King, Allison, MD, PhD

Clinical Interests

Pediatric hematology and oncology, treatment of children with sickle cell disease, central nervous system tumors, late effects of treatment and issues of survivorship

Research Interests

Dr. King’s research focuses on factors that impact a child’s opportunity to learn. From a biological standpoint, she studies how chronic diseases such as sickle cell disease or brain tumors alter cognition. In addition, Dr. King studies the environment’s influence on children’s development and participation. The goal of this work is to determine targets for intervention that will have the greatest impact on development and education. Her methods include psychological and performance-based assessment, environmental assessments via home or public health measures, and epidemiological tools to incorporate medical and social science measures. Dr. King's collaborators are from occupational therapy, pediatrics, public health, education, social work, neurology, psychology and radiology.

Education

2015: PhD in education, Saint Louis University, Department of Education
2003: MPH, Saint Louis University
2000-2003: Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellow, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
2002-2002: Visiting Fellow, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Children's National Medical Center, George Washington School of Medicine, Washington DC, Supervisor: Roger Packer, M.D.
1996-1999: Resident, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
1996: MD, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia
1992: BS in electrical engineering, Washington University in St. Louis

Background

Dr. King is a pediatric hematologist and oncologist. She focuses her research on educational outcomes of two populations of children with chronic diseases: children with sickle cell disease (SCD) and children with brain tumors. She is investigating variables related to academic achievement and self-sufficiency, including socioeconomic status and family dynamics.

Dr. King earned her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 1992, and graduated from medical school at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1996. After training in a general pediatric residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. King was an instructor of pediatrics in newborn medicine before returning to the university for a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology. During her fellowship, she also trained at Children’s National Medical Center in pediatric neuro-oncology and earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Saint Louis University in 2003. She earned her doctorate in education from Saint Louis University in 2015.

Adolescents with SCD have multiple challenges. In a recent study, it was reported that only 20% of high school-aged students with SCD completed high school in four years. Dr. King’s research is identifying community resources (vocational education, GED classes) to assist these children and their families. These educational and independent living transitions are taking place concurrently with transition to adult medical care.

Dr. King is also working on a public health project to education African Americans about their sickle trait status and is partnering with a local federally-qualified health center and local churches to complete education, trait testing and genetic counseling. Examples of projects Dr. King is working on include developing relationships with community associations to address educational attainment with these chronic diseases and develop programs to identify young adults with chronic diseases and poor educational attainment and referrals to local programs to assist them in obtaining tutoring, GEDs, and vocational rehabilitation. This triage program will eventually contribute to a self-management program for adolescents and young adults with SCD or brain tumors; evaluate educational attainment in children with brain tumors; evaluation daily living activities in children with brain tumors; evaluate executive function and attention in children with brain tumors; exploring the impact of these illnesses on the parents’ stress level or daily activities; and educate adolescents to improve independent living skills.

Selected Publications

Berg, C., Edwards, D. F., & King, A. (2012). Executive function performance on the children's kitchen task assessment with children with sickle cell disease and matched controls. Child Neuropsychology : A Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 18(5), 432–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2011.613813 PMID:21961955

DeBaun, M. R., Sarnaik, S. A., Rodeghier, M. J., Minniti, C. P., Howard, T. H., Iyer, R. V., Inusa, B., Telfer, P. T., Kirby-Allen, M., Quinn, C. T., Bernaudin, F., Airewele, G., Woods, G. M., Panepinto, J. A., Fuh, B., Kwiatkowski, J. K., King, A. A., Rhodes, M. M., Thompson, A. A., Heiny, M. E., … Casella, J. F. (2012). Associated risk factors for silent cerebral infarcts in sickle cell anemia: low baseline hemoglobin, sex, and relative high systolic blood Pressure. Blood, 119(16), 3684–3690. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2011-05-349621 PMCID:PMC3335377 PMID:22096242

Baszis, K., Garbutt, J., Toib, D., Mao, J., King, A., White, A., & French, A. (2011). Clinical outcomes after withdrawal of anti-tumor necrosis factor α therapy in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: A twelve-Year experience. Arthritis & Rheumatism, 63(10), 3163–3168. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.30502

Creach, K. M., Rubin, J. B., Leonard, J. R., Limbrick, D. D., Smyth, M. D., Dacey, R., Rich, K. M., Dowling, J. L., Grubb, R. L., Jr, Linette, G. P., King, A. A., Michalski, J. M., Park, T. S., Perry, A., Simpson, J. R., & Mansur, D. B. (2012). Oligodendrogliomas in children. Journal of Neuro-oncology, 106(2), 377–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-011-0674-6 PMID:21842314

Mansur, D. B., Rubin, J. B., Kidd, E. A., King, A. A., Hollander, A. S., Smyth, M. D., Limbrick, D. D., Park, T. S., & Leonard, J. R. (2011). Radiation therapy for pilocytic astrocytomas of childhood. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 79(3), 829–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2009.11.015 PMID:20421157

Casella, J. F., King, A. A., Barton, B., White, D. A., Noetzel, M. J., Ichord, R. N., Terrill, C., Hirtz, D., McKinstry, R. C., Strouse, J. J., Howard, T. H., Coates, T. D., Minniti, C. P., Campbell, A. D., Vendt, B. A., Lehmann, H., & Debaun, M. R. (2010). Design of the silent cerebral infarct transfusion (SIT) trial. Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 27(2), 69–89. https://doi.org/10.3109/08880010903360367 PMID:20201689

Lim, A. N., Lange, B. J., King, A. A. (2010). Rehabilitation for survivors of pediatric brain tumors: our work has just begun Future Neurology, 5(1), 135-146.

Morris, B., Partap, S., Yeom, K., Gibbs, I. C., Fisher, P. G., & King, A. A. (2009). Cerebrovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors: A Children's Oncology Group Report. Neurology, 73(22), 1906–1913. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181c17ea8 PMCID:PMC2788797 PMID:19812380

Armstrong, G. T., Liu, Q., Yasui, Y., Huang, S., Ness, K. K., Leisenring, W., Hudson, M. M., Donaldson, S. S., King, A. A., Stovall, M., Krull, K. R., Robison, L. L., & Packer, R. J. (2009). Long-term outcomes among adult survivors of childhood central nervous system malignancies in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 101(13), 946–958. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djp148 PMCID:PMC2704230 PMID:19535780

Dean, J. B., Hayashi, S. S., Albert, C. M., King, A. A., Karzon, R., & Hayashi, R. J. (2008). Hearing loss in pediatric oncology patients receiving carboplatin-containing regimens. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, 30(2), 130–134. https://doi.org/10.1097/MPH.0b013e31815d1d83 PMID:18376265

King, A. A., Noetzel, M., White, D. A., McKinstry, R. C., & Debaun, M. R. (2008). Blood transfusion therapy is feasible in a clinical trial setting in children with sickle cell disease and silent cerebral infarcts. Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 50(3), 599–602. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.21338 PMID:17985350

King, A. A., White, D. A., McKinstry, R. C., Noetzel, M., & Debaun, M. R. (2007). A pilot randomized education rehabilitation trial is feasible in sickle cell and strokes. Neurology, 68(23), 2008–2011. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000264421.24415.16 PMID:17548550

Leonard, J. R., Perry, A., Rubin, J. B., King, A. A., Chicoine, M. R., & Gutmann, D. H. (2006). The role of surgical biopsy in the diagnosis of glioma in individuals with neurofibromatosis-1. Neurology, 67(8), 1509–1512. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000240076.31298.47 PMID:17060590

Field, J. J., Mason, P. J., An, P., Kasai, Y., McLellan, M., Jaeger, S., Barnes, Y. J., King, A. A., Bessler, M., & Wilson, D. B. (2006). Low frequency of telomerase RNA mutations among children with aplastic anemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, 28(7), 450–453. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mph.0000212952.58597.84 PMID:16825992

King, A., Herron, S., McKinstry, R., Bacak, S., Armstrong, M., White, D., & DeBaun, M. (2006). A multidisciplinary health care team's efforts to improve educational attainment in children with sickle-cell anemia and cerebral infarcts. The Journal of School Health, 76(1), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2006.00064.x PMID:16457683

King, A. A., Tang, S., Ferguson, K. L., & DeBaun, M. R. (2005). An education program to increase teacher knowledge about sickle cell disease. The Journal of School Health, 75(1), 11–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2005.tb00003.x PMID:15776876

Mosse, Y., Greshock, J., King, A., Khazi, D., Weber, B. L., & Maris, J. M. (2003). Identification and high-resolution mapping of a constitutional 11q deletion in an infant with multifocal neuroblastoma. The Lancet. Oncology, 4(12), 769–771. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(03)01283-x PMID:14662434

Herron, S., Bacak, S. J., King, A., & DeBaun, M. R. (2003). Inadequate recognition of education resources required for high-risk students with sickle cell disease. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157(1), 104. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.157.1.104 PMID:12517203

King, A., Listernick, R., Charrow, J., Piersall, L., & Gutmann, D. H. (2003). Optic pathway gliomas in neurofibromatosis type 1: the effect of Presenting symptoms on outcome. American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A, 122A(2), 95–99. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.a.20211 PMID:12955759

King AA, DeBaun MR, Riccardi VM, Gutmann DH. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors in neurofibromatosis 1. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 2000 Aug 28, 93(5):388-392.

DeBaun, M. R., King, A. A., & White, N. (2000). Hypoglycemia in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Seminars in Perinatology, 24(2), 164–171. https://doi.org/10.1053/sp.2000.6366 PMID:10805171

King, A., & Gutmann, D. H. (2000). The question of familial meningiomas and schwannomas: NF2B or not to be?. Neurology, 54(1), 4–5. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.54.1.4 PMID:10636116

Book Chapters and Other

King, A., DeBaun, M. R. (2008) Need for cognitive rehabilitation for children with sickle cell disease and strokes. Expert Rev. Neurotherapeutics, 8(2): 291-6.

DeBaun, M. R. & King, A. (2005). Clinical studies in pediatric minority patients. In: D. Schuster & W. Powers (Eds). Translational and Experimental Clinical Research. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Awards and Honors

2009-present: ASH Scholar Award
2005: ASH Clinical Research Training Institute
2005-2009: Jacob Javits Junior Investigator Award
2003-2006: National Institutes of Health Pediatric Research Loan Repayment Award
2003-2004: American Heart Association Post Doctoral Fellowship Award