Assistant Professor
Children's of Alabama
Dr. Kara Huls is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the Division of Emergency Medicine and the Division of Child Abuse Medicine. In additional to her clinical and educational duties, she serves as the Medical Director of the Pediatric SANE program. She launched and now directs the Sunrise Program, a multidisciplinary team providing specialty care to child survivors of human trafficking. She serves on the Senior Board of Crisis Center Birmingham and is the chair of the SANE Liaison committee. She serves on the Human Trafficking Task Force for the state of Alabama as its medical representative. She and other members of the Child Trafficking Multi-Disciplinary Team in Birmingham were recognized by the US Department of Homeland Security with its inaugural award for Outstanding Victim Protection in Countering Human Trafficking in 2023. Dr. Huls is a scholar member of the Helfer Society and a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
Dr. Huls is deeply committed to educating medical professionals, educators, law enforcement officers, and legal professionals about the medical needs of survivors of sexual trauma and the complex ways in which survivors encounter, frame, and recover from their experiences of abuse.