Nationwide Children's Hospital Pediatrician Honored for Furthering the Mission of Ohio AAP

October 30, 2017

The Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (Ohio AAP), representing more than 2,900 members in the state of Ohio, is proud to announce the recipient of the Leonard P. Rome Award is Charles H. Spencer, MD, FAAP. This award honors Chapter members whose leadership furthers the mission of the Ohio AAP through a specific program or project.

Dr. Spencer works as a Pediatric Rheumatologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he created the rheumatology fellowship program to train the next generation of rheumatologists.

He has served many years on the Board of the Ohio AAP Foundation, the charitable arm of the Ohio AAP that raises funds in support of programs with a focus on Reach out and Read. He served four years as president of the Foundation.

“Dr. Spencer is a wonderful doctor and human being. He truly cares about his patients and will bend over backwards to help his patients,” said Kyla Driest, MD, a fellow physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Although he believes himself to be a cynic, he has amazing optimism when it comes to seeing his teenagers through the hard times. He feels comfortable being silly and showing his human side.”

“We are thrilled to honor Dr. Spencer’s work to help improve the lives of Ohio’s children,” said Robert Murray, MD, FAAP, President of the Ohio AAP. “His work on the Ohio AAP Foundation has reached thousands of children over the years. I speak for all of our members across the state in saying thank you to Dr. Spencer for his passion, sense of humor, and dedication to Ohio’s kids.”

The Ohio AAP presented Dr. Spencer with his award during the Ohio AAP Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony on Friday, October 27, 2017.

About Nationwide Children's Hospital

Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-25 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child. Integrated clinical and research programs, as well as prioritizing quality and safety, are part of what allows Nationwide Children’s to advance its unique model of care. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 16,000 that provides state-of-the-art wellness, preventive and rehabilitative care and diagnostic treatment during more than 1.8 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org