Maurice Sholas, M.D., PhD

Dr. Maurice Sholas is the Principal for Sholas Medical Consulting, LLC. In this capacity, he is charged with solving operational challenges for individual practitioners, hospitals and health care agencies. In additional he is a subject matter expert on children with special health care needs – actively practicing clinical medicine. As a former Senior Medical Director for Children’s Minnesota, he founded a program in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. For a six-year tenure, he previously led Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Pediatric Rehabilitation Medical Practice. That Practice provided clinical coverage to the largest pediatric inpatient rehabilitation unit in the United States, an outpatient Day Rehabilitation Program for children and a plethora of outpatient single specialty and multi-disciplinary clinics. In addition to those clinical duties, he was responsible for introducing a structure to incorporate and execute quality research and educational training programs that impact children with acquired or congenital disabilities. Dr. Sholas’ work, whether clinical or administrative, is focused on optimizing function. That breadth and experience is ideal for serving as a Trustee for the National Medical Association. It speaks to a familiarity with problem solving, collaboration and advocacy critical in these times of rampant health disparities and professional inequity.

Dr. Sholas was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has traveled the country gathering the educational tools needed for a career that serves children with congenital and acquired physical disabilities as a specialist in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. His Primary and Secondary education was received in Illinois, Kansas and Virginia. For college, he returned to Louisiana to attend Southern University; majoring in Biology with an emphasis in Spanish. The skill set acquired through school and research activities during the summers, allowed a smooth transition to the MD-PhD Program at Harvard Medical School. In addition to Medical Education, this program allowed Dr. Sholas to receive a terminal degree in the study of Neuroscience. His thesis focused on how pain signals are processed in the brain. Next, graduate medical education was completed in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Subspecialty training at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine followed this Internship and Residency experience. Dr. Sholas was the first practitioner of Pediatric Rehabilitation in the State of Louisiana and founded credentialing and recognition of the specialty in many jurisdictions.

Dr. Sholas’ pursuit of intellectual achievement is matched only by his pursuit of advocacy. He has extensive experience as a Trustee on community and advocacy Boards. He is a member of the Board of Directors Healthy Humor, Inc, a non-profit agency that brings smiles to hospitalized children and seniors across the country, and former board member of The Urban League of Greater New Orleans, an organization charged with economic empowerment of the most vulnerable members of our society. Currently, he is a Director on the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board; providing potable water, draining excess rainfall and flooding and managing waste for one of America’s iconic cities. He embodies the belief that being a good citizen is a prerequisite to being a great physician/leader. With humility and a desire to serve, this application is submitted with hopes that it will be received favorably.