Hematology, Hemophilia & Thrombosis Research Society (HTRS) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among other professional organizations. Valentino is a reviewer for several scientific journals, including Arteriosclerosis, Blood, Critical Care Medicine, Haemophilia, Biochemistry Biophysics Acta and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Service to the community is important to Valentino. He has served on the Medical Advisory Board of the Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois and as medical director of the Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois from 1997 to 2001. Valentino is a consultant for Baxter Bioscience, NovoNordisk, Wyeth and Aventis Behring. He has also made presentations on various aspects of pediatric hematology and oncology to scientific and lay community groups. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters, and has spoken at many national and international meetings and symposia. Valentino’s particular areas of research interest and expertise include molecular mechanisms underlying hemophilic synovitis, disorders of platelet function, physiology of blood coagulation, clinical trials in hemophilia and thrombophilia and neuroblastoma biology and metastasis.

Emily Czapek, MD, has been taking care of individuals with congenital bleeding disorders for 30 years. During this time she has brought comprehensive care to a variety of populations, from inner-city Chicago to widely scattered rural towns. Following her pediatric residency, she spent two years at Harvard, specializing in bleeding and clotting disorders. In 1973 she came to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where she developed their first Comprehensive Hemophilia Clinic. She then went on to develop a comprehensive center at Cook County Hospital. In 1988 she accepted the position of medical director of the downstate hemophilia center in Peoria. Under her leadership, the center flourished and was viewed by many as a model of comprehensive care. She joined the Rush Hemophilia Center in 1999 on a part-time basis, and serves as its asssociate medical director. Czapek’s expertise in outreach hemophilia care provides a sound basis for the expansion.

Czapek has served as medical director and vice president of the Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois and a medical director of its summer camp. She has been a member of the National Hemophilia Foundation’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, and chaired the committee that developed the most recent standards of comprehensive care. This document includes the first set of separate standards of care for women with bleeding disorders. She was also a member of the Committees that drafted the Patient Bill of Rights. She has always viewed the patient as an active member of the health care team and is deeply committed to both patient choice and a single standard of health care for all individuals.