Dr. Ada Alden earned her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of Minnesota with a focus on parent education and the adult learner. Her doctorate was in Educational Leadership. She is also a Certified Family Life Educator.

Dr. Alden has provided in-services, workshops, and or keynote presentations to practitioners and professionals interacting with families in a variety of settings. Topics have been focused on women's issues, corporate staff training, family impact resulting from military deployment, early care and education workshops, and parent education. She worked with graduate students at the University of Minnesota completing their administrative licensure either as principals or superintendents and taught graduate and undergraduate courses promoting the concept of family and parent involvement at St. Cloud State University.

Ada was the Director of Family Educational Services for the Eden Prairie Schools and started four Early Childhood Family Education programs in the state of Minnesota. Ada served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for 6 years and was the Chair of the Women’s Philanthropic Leadership Circle for the University of Minnesota. Presently Ada is a University Supervisor assisting students as they complete licensure requirements and is a member of Doctors for Early Childhood. Ada and her husband have two daughters and five grandchildren.

adaalden960@gmail.com

Dr. Dale Dobrin completed his B.S., MD, and Pediatric residency at the University of Minnesota, following which he completed two years active military service at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. 

In November, 1974 Dr. Dobrin and his partner Dr. Ernie Swihart founded South Lake Pediatric Clinic, with its first location in the “7 Hi” area of Minnetonka, MN. Much to the founders’ amazement by 2015 the Clinic grew to 6 sites in the Minneapolis Western Suburbs, including 28 pediatricians and 9 pediatric nurse practitioners. Dr. Dobrin was Medical Director of the Clinic until 2017, remains its president and is a board member, though no longer seeing patients since the onset of the pandemic. Aside from the joy of seeing his young patients and their families grow and develop, he considers integrating primary care pediatrics and behavioral health, Care Coordinator positions, and adding diversity to the Clinic’s staff as his greatest SLP achievements. He also is most pleased that his medical school classmate and wonderful pediatrician, Dr. Mary Meland, and her daughter, also a fine pediatrician, Dr. Anne Skemp, joined the group at SLP.

Dr Dobrin was Chief of Staff at Children’s Minnesota in 2002 and remained as a Board member for the following two years. In the late 2000s he was president of Preferred Physician Associates and a board member of PreferredOne Health Plan. He has been board certified in pediatrics since 1976 and has been a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since that time as well.

Dr. Dobrin and his wife, Lois, will celebrate 57 years this August since their wedding in 1965. They have two sons, one of whom and family live in the Twin Cities area. There is truly not much that rivals being a grandparent! Being a founder of Doctors for Early Childhood, along with Dr. Mary Meland, provides him with the challenges he seeks as a “near retiree”.

ddobrin@slpeds.com

Dr Mary Meland is a graduate of Carleton College and the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Board certified in general pediatrics, Dr Meland practiced in suburban Minneapolis, first at HealthPartners and then at South Lake Pediatrics for a total of 42 years and retired as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics. She is a fellow of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her special interests are ADHD, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and early childhood and parent education.

She and her husband J. Milo Meland, MD have three children and five grandchildren all living in Minneapolis. Dr Meland has served on the boards of We Can Ride (therapeutic riding program), Proof Alliance (fetal alcohol spectrum disorders program), and Doctors for Early Childhood.

melandmh@gmail.com

Dr. Roger Sheldon is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  He earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health. His Postgraduate training included a Residency in Pediatrics in Boston, and Fellowships in Pediatric Pulmonology and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine in Denver. He innovated the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner model at St. Joseph Hospital, Denver, and led the Neonatal section and NICU at the University of Oklahoma before serving as Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education. 

He and his wife of 57 years, Dr. Carol V. Sheldon, have a son, daughter, and six grandchildren. Dr. Sheldon has served in various leadership capacities in medical and nursing education, physician education, health plan and hospital administration, child advocacy, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center at the University of Minnesota, and Doctors for Early Childhood. 

rogeugshe@gmail.com