Our Story
Fifty-Year History + Relentless Innovation.
What makes Kids Plus special, what makes our practice family so unique and so proud, is the way we continue, every day and with every patient, to meet, learn, and grow together.
Kids Plus Providers are hand-picked by the doctors already leading the practice, not just for their knowledge and skill but also for their dedication and compassion. That history, that emphasis on teaching and training and working to find the right fit for both our practice and our patients, defines Kids Plus. As does our relentless passion for innovation, for constantly challenging and re-imagining what a pediatric practice is. And should be.
We’ve been doing it for more than 50 years…
1972
Drs. Harvey Rubin, Lou Linarelli, and K.G. Pai launch the practice in Pleasant Hills, while also helping to create the Mercy Hospital Pediatric Residency Program.
1985
The practice opens a new office in Pleasant Hills, in the 51 Professional Plaza, that it would occupy until the summer of 2015.
1993
Drs. Rubin and Pai form the Southwestern Pediatric Association and begin to expand the practice in ways that would, in 2010, allow it to become Kids Plus Pediatrics.
1995
Dr. Todd Wolynn joins the practice, after studying under Drs. Rubin & Pai.
2000
Dr. Albert Wolf joins the practice, after studying under Drs. Rubin, Pai, & Wolynn.
2001
Dr. Alicia Hartung
joins the practice, after studying under Drs. Rubin, Pai, Wolynn, & Wolf.
2002
The Squirrel Hill/Greenfield office opens.
2003
Dr. Sarah Springer joins the practice.
2004
Dr. Lucas Godinez joins the practice.
2006
The practice, with the guidance and teaching of Dr. Nancy Brent, opens the Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Amy Maddalena joins the practice.
2008
Physician Assistant Travis Lewis joins the practice.
2010
The practice is reborn and reimagined as Kids Plus Pediatrics. The physician owners dedicate themselves to being the new model of the 21st Century Pediatric Practice. The practice is quickly recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a gold-standard national leader in pediatric care, service, and patient engagement.
The Kids Plus web site, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube & Vimeo channels go live.
2011
Plus becomes the first pediatric practice in the country to employ a full-time Communications Director.
The Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh becomes the first advisor to the United States Breastfeeding Committee.
The Kids Plus Patient Portal goes live.
Morning Walk-In Hours begin.
We make our first (silly, family-friendly) movie: Trick or Treat.
2012
Dr. Ditte Karlovits
and Nurse Practitioner Jonette McClelland join the practice.
Evening Walk-In Hours begin.
Dr. Wolynn offers the first Quiet Night Sleep Class.
We launch New Mom’s Coffee, our first-ever peer support group for new Moms.
2013
The Cranberry/Seven Fields Office opens.
Our first girls’ puberty class, Puberty. Seriously?, launches.
The Kids Plus Pinterest boards and Instagram feed go live.
We make the first sequel to our silly, family-friendly Halloween movie: Trick or Treat 2: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers.
2014
The Squirrel Hill/Greenfield Office expands to include new administrative offices and a video production studio.
The first season of Kids + The Community debuts.
The first season of Kids + Game of the Month debuts.
2015
Our Kids + Fit health and wellness program launches.
We host our first annual Kids + Family Fair at the Cranberry/Seven Fields office.
Dr. Pai is awarded the first-ever Community Education Network Outstanding Preceptor Award by Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
The new Pleasant Hills office opens.
2016
The Kids + Daily Dose video series premieres.
The free, monthly Kids + Craft Night series begins.
For their work at Kids Plus, Drs. Wolynn & Dr. Wolf are named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016 Health Care Award winners in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The redesigned Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh web site goes live.
We host our first Moms of Two support group.
Dr. Ashley Riley joins the practice.
The new and improved Kids Plus Patient Portal goes live.
Physician Assistant Samantha Gronlund and Nurse Practitioner Rachel McCarrison join the practice.
2017
Physician Assistant Danielle Anthony join the practice.
We host our first Stuff Your Kids Will Eat nutrition class.
After hosting a successful diaper drive, we become a year-round donation location for diapers for families in need.
Our HPV vaccine public service announcement, “We Prevent Cancer,” premieres.
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann present to audiences in Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia on the rise of anti-vaccine attacks on social media.
Dr. Wolynn appears live on MSNBC, and in print in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times , NPR, and Kaiser Health News, to talk about the importance of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
2018
Evening Walk-In Hours get longer (with an extra half hour) and easier (with fewer criteria).
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann travel to Atlanta to present to the National HPV Roundtable, and to the American Cancer Society, on the rise of anti-vaccine attacks on social media.
We host our first Infant Massage class.
We host our first Kids + Dental Day.
The Lactation Consultant School at our Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh accepts its first student.
Kids Plus is named one of Pittsburgh’s Top Workplaces for the 6th time in the past 7 years.
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann present to audiences in Atlanta, Columbus, Washington D.C., Austria, and France, on the rise of anti-vaccine attacks on social media.
2019
We host our first Adventures in Breastfeeding support group.
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann present to audiences in Nashville and Panama on the rise of anti-vaccine attacks on social media.
Kids Plus is prominently featured in articles in The Guardian and Newsweek on the rise of social media anti-vaccine attacks, and the work we’ve been doing to help and support other practices who’ve been attacked.
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann, working with a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, publish a peer-reviewed article, “It’s not all about autism: The emerging landscape of anti-vaccination sentiment on Facebook,” in the journal Vaccine.
Kids Plus is profiled in another round of national media coverage of the story of our vaccine advocacy, our new journal article, and the work we do to support other doctors and practices who’ve been attacked.
Articles appear in the Washington Post, on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, Mashable, The Verge, the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in a special report on WPXI, as well as many other local and national media outlets.
Dr. Lisa Stefano, Dr. Kate Belser, and PA Michael Durkin join the practice.
We partner with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to launch a new food donation program in all three offices to help fight food insecurity in our communities.
Kids Plus is named one of Pittsburgh’s Top Workplaces for the 7th time in the past 8 years. For the first time ever, we finish in the Top 10!
Communication Director Chad Hermann co-teaches a semester-long class on “Video Production for Health Promotion” at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. The class is inspired, in part, by the videos produced at Kids Plus.
Dr. Wolynn travels to Annecy, France, to deliver the keynote address at the 7th Annual Mérieux Foundation Vaccine Acceptance Meeting.
Tierney Ludwick, MSW, LCSW
joins the practice.
We introduce Pre-Visit Questionnaires.
The Kids + Podcast premieres.
We host our first Boys’ Puberty class, “Dude Where’s My Puberty?”
2020
Dr. Wolynn and Communications Director Chad Hermann are featured in a national Coda Media news story, “Meet the Doctors Fighting Anti-Vax Attackers Online.”
Dr. Wolynn, Communications Director Chad Hermann, and our Squirrel Hill/Greenfield office are prominently featured in “Anti-Vaxx Fever,” an hour-long VICE Investigates documentary on Hulu.
Brooke Kulasa, PA-C
, joins the practice.
We launch All-Day Walk-In Hours at Pleasant Hills and Squirrel Hill/Greenfield. (Cranberry/Seven Fields already had them since Day 1.)
We launch our weekly Kids + LIVE Show.
We launch Virtual Visits.
We launch online versions of our Prenatal Breastfeeding, Expectant Parent Orientation, Puberty. Seriously?, and Quiet Night Sleep classes.
We launch our Kids + Tik Tok account.
We celebrate our 10th anniversary of becoming Kids Plus Pediatrics.
Dr. Andy Georgeson joins the practice.
Kids Plus is named one of Pittsburgh’s Top Workplaces for the 8th time in the past 9 years, and makes the Top 10 for the 2nd year in a row.
We join forces with the amazing team at Girlology and take our puberty classes to the next level, launching two new, online, national versions: Something New About You for girls, and Just the Facts for boys.
Dr. Wolynn, Communications Director Chad Hermann, and our Squirrel Hill/Greenfield office are prominently featured in another documentary on the fight against the anti-vaccine movement, this one from The Economist Films: “Covid-19: Why Vaccine Mistrust is Growing.”
2021
We’re one of the first medical practices in southwestern Pennsylvania to get our COVID-19 vaccines!
In conjunction with our colleagues at Girlology, we launch a brand-new, nationally offered class on The Science of Reproduction.
Dr. Wolynn, Communications Director Chad Hermann, and our Squirrel Hill/Greenfield office are prominently featured in yet another documentary on our fight against the anti-vaccine movement, this one from NBCLX.
We become a certified COVID-19 Vaccination site, offering both Moderna & Pfizer vaccines to our patients, family members, and community.
Ed Helm, MSW joins the practice.
People Magazine features Dr. Wolynn & Communications Director Chad Hermann as two of their “Vaccine Heroes” for their tireless work in advocating for vaccines, fighting back against the anti-vaccine movement, and creating Shots Heard Round the World.
After hearing from hundreds of concerned parents across the region — and around the country — asking for our help in urging their schools to require masks, we write and publish an Open Letter to School Boards and Administrators.
Kids Plus is named one of Pittsburgh’s Top Workplaces for the 9th time in the past 10 years.
Dr. Wolynn & Communications Director Chad Hermann publish an essay, “Shots Heard Round the World: Better Communication Holds the Key to Increasing Vaccine Acceptance,” in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Immunology.
Kaylea Christman, PA-C, and Jessica Sivetz, CPNP, join the practice.
2022
We broadcast the 100th Episode of Kids + LIVE.
The re-designed third generation Kids Plus web site goes live.
We launch the Kids + Family Guide, a personalized, concierge-style program to introduce families to our practice.
The Village, our re-imagined peer support group for Kids + Moms, welcomes its first members.
Dr. Wolynn appears on Episode 3 of the NBC Podcast “Tiffany Dover is Dead.”
Kids Plus is named one of Pittsburgh’s Top Workplaces for the 10th time.
Dr. Hayley Hellstern
joins the practice.
Dr. Wolynn & Communications Director Chad Hermann are prominently featured in Virulent: The Vaccine War, yet another documentary on the fight against the anti-vaccine movement.
Kids Plus joins the Pediatric Associates Family of Companies.
2023
Dr. Wolynn, Communications Director Chad Hermann, and Beth Hoffman, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health publish an essay, “Social Media and Vaccine Hesitancy: Help Us Move the Needle,” in the peer-reviewed journal, Pediatric Clinics of North America.
Dr. Jennifer Vu, Tabitha Vase, PA, Dr. Rebecca Xi, and Kari Jones, PA, join the practice.
