Pediatric Pulmonologist Carol Conrad Dies at 63

Carol Conrad, MD, former director of the Pulmonary Function Lab and of the lung and heart-lung transplant program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, passed away Nov. 28 at her home in Menlo Park, California. She was 63.

“Carol Conrad was an excellent and multitalented pediatric pulmonologist,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, the dean of the school of medicine and vice president of medical affairs for Stanford University. “Her influence lives on through the programs she built, the people she mentored and the patients she treated. She will be missed.”

Focus on lung diseases

Born in Denver, Colorado, on Nov. 7, 1961, and raised in Southern California, Conrad and her three siblings were raised in a famously clever family: Their father, Paul Conrad, was a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist.

Conrad attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1983. She then received her medical degree from UCLA in 1989 and trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She chose to specialize in pediatric pulmonary medicine, completing fellowship training and playing a central role in demonstrating proof-of-concept for gene therapy in cystic fibrosis at Johns Hopkins University.

Conrad and her team tested an approach using adeno-associated virus vectors to deliver the correct version of a gene that’s faulty in cystic fibrosis patients. They found the delivered gene stayed active and kept working for up to six months, showing that it could be a promising tool for gene therapy to treat the disease. In 1995, Conrad arrived at Stanford Medicine, where she began to build its pulmonary medicine programs.

“Carol contributed in every way possible, whether it was treating patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia or childhood interstitial lung diseases,” said David Cornfield, MD, chief of pulmonary, asthma and sleep medicine at Stanford Children’s and a longtime colleague of Conrad’s. “Her research on cystic fibrosis has contributed to the development of therapeutic interventions designed to specifically treat lung disease in children and adults with CF.”

Conrad’s colleagues remember her as intellectually nimble, energetic and honest — as well as a fierce patient advocate, Cornfield said. He added that both as a professor of pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine and a physician treating young people with lung conditions, she touched the lives of countless patients, families, trainees and colleagues with clarity of thought and careful attention to each person.

As the pulmonary division grew, Conrad’s role expanded. Starting in 1999, she served as the director of the Pulmonary Function Lab, which offered state-of-the-art equipment that specialists could use to diagnose and treat young children and teens with any lung or breathing condition. From 2004 to 2023, she served as medical director of Stanford Children’s pediatric lung and heart-lung transplant program, learning directly from Norm Shumway, MD, PhD, and Bruce Reitz, MD, who were cardiothoracic surgeons at Stanford Medicine and pioneered the lifesaving procedure in the 1970s and 1980s. The program celebrated 35 years of lung and heart-lung transplants for children in 2024.

“Carol was instrumental in establishing an internationally recognized pediatric pulmonary program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health,” said Mary Leonard, MD, chair of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine and physician-in-chief at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. “Her compassion and dedication to her patients and trainees were second to none. She leaves a lasting legacy at Stanford Medicine.”

Conrad’s research focused on improving the lives of her patients, especially in cases that were not well understood. She studied lung inflammation that results from transplantation, including bronchiolitis obliterans, or chronic lung allograft dysfunction, which is a life-limiting condition that can affect lung and heart-lung transplant recipients.

A devoted aunt, sister and pet parent

Outside of Stanford Medicine, Conrad was a devoted aunt and sister, adventurer, traveler, early Burning Man participant as a fire dancer and house doctor, and physical fitness advocate, according to her brother Jamie Conrad. Starting with youth sports, she became a lifelong softball and soccer devotee, managing coed softball teams in the Stanford rec league, and helping her brother coach her niece’s soccer team. Beginning with her adoption of an abandoned kitten she named Shermie while still an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, she was a lifelong cat owner, making a home for kittens Julie, Toughie and Teddy. Her brother remembers that even though she was proud of her Stanford affiliation, she remained a Cal Bear fan all her life, sometimes taking joy in being the only Cal fan in the Stanford rooting section during big games.

“A longtime friend of hers from college said it well: ‘She was fierce, decisive, brilliant and fearless. She was a force to be reckoned with her whole life and certainly made her mark!’” Jamie Conrad stated.

“Carol’s life ended far too soon,” Cornfield said. “She had so much more to learn and teach. Her voice and memory will echo forever in the hearts and minds of colleagues, trainees, patients and families, encouraging us all to be our very best selves, give more, think harder and care prodigiously.”

Besides Jamie, Conrad is survived by her siblings Dave Conrad and Libby Cannizzaro, and her niece, Taylor Conrad.

To continue Dr. Conrad’s profound impact, the Carol Conrad Memorial Fund has been established to support critical research in lung transplantation and cystic fibrosis at Stanford: https://my.supportlpch.org/fundraiser/5997327