The 2025 award recognizes a pediatric sleep specialist’s contributions to research, clinical practice, and establishing qualifications for the subspecialty.
Key takeaways:
- The NSF named Stephen Sheldon, DO, FAAP, the 2025 recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, the organization’s highest honor.
- Sheldon served for over 30 years as director of sleep medicine at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and is a professor emeritus at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
- He received the first certificate of special qualification as a pediatric sleep medicine physician and helped establish the qualifications for the certification.
- For 20 years, Sheldon has been an editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Sleep Medicine and served on the NSF’s board of directors from 2013 to 2020.
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has named Stephen Sheldon, DO, FAAP, as the 2025 recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is the NSF’s highest honor, recognizing an individual who has demonstrated exemplary leadership in the field of sleep health.
“NSF is honored to present Dr Sheldon with our Lifetime Achievement Award. His work as a pediatric sleep specialist has been pivotal in the field, and we celebrate the many years he has helped inform NSF’s approach to promoting the importance of sleep health for children and families,” says Steven Lerman, MD, MPH, board chair of the National Sleep Foundation, in a release.
Sheldon is a professor emeritus, pediatrics (pulmonary and sleep medicine), at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He served for more than 30 years as director of sleep medicine at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where he taught and mentored numerous sleep fellows and was an early advocate for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in children.
A key figure in establishing pediatric sleep medicine, Sheldon received the first certificate of special qualification as a pediatric sleep medicine physician from the American Board of Pediatrics and helped establish the qualifications for the certification.
His contributions to the field also include extensive publications. For the last 20 years, he has been an editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Sleep Medicine. He has also served as an associate editor for the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Sheldon has held multiple leadership and advisory roles, including serving as a consultant on pediatric obstructive sleep apnea for the American Dental Association and chairing the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation’s development council. He served on the NSF’s board of directors from 2013 to 2020, chairing its education and CME committees. During his tenure, he also designed the NSF’s pediatric OSA anatomical model and was instrumental in developing the NSF’s Adolescent Sleep Health Recommendations.
