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Expert list · Last reviewed April 17, 2026

Top Pediatricians for Pediatric Liver Transplant in Illinois

Leading Illinois pediatricians for pediatric liver transplant: hepatologists and GI specialists with deep transplant research and clinical experience.

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Illinois families looking for top pediatricians for pediatric liver transplant have a concentrated, high-volume option in Chicago, and this guide points you toward the doctors most trusted for that work.

Pediatric liver transplant is one of the most specialized areas in children's medicine. Almost all of the clinical and research firepower in Illinois sits within a single academic network in Chicago, anchored by Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The doctors below handle biliary atresia, acute liver failure, metabolic liver disease, living donor transplants, and long-term post-transplant care, and several have shaped the national standards for how those cases are managed.

Estella Alonso

Estella Alonso, MD

Medical Director, The Siragusa Transplantation Center; Sally Burnett Searle Professor of Pediatric Transplantation; Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

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Dr. Alonso is medical director of The Siragusa Transplantation Center and a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She cares for children facing acute liver failure, biliary atresia, and chronic liver disease, and she follows many patients for years after transplant to manage growth, immune suppression, and quality of life. Her leadership on the Pediatric Acute Liver Failure Study Group 1 helped define when a child in liver crisis truly needs a transplant, and her JAMA paper 2 was among the first to show that some pediatric recipients of a parent's donated liver can safely stop anti-rejection drugs. She has also contributed to work on long-term complications like post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease 4 and quality-of-life measurement in young patients 3.

Barry Wershil

Barry Wershil, MD

Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

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Dr. Wershil is a professor at Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist at Lurie Children's. He treats children with complex inflammatory and immune-driven GI disease, the kind of conditions that sometimes sit alongside liver disease in families working through a transplant evaluation. His foundational laboratory research on mast cells and the immune system 6810 is widely cited in pediatric GI, and he also co-authored consensus recommendations on GI problems in children with autism spectrum disorders 79.

Catherine Chapin

Catherine Chapin, MD

Medical Director, Hepatology and Liver Transplant; Program Director, Advanced Transplant Hepatology Fellowship; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

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Dr. Chapin is medical director of hepatology and liver transplant at Lurie Children's and runs the Advanced Transplant Hepatology Fellowship at Northwestern. She is the doctor many families meet during a transplant evaluation and then continue to see afterward. Her published work covers cirrhosis and portal hypertension in children 11, fluid management in the days right after a liver transplant 12, and antibiotic use after the Kasai procedure for biliary atresia 13. She has also looked at how pediatric transplant programs handle COVID-19 in potential recipients 14 and at the brain effects of GI and liver disease in children 15.

Valeria Cohran

Valeria Cohran, MD

Professor of Pediatrics (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition); Associate Chair for Health Equity, Department of Pediatrics

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

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Dr. Cohran is a professor of pediatrics and associate chair for health equity in the department of pediatrics at Feinberg. Her clinical focus includes intestinal failure and the long-term liver damage that can develop in children who rely on IV nutrition, a pathway that often leads to transplant referral. Families who have been told their child may eventually need a transplant for intestinal failure-associated liver disease often end up in her clinic.

Mark Fishbein

Mark Fishbein, MD

Associate Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine

Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital

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Dr. Fishbein is an associate professor at Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist whose research helped build the toolkit doctors now use to track fatty liver disease in children without a biopsy. He was an early contributor to MRI methods for measuring liver fat 1620, described the real-world spectrum of pediatric fatty liver and how blood tests miss mild cases 17, and co-authored work on how changes in liver enzymes track with liver biopsy improvement in children with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis 19. He has also written on prevention of childhood obesity 18, which drives much of the pediatric liver disease showing up in Illinois today.

Joshua Wechsler

Joshua Wechsler, M.D.

Medical Director, Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases Program; Attending Physician, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

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Dr. Wechsler is medical director of the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases Program at Lurie Children's and an assistant professor of pediatrics and medicine at Feinberg. He cares for children whose rare, immune-driven GI conditions can complicate hepatology care and transplant decisions. Families often come to him after standard GI evaluations have not explained a child's symptoms.

What to look for in a pediatric liver transplant specialist

  • Board certification in pediatrics and in pediatric gastroenterology, with added training in transplant hepatology
  • Practice at a hospital with an active, UNOS-approved pediatric liver transplant program
  • Experience with your child's specific diagnosis (biliary atresia, acute liver failure, metabolic disease, fatty liver disease)
  • A named multidisciplinary team, including transplant surgeons, social workers, and nutrition specialists
  • A clear plan for long-term follow-up and transition to adult care
  • Insurance and Medicaid compatibility, plus help navigating travel and lodging if you live outside Chicago

Questions to ask before your first appointment

  • How many children with my child's condition do you treat each year?
  • How many pediatric liver transplants does your program perform annually, and what are the one-year and five-year survival rates?
  • Do you offer living donor liver transplants, and would you consider one in our case?
  • Who will be our main point of contact after the transplant?
  • What is your plan for managing rejection, infection, and long-term side effects of anti-rejection drugs?
  • How do you work with our local pediatrician and any subspecialists closer to home?

The bottom line

If your child may need a pediatric liver transplant in Illinois, the practical starting point is a referral into the Northwestern and Lurie Children's network in Chicago, where most of the state's transplant volume, research, and subspecialty depth lives. Ask your pediatrician or gastroenterologist for a direct referral, bring recent labs and imaging to your first visit, and do not hesitate to request a second opinion, especially for time-sensitive diagnoses like acute liver failure or biliary atresia.

Sources

  1. Squires RH et al. Acute liver failure in children: The first 348 patients in the pediatric acute liver failure study group. The Journal of Pediatrics (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.12.051
  2. Feng S et al. Complete Immunosuppression Withdrawal and Subsequent Allograft Function Among Pediatric Recipients of Parental Living Donor Liver Transplants. JAMA (2012). https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.2014
  3. Varni JW et al. The PedsQL Infant Scales: feasibility, internal consistency reliability, and validity in healthy and ill infants. Quality of Life Research (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9730-5
  4. Cacciarelli TV et al. Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease in pediatric liver transplantation. Transplantation (1996). https://doi.org/10.1097/00007890-199608150-00012
  5. Benninga MA et al. The Paris Consensus on Childhood Constipation Terminology (PACCT) Group. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (2005). https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mpg.0000158071.24327.88
  6. Galli SJ, Wershil BK. Cytokine production by mast cells and basophils. Current Opinion in Immunology (1991). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0952-7915(05)80005-6
  7. Valicenti-McDermott M et al. Frequency of Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Association with Family History of Autoimmune Disease. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics (2006). https://doi.org/10.1097/00004703-200604002-00011
  8. Galli SJ et al. The c-kit receptor, stem cell factor, and mast cells. What each is teaching us about the others. PubMed (1993).
  9. Buie T et al. Recommendations for Evaluation and Treatment of Common Gastrointestinal Problems in Children With ASDs. Pediatrics (2010). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-1878d
  10. Wershil BK et al. 125I-fibrin deposition in IgE-dependent immediate hypersensitivity reactions in mouse skin. The Journal of Immunology (1987). https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.139.8.2605
  11. Chapin CA, Bass LM. Cirrhosis and Portal Hypertension in the Pediatric Population. Clinics in Liver Disease (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cld.2018.06.007
  12. Fluid balance in pediatric postoperative liver transplant recipients. Pediatric Transplantation (2023). https://doi.org/10.1111/petr.14499
  13. Where Did This Come From?: Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Biliary Atresia After Kasai Procedure. Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (2024). https://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piae028
  14. Pediatric solid organ transplant recipients positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pre-transplant. Transplant Infectious Disease (2024). https://doi.org/10.1111/tid.14284
  15. Neurologic Manifestations and Disorders Associated With Gastrointestinal Diseases. Elsevier eBooks (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-10944-7.00179-7
  16. Fishbein MH et al. Introduction of fast MR imaging in the assessment of hepatic steatosis. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1997). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0730-725x(96)00224-x
  17. Fishbein MH et al. The Spectrum of Fatty Liver in Obese Children and The Relationship of Serum Aminotransferases to Severity of Steatosis. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (2003). https://doi.org/10.1097/00005176-200301000-00012
  18. Prevention of Childhood Obesity. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (2020). https://doi.org/10.1097/mpg.0000000000002708
  19. Alanine Aminotransferase and Gamma-Glutamyl Transpeptidase Predict Histologic Improvement in Pediatric Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. Hepatology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/hep.31317
  20. Fishbein MH et al. Rapid MRI using a modified Dixon technique: a non-invasive and effective method for detection and monitoring of fatty metamorphosis of the liver. Pediatric Radiology (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002470100547

Sources

  1. 1.
    Acute liver failure in children: The first 348 patients in the pediatric acute liver failure study group — The Journal of Pediatrics, 2006. DOI
  2. 2.
    Complete Immunosuppression Withdrawal and Subsequent Allograft Function Among Pediatric Recipients of Parental Living Donor Liver Transplants — JAMA, 2012. DOI
  3. 3.
    The PedsQL™ Infant Scales: feasibility, internal consistency reliability, and validity in healthy and ill infants — Quality of Life Research, 2010. DOI
  4. 4.
    POSTTRANSPLANT LYMPHOPROLIFERATIVE DISEASE IN PEDIATRIC LIVER TRANSPLANTATION — Transplantation, 1996. DOI
  5. 5.
    The Paris Consensus on Childhood Constipation Terminology (PACCT) Group — Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2005. DOI
  6. 6.
    Cytokine production by mast cells and basophils — Current Opinion in Immunology, 1991. DOI
  7. 7.
    Frequency of Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Association with Family History of Autoimmune Disease — Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 2006. DOI
  8. 8.
    The c-kit receptor, stem cell factor, and mast cells. What each is teaching us about the others. — PubMed, 1993.
  9. 9.
    Recommendations for Evaluation and Treatment of Common Gastrointestinal Problems in Children With ASDs — PEDIATRICS, 2010. DOI
  10. 10.
    125I-fibrin deposition in IgE-dependent immediate hypersensitivity reactions in mouse skin. Demonstration of the role of mast cells using genetically mast cell-deficient mice locally reconstituted with cultured mast cells. — The Journal of Immunology, 1987. DOI
  11. 11.
    Cirrhosis and Portal Hypertension in the Pediatric Population — Clinics in Liver Disease, 2018. DOI
  12. 12.
    Fluid balance in pediatric postoperative liver transplant recipients — Pediatric Transplantation, 2023. DOI
  13. 13.
    “Where Did This Come From?”: Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Biliary Atresia After Kasai Procedure — Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, 2024. DOI
  14. 14.
    Pediatric solid organ transplant recipients positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pre‐transplant — Transplant Infectious Disease, 2024. DOI
  15. 15.
    Neurologic Manifestations and Disorders Associated With Gastrointestinal Diseases — Elsevier eBooks, 2025. DOI
  16. 16.
    Introduction of fast MR imaging in the assessment of hepatic steatosis — Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 1997. DOI
  17. 17.
    The Spectrum of Fatty Liver in Obese Children and The Relationship of Serum Aminotransferases to Severity of Steatosis — Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2003. DOI
  18. 18.
    Prevention of Childhood Obesity — Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2020. DOI
  19. 19.
    Alanine Aminotransferase and Gamma‐Glutamyl Transpeptidase Predict Histologic Improvement in Pediatric Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis — Hepatology, 2020. DOI
  20. 20.
    Rapid MRI using a modified Dixon technique: a non-invasive and effective method for detection and monitoring of fatty metamorphosis of the liver — Pediatric Radiology, 2001. DOI

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