Novant Health welcomes first pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna

CHARLOTTE, N.C. ― Today Novant Health announced the addition of its first pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna. Kiehna’s experience, along with her passion for helping children, gives families greater access to expert neurosurgical care close to home.

Kiehna earned her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. She completed a neurosurgery residency at University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia, including a year at Starship Children’s Health in Auckland, New Zealand. She then completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She comes to Novant Health from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Kiehna enrolled in the oncology education program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, spending her summers shadowing renowned neurosurgeons. “When I observed my first surgery – watching the neurosurgeons remove a large tumor from a child’s brain – I was awe-struck,” she recalls. “I was sure of it that day… that this is what I wanted to do with my life.”

Kiehna is excited to return to the east coast and join the Novant Health team, where she will build the pediatric neurosurgery program. She has a passion for mentoring young women, traveling, hiking, and saving or improving children’s lives. She will see patients at Novant Health Brain and Spine Surgery (formerly known as Novant Health Neurosurgery Associates), at 330 Billingsley Road, Suite 202 in Charlotte, and at the Pediatric Multispecialty Clinic, located at 201 Queens Road in Charlotte.

Pediatric neurosurgeons are specially trained to treat disorders of the brain and spinal cord in babies and children whose brains are still developing. Some of the disorders that Kiehna and Novant Health are equipped to treat include: 

For more information or to refer a patient, call 704-316-3070.