Spotlight

Dr. Michael E. Speer's broad interests in neonatal-perinatal health care have fostered a tenacious drive to improve health care and access to it. To those ends, he is a Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and serves medical associations, boards, and committees in many capacities (elected, appointed, and voluntary).

Born in San Diego in 1942, Michael grew up in a small Southern California beach community. After graduation from Occidental College where he majored in biology-premed, he enrolled at BCM in Houston, and earned his medical degree in 1968, completed his pediatric residency in 1973, his neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship in 1976, and one year of a pediatric infectious disease fellowship in 1974. Michael interrupted his training briefly to serve in the US Naval Reserve as an active duty officer during the Vietnam War. He is board certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine.

Speer’s research interests are eclectic and include infectious diseases, ethics, and managed care. He is also an active educator whose lectures are in great demand within and outside the Baylor community.

Beyond the hospital, he has been influential in the Houston Pediatric Society and the Houston Academy of Medicine (former president of both), and the Harris County Medical Society (currently president).

At the state level, he has been president of the Texas Perinatal Association, chairman of the Texas Pediatric Society’s (TPS) Committee on Fetus and Newborn, and chairman of District 1 of the TPS. The Texas Medical Association (TMA) has benefited from Dr. Speer’s membership in various task forces, the TMA House of Delegates Credentials Committee, and the Council on Scientific Affairs (currently chairman).

Nationally, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) appointed Michael to its Steering Committee of the Neonatal Resuscitation Program and its Committee on Fetus and Newborn in 1996, and he has coauthored several Committee statements. In 1998, the AAP elected him to its Executive Committee–Section of Perinatal Medicine representing District VII.

This self-proclaimed “general practitioner of the newborn infant” has the commitment and initiative to traverse any avenue to achieve his goals to improve health care and increase accessibility to health care, especially for the newborns.