“I used to have asthma as a child and had numerous visits to the emergency room,” says Dr. Sande Okelo, associate professor of pediatrics and division chief of UCLA Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine. “As a physician I understood there was a great opportunity out there to help patients lead normal lives. There are great treatments out there, and our group’s expectation is that children should lead an entirely normal life with asthma. I treat children from less than one year of age to 18 years of age. The best part of my job is when a parent says, ‘You were right, I forgot my child even has asthma,’ because their child is doing so well.”