Michelle Sykes, MD, PhD

I am proud and honored to serve as the Medical Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment and Research Center at Manning Family Children’s and a Professor of Pediatrics at LSU Health New Orleans. I earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I also earned a PhD in Bioengineering, before going on to complete my MD at the Medical College of Georgia. I completed residency training in General Pediatrics at UT Southwestern and Children's Medical Center in Dallas, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, where I also completed a program in Clinical and Translational Science. I then completed my training with an Advanced Fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension at Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, California.

Before joining Manning Family Children's in January 2026, I served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and UK HealthCare in Lexington, Kentucky, where I led the establishment and development of a pediatric pulmonary hypertension program. I look forward to working with the expert team within the Heart Center here at Manning Family Children’s to build our region’s first pulmonary hypertension program, an important addition that will help ensure that comprehensive pediatric cardiac care is available close to home.

My little something extra: I also enjoy beekeeping! I began beekeeping a few years ago, and I am excited to reestablish some of my hives in my new home.

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