SPR Welcomes New Members in 2021

Al-Subu, Awni

Dr. Al-Subu is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research is focused on investigating the use of noninvasive monitoring techniques to aid in the resuscitation of children suffering from cardio-pulmonary collapse. Using pediatric swine hypoxic ventricular fibrillatory arrest models, he is investigating the use of both capnography and regional oxygen saturation to optimize the effectiveness of CPR.

Andrews, Saadet

Dr. Saadet Andrews is a board-certified Biochemical Geneticist in the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics at SickKids Hospital, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. Since 2012, Dr. Andrews has investigated the underlying genetic causes of epilepsy in childhood. Her research activities have focused on pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy, GLUT1 deficiency, and creatine deficiency disorders.

Astley, Christina M

Christina M. Astley, MD, ScD is a computational and translational faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital. She completed her ScD in modeling and inference (Nature), and her medical training at Harvard Medical School (HST, MSTP) and Pediatric Endocrinology. Her lab uses remote, real-time and omics technologies to understand individual- and population-level dynamics for diabetes (NIDDK K23), COVID-19 (J Travel Med) and other diseases (IJO).

Beck, Amy

Dr. Beck’s research program focuses on understanding factors that contribute to obesity among Latino children using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, as well as studying clinical interventions to prevent and treat obesity in this population. She has studied the relationship of beverage intake to weight in children. She also uses qualitative methods to elucidate beliefs related to lifestyle behaviors among Latino parents.

Beernink, Peter

Dr. Beernink’s research interests include biochemical and immunological studies of bacterial vaccine antigens and the antibodies they elicit. He has studied the genetic diversity of Neisserial vaccine antigens; mapped the epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies directed towards several antigens; and engineered Neisserial protein vaccine antigens with increased immunogenicity, greater cross-protection, and increased thermal stability.

Bertaina, Alice

Alice Bertaina, MD, PhD, is a renowned expert in the field of allogeneic hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell transplant (HSCT) for the treatment of pediatric patients affected by hematological malignancies or non-malignant disorders. Prior coming to Stanford School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Dr. Bertaina was the Head of the Stem Cell Transplant Unit of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Italy, the Center that performs HSC transplants on the largest number of children in Europe (around 150-170 patients/year). Currently, Dr. Bertaina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, she serves as Inpatient Medical Director, Chief of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine Section, and Co-Director of the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disease.

Billinghurst, Lori

Dr. Billinghurst completed residencies in pediatrics, neurology and a clinical research fellowship in pediatric stroke. She joined CHOP in 2013 and co-founded the Neonatal Neurocritical Program. The focus of her academic research career has been the clinical care and prognosis of children with and at risk for brain injury, including cerebrovascular disease and stroke. She is a member of the ESPR Council and Chair of the Planning Committee.

Bolin, Elijah

Elijah H Bolin, MD, is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist with additional formal training in fetal cardiology. His research interest is in the field of fetal cardiology, in which he has published on the topics of magnetocardiography and telemedicine. Additionally, Dr. Bolin has used the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) to better understand predictors of postoperative outcomes in children with congenital heart disease.

Bona, Kira

Kira Bona, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Pediatric Oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dr. Bona received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, her Doctor of Medicine from the Yale University School of Medicine, and her Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center and her subspecialty fellowship training in pediatric hematology/oncology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital.

Breslin, Kristen

Dr. Kristen Breslin is an attending physician in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the PEM Fellowship Research Director at Children’s National Hospital. Her clinical research focuses on the delivery of health care for common presentations in the Pediatric Emergency Department. She is interested in how we teach research skills, and presents on biostatistics and research ethics. She serves as a Vice-Chair on the Institutional Review Board.

Burns, Michele

Dr. Burns’ research, teaching, and clinical contributions to Boston Children’s Hospital stem from her training in the fields of General Pediatrics, Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology. As such, she is committed to promoting optimal health care for acutely injured and poisoned children, advocating for state-of-the-art treatment while contributing to national consensus guidelines and prevention efforts on a more global level.

Burnsed, Jennifer

Dr. Burnsed is an Attending Neonatologist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Virginia. She is a founding member and Co-Director of the NeuroNICU Program. Her lab studies changes in learning and memory circuitry following neonatal hypoxic-ischemic injury using novel techniques, such as neuronal activity mapping and EEG recordings. Dr. Burnsed is a recipient of an NIH K08 and Loan Repayment Program Award.

Calhoun, Amy

Amy R.U.L. Calhoun, MD, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics – Medical Genetics and Genomics at the University of Iowa. She is also the Medical Director for the Iowa Newborn Screening Program. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Biology and German from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She earned her MD from Mayo Medical School. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at the University of Iowa and was subsequently selected as Chief Resident in Pediatrics. She then completed a Medical Genetics Residency at the University of Utah under the supervision of Drs. John C. Carey and Alan Rope. Dr. Calhoun is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the 4p- Support Group. She has an interest in newborn screening quality improvement, Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, and genetics in public health.

Camacho-Gonzalez, Andres

Dr. Camacho-Gonzalez started his medical studies in Colombia and migrated to the US to pursue a career as a pediatric infectious disease physician. He is currently a faculty member at Emory University, where he serves as the director of the Pediatric HIV Clinical Trials Unit. His research is focused on decreasing gaps along the HIV care continuum cascade and conducting clinical trials from NIH and CDC funded networks.

Cerezo, Carolina

Carolina Cerezo, MD, FAAP, is the Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Nutrition & Liver Diseases at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. She completed her residency training at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, and fellowship training at Hasbro Children’s/Rhode Island Hospital Brown Program. She is an Associate Professor at the Warren Alpert School of Brown University and has been a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist for 17 years with special interest, research and expertise in nutrition, pediatric feeding disorders and nutrition support for IBD, Functional GI Disorders and Intestinal Rehabilitation. She has actively participated in regional and national nutrition committees for the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the AGA. She served as the medical director of the Hasbro Feeding Program for 14 years, as the pediatric medical advisor for the Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Program at the Miriam Hospital for 4 years.

Chambers, Eileen

Eileen Chambers has 15 years of direct clinical experience creating and implementing immunosuppressive and infectious monitoring programs to improve clinical outcomes for children. Her research strives to advance the transplant care of children and has encompassed B and T cell immunology, allo- and auto-antibody production, and the development and treatment of post-transplant viral infections.

Chandrakantan, Arvind

Arvind Chandrakantan’s research focuses on pediatric OSA and recapitulation of the neurocognitive phenotype seen in children utilizing preclinical models.

Chua, Kao-Ping

Kao-Ping Chua, MD, PhD, is a primary care pediatrician and health policy researcher in the Department of Pediatrics and the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at the University of Michigan Medical School. After completing his pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, he obtained a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University with a concentration in evaluative sciences and statistics.

Corr, Tammy

Tammy Corr, DO, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine whose primary research interest is maternal substance use disorders and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Dr. Corr’s goal is to utilize the results of her work to inform the development of evidence-based interventions at the health system level to improve health and academic outcomes of children affected by NAS.

Dalabih, Abdallah

Abdallah Dalabih, MD, MBA, is a board certified pediatric critical care physician and an Associate Professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences – Arkansas Children’s Hospital. He is the medical director of the pediatric sedation service and the medical director of the Arkansas Infant and Child Death Review Program. A native of Jordan, he completed his medical education at The University of Istanbul- Cerrahpasa Medical School. Dr. Dalabih completed his pediatric training from West Virginia University at Charleston and his subspeciality training in pediatric critical care from Vanderbilt University. He has a Master’s of Business Administration degree in health care management. His research focus is in two main areas; pediatric sedation outside of the operating room and injury prevention practices. The focus in pediatric sedation explores the use of a variety of sedation medications for new procedures to achieve a safe, pleasant and cost-effective experience for children undergoing outpatient procedures. His second area of focus (injury prevention practices) has the goal of decreasing preventable childhood mortality. Dr. Dalabih participates in multiple national multi-center research projects. He is an active medical educator and has mentored junior faculty, fellows, residents, and nurses in their research activities.

Davis, James

Dr. Davis trained as an architect before turning to medicine. For his PhD he worked with Dr. Lalita Ramakrishnan to establish a zebrafish model of tuberculosis, and made fundamental progress in our understanding of granuloma biology. During fellowship, he studied fungal pathogenesis, establishing a zebrafish model of cryptococcosis. His current work centers on granuloma biology in multiple contexts, including cryptococcosis and tuberculosis.

Deniz, Engin

Engin Deniz is a physician-scientist trained in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and studying Developmental Biology. Many infants are born with excessive fluid in their brains, which is known as hydrocephalus. Our understanding of hydrocephalus is incomplete, which makes designing effective treatments difficult. Deniz Lab developed frog Xenopus as an effective model system to study human hydrocephalus to better understand the disease process.

Denzin, Lisa

Dr. Denzin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers RWJMS, and a Resident Scientist at the Child Health Institute of NJ. After starting her independent research career at Duke, she moved to the Sloan Kettering Institute at MSKCC before joining the Rutgers Faculty in 2011. Her laboratory research interests include the control of immunity and autoimmunity by MHC II peptide presentation.

Dulek, Daniel

Daniel Dulek, MD, is Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is medical director of the Peter F. Wright Immunocompromised Host Pediatric Infectious Diseases Service at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and works closely with oncology, transplant, and primary immunodeficiency teams in both clinical care and research programs. Dr. Dulek completed his MD at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis followed by pediatrics residency training at Children’s Memorial Hospital/Northwestern University. He completed pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Vanderbilt University/Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Dr. Dulek’s early research interests focused on lung immunology at the intersection of allergic airway inflammation and viral/bacterial infection. He now focuses on clinical and translational research in transplant other immunocompromised pediatric patients. Dr. Dulek’s current research is focused on immunogenetic prediction of infection risk and vaccine responses in pediatric transplant recipients.

Durbin, Matthew

Matthew Durbin, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and an attending Neonatologist in the NICU and Heart Center at the Riley Hospital for Children. His research at the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research focuses is on the genetics, genomics and developmental mechanisms leading to congenital heart disease. He received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, completed medical school at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, residency in pediatrics at the Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago and a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

Eldredge, Laurie

Laurie Eldredge, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor and Pediatric Pulmonologist at The University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her clinical and research efforts focus on improving care for premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Dr. Eldredge studies immune-mediated mechanisms of BPD pathogenesis, including the role of type 2 inflammation in monocyte-epithelial crosstalk.

Fazal, Fabeha

Dr. Fazal completed her graduate studies in India and her postdoctoral training at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL and at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Fazal’s research interest involves understanding the pathophysiology of Acute Lung Injury (ALI) that affects nearly 200,000 Americans each year with a mortality rate of 25-40%. The goal of her research is to identify novel mechanistic targets against evolving ALI.

Fischer, Ashley

Ashley Fischer, MD, is an attending neonatologist at OSF St Francis Children’s Hospital of Illinois and has a passion for quality improvement research. Dr Fischer joined CHOI after completing her residency training in general pediatrics at LAC+USC followed by neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at LAC+USC and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles where she explored both basic science and clinical research. Upon joining CHOI, Dr Fischer’s research initially focused on antibiotic stewardship for both early onset and late onset sepsis and comparing published methods of early onset sepsis evaluation. After transitioning into the role of physician leader for the CHOI Vermont Oxford Network workgroup, her focus has shifted towards quality improvement. By leading a multitude of multidisciplinary workgroups with neonatology, labor and delivery, newborn nursery, endocrinology, nephrology, and pediatric surgery, she has worked to improve outcomes for critically ill neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernias as well as extremely low birthweight infants by reducing rates of antibiotic use and osteopenia of prematurity. Her current efforts also focus on improvements in resuscitation, lung management, and thermoregulation in the delivery room.

Flibotte, John

Dr. John Flibotte is a neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he leads the Neonatal Neurocritical Care Program, focused on clinical care and research efforts for infants with brain injury. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and completed his post-graduate training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Francis, Jenny

Dr. Francis is board-certified in Adolescent Medicine and Pediatrics. She is a member of the UTSW IRB and is an NIH funded investigator who studies provider-parent-adolescent (triad) communication about important sexual and reproductive health services. Her research interests stem from her clinical practice (one of the first pediatricians to place IUDs and contraceptive implants at UTSW) and her desire to promote reproductive justice.

Garcia-Prats, Anthony

Dr. Garcia-Prats is currently with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. From 2012-2019 he was the Paediatric Pharmacokinetics Unit Medical Director at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. His interests are TB drug pharmacokinetics and safety, and optimal TB treatment and prevention in children. He is leading multiple pediatric trials of TB drugs and treatment strategies.

Garg, Parvesh

I am actively involved in Pediatric research activities for the last ten years. My area of research focus is neonatology, and I have a particular interest in studying necrotizing enterocolitis and acute kidney injury in preterm infants.

Garvey, Katharine

Katharine Garvey, MD, MPH, completed fellowships in pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Pediatric Health Services Research at Harvard and obtained an MPH degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She recently completed a K23 award from NIH/NIDDK. Dr. Garvey’s research has focused on understanding and improving the process of transition from pediatric to adult care for youth with T1D. She designed survey measures to systematically analyze the transition care process from varied perspectives and published results from pre- and post-transition patient cohorts (both local and national) as well as providers (national samples of endocrinologists and diabetes educators). She also studied patterns of health care utilization and outcomes in the claims dataset environment. She has helped lay the groundwork in the U.S. literature on diabetes care transitions demonstrating that many youth transition out of pediatric diabetes care without appropriate follow-up or adequate preparation to ensure the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in an adult-oriented system. She has also developed expertise in qualitative research and has used this to develop relevant and effective interventional approaches. She recently completed a pilot randomized controlled trial implementing and evaluating a longitudinal, nurse-led peer group education curriculum (SMART T1D) for diabetes self-care and transition preparation education in teens with uncontrolled T1D. Dr. Garvey’s future work will continue to test hypotheses related to the positive impact of patient engagement curricula on adherence and glycemic control.

Gaur, Sunanda

Dr Gaur’s early research focused on Pediatric HIV/AIDS working on anti-retroviral resistance, inter-sibling transmission of HIV, medication adherence and clinical trials. She has also conducted several clinical trials on new antimicrobials in children. Since 2007, her research focus has shifted to community-based research in South Asian immigrant communities addressing their unique needs and developing culturally tailored interventions.

Georgia, Senta

My laboratory investigates beta cell differentiation, regeneration, and function. We use animal models and human tissue samples to understand how epigenetic controls cellular identity; pluripotent stem cells to understand human beta cell differentiation, maturation, function; and we assess how natural life events, specifically stress, disease, and pregnancy, can affect beta cell responses to metabolic stress throughout the lifespan.

Gourgari, Evgenia (Jenny)

Evgenia (Jenny) Gourgari, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. Dr. Gourgari joined the Division of Pediatrics at Georgetown University in 2013. Dr. Gourgari received her MD from Aristotle University in Greece. She completed her pediatric residency at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida and her fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Gourgari also received a Master of Science from Georgetown University in 2019 and a Doctorate of Science from University of Athens in Greece.

Gupta, Munish

Munish Gupta, MD, MMSc, is a staff neonatologist and the Director of Quality Improvement for the Department of Neonatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His academic interests focus on innovative approaches to quality improvement and patient safety, including quality collaboratives and the rigorous use of data for improvement. He has supported the development of state-based perinatal quality collaboratives within Massachusetts and nationally, and is on the executive committee of the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC). He has a particular interest in the use of statistical process control for quality improvement.

Harmon, Heidi

Heidi Harmon, MD, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa and an attending physician within the neonatology division at the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital. She received her Doctor of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University, completed her pediatric residency training at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and completed a fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital as well as a master’s in clinical investigation. She is currently serving as the medical director of the High-Risk Infant Follow-up Program and site follow-up PI for the NICHD Neonatal Research Network. Her research interests include understanding and improving the neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely premature infant and infants with congenital heart disease.

Hatley, Mark

Dr. Hatley is an Associate Member in the Department of Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He completed the Medical Scientist Training Program, pediatric residency and hematology/oncology fellowship including research as a Pediatric Scientist Development Program fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern. In 2011, he joined St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to study the developmental origins of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Heard-Garris, Nia

Dr. Nia Heard-Garris is a physician-investigator at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University. The NHLBI funds Dr. Heard-Garris’s career development award. She investigates the role of adversity in adolescent cardiometabolic health and develops interventions for youth experiencing adversity. She believes in using her research to better inform clinical practice and policy that supports youth.

Hiraki, Linda

Dr. Linda Hiraki is a clinician scientist, rheumatologist, genetic epidemiologist, and emerging nationally and internationally recognized expert in the genetics of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Since joining SickKids in 2015, Dr. Hiraki established a collaborative, translational research program bridging clinical challenges and research discoveries, to advance insights into rare systemic inflammatory diseases and improve population health.

Hudgins, Joel

Dr. Hudgins is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hudgins has pursued research evaluating the translation of research evidence into clinical practice, as well as quality of care delivered at pediatric vs general hospitals across different disease processes. He has recently published on opioid use among adolescents and young adults as well as opioid prescribing in both pediatric and general hospitals.

Jain, Deepak

Dr. Jain is a clinician scientist with background in clinical research in the areas of respiratory physiology, oxygenation, and respiratory support of the neonates. He finished neonatal fellowship from University of Miami and continued there as junior faculty. He recently moved to Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.

Jaleel, Mambarath

Dr. Jaleel studies the pathophysiology and optimal management of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). He published consensus guidelines and demonstrated its utility in decreasing medical and surgical intervention for PDA by decreasing the variation in management. He has also written review articles on these controversial topics. He also studies clinical practices to improve non-invasive ventilation to decrease bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

Jenssen, Brian

Dr. Jenssen’s research involves the use of clinical decision support systems and population health management techniques to protect children from secondhand smoke exposure and tobacco use. Current efforts include parent smoking cessation in clinical settings and clinical/policy research to protect adolescents and youth from e-cigarettes/vaping. More broadly, he focuses on leveraging health IT to improve care for children and their parents.

Josefson, Jami

Jami Josefson, MD, MS is a pediatric endocrinologist and NIH-funded physician scientist with a research focus on the developmental origins of metabolic disease. She has expertise in the near- and long-term outcomes of children exposed to obesity and hyperglycemia in pregnancy. Her research program studying epigenetic mechanistic insights aims to reduce the public health burden of childhood obesity and associated metabolic diseases.

Kaluarachchi, Dinushan

Dinushan Kaluarachchi is a clinical and epidemiological researcher whose research focus is thyroid dysfunction in preterm infants. Dr. Kaluarachchi has conducted a series of studies on this area in collaboration with the Wisconsin state newborn screening program. He has contributed multiple publications to the scientific literature including publications in major pediatric journals such as Pediatrics and Journal of Pediatrics.

Kamity, Ranjith

Dr. Kamity is a practicing neonatologist with a primary research focus on the diagnosis and treatment of dysphagia in neonates. He uses neonatologist driven point-of-care Fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) for dysphagia evaluation in preterm infants. He researches placental immune responses in the laboratory setting. He is trained in quality improvement methodologies and leads the CLABSI prevention team for pediatrics.

Kelly, Matt

My research is broadly focused on elucidating interactions that exist between the host microbiome and exogenous pathogens that cause infections in children. My ongoing work is evaluating: 1) the impact of the respiratory microbiome on pneumonia risk; 2) associations between the gut microbiome and the risk of bloodstream infection after stem cell transplantation; and 3) the role of the microbiome in mediating COVID-19 infection susceptibility.

Kendi, Sadiqa

Dr. Kendi is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and injury prevention researcher interested in the intersection of social determinants of health, pediatric injury, and emergency care. Dr. Kendi studies the use of innovative methods to curb the significant morbidity and mortality on children from unintentional injuries, while striving to infuse principles of social justice and health equity into each facet of her work.

Khan, Alisa

Alisa Khan, MD, MPH is a health services researcher and pediatric hospitalist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on engaging families in hospital safety and communication in order to improve patient safety and quality of care. She has received funding from the AHRQ and the Charles H. Hood Foundation, and has been published in BMJ, JAMA Pediatrics, and Pediatrics.

Kim, Edwin

Edwin Kim, MD MS is as Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine. He is Director of the UNC Food Allergy Initiative and Program Director of the UNC Allergy and Immunology Fellowship. His work has been primarily focused on studying the clinical and immunological effects of immunotherapy for food allergy through PI-initiated studies and the NIH-sponsored Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR)

Kohler, John

Dr. Kohler is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. He obtained his MD from the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Kohler received residency training at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and neonatology fellowship at Duke University. Dr. Kohler’s primary research examines the impact of parental, especially paternal, involvement during the NICU stay on infant outcomes.

Konnikova, Liza

Liza Konnikova, MD, PhD, is an Attending Neonatologist, and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine. She graduates summa cum laude from Brandeis University and obtained an M.D Ph.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine focusing on regulation of STAT3 signaling in glioblastoma under the mentorship of Dr. Brent Cochran. She then went on to compete a pediatric residency at the Boston Combined Residency Program (Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Boston Medical Center (BMC)) and a neonatology fellowship at the Harvard Combined Program. Her post-doctoral training, under the supervision of Dr. Scott Snapper (BCH), focused on the development of gastrointestinal (GI) tolerance in children and its dysregulation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Koutroulis, Ioannis

Dr. Koutroulis’ research focuses on sepsis metabolism and how decreased energy production affects innate immunity. His primary goal is to identify treatment targets that will improve the metabolic profile of septic patients and subsequently alleviate the hyperimmune response that leads to multi-organ dysfunction

Kuhns, Lisa

Lisa M Kuhns, PhD, MPH is Research Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Her career has focused on the development of practical and scalable interventions to address HIV risk among vulnerable youth, including interventions in multiple formats. Her academic work has provided insights on both the patterns of risk as well as most efficacious means to intervene on these risks.

Kulis, Michael

Dr. Kulis was trained as a biochemist primarily carrying out research on protein structure and enzymatic activity. His postdoctoral training under Dr. Wesley Burks allowed him to apply his skill set to the field of allergy and immunology. Dr. Kulis is currently a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the lab research director of the UNC Food Allergy Initiative.

Lakhani, Saquib

As Clinical Director of the Yale Pediatric Genomics Discovery Program (PGDP), Dr Lakhani oversees patient recruitment, next generation sequencing (NGS), and bioinformatic analysis to identify candidate genes and variants causing rare, undiagnosed diseases in children. He then coordinates further basic science research to understand underlying molecular mechanisms, with a focus on previously-unknown genes and newly-defined diseases.

Lawrence, Shelley

My research interests lie in (1) investigating novel pathways and mechanisms (including other types of pharmaceutical agents) to treat infectious disease, (2) understanding the pathogenesis of sepsis and fundamental mechanisms employed by the neonatal innate immune system to combat infectious organisms, and (3) translating innovative technologies that can rapidly and accurately identify and quantitate pathogens that cause neonatal sepsis.

Leiding, Jennifer

Dr. Jennifer Leiding is an Associate Professor in the University of South Florida Department of Pediatrics. Her translational and clinical research focuses on investigating the pathophysiology of auto-inflammation in chronic granulomatous disease and other immunodeficiencies associated with immune dysregulation and hyper inflammation.

Leon, Eyby

Dr. Eyby Leon is a geneticist with over 10 years of experience. She is a dysmorphologist interested in describing better the distinctive physical features of patients with rare genetic disorders. She is also interested in finding new genes or mutations that are causative for known and new genetic conditions. She has over 26 peer review papers expanding the phenotype and genotype of various syndromic and non-syndromic genetic disorders.

Li, Simon

Simon Li, MD MPH attended SUNY Downstate Medical Center for medical school and completed a residency in Combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at Baystate Medical Center. He completed his Pediatric Critical Care fellowship and MPH at Yale – New Haven Hospital. His research interest is in clinical collaborative research to answer important questions with real time applicability and understanding longer term outcomes in critically ill children.

Lipsett, Susan

Dr. Lipsett’s research focuses on improving diagnostic strategies for children with acute infectious conditions, including respiratory illnesses and Lyme disease. Recent and ongoing work has evaluated the role of common diagnostics such as chest radiography and blood culture in children with suspected community-acquired pneumonia.

Manasyan, Albert

Albert Manasyan, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor with the Division of Neonatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his medical studies at the Yerevan State Medical University (Armenia) after which he pursued his MPH from the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Mangold, Karen

Dr. Mangold conducts educational scholarship and has performed several studies using simulation-based education. She is interested in assessment methods for graduate medical trainees and such as using Observed Standardized Clinical Exams for pediatric residents. She has additional interest in teaching the Social Determinants of Health and has conducted several studies to investigate the best way to teach and assess these topics in medical school.

Martin Herz, Susanne

Dr. Susanne Martin Herz is Associate Professor and Associate Clinical Director in the Division of Developmental Medicine at UCSF, and Affiliate Faculty in the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and UCSF Program in Bioethics. Her scholarly work focuses primarily on the prevention/amelioration of neonatal brain injury, neurodevelopmental assessment and the epidemiology of developmental delay/disability in low-resourced settings.

McNeil, J. Chase

Dr. McNeil’s career is committed to understanding the mechanisms and epidemiology of infectious diseases in children. His research interests focus on antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and he has performed some of the only studies examining antiseptic tolerance in a pediatrics. Dr. McNeil also has conducted some of the only contemporary studies examining the management and outcomes of osteoarticular infections in children.

Meyers, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Meyers, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. He serves as the Medical Director of the level-4 NICU at Golisano Children’s Hospital and is also the Director of Newborn Quality Sciences.

Mir, Imran

Dr. Imran N Mir is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas. His primary research interest is to better understand the role of placental biology and perinatal inflammatory responses in the development of abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes in Neonatal-ICU graduates.

Mohr, Emma

Emma Mohr, MD PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed medical school and graduate school at the University of Iowa, pediatrics residency at Emory University, and a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Mohr’s research mission is to improve the outcomes of children affected by congenital viral infections. Her current research focuses on congenital Zika virus infection. She is defining how prenatal Zika virus exposure is associated with birth defects and developmental deficits in a macaque model. Dr. Mohr leads studies defining early neural predictors of developmental deficits in a macaque congenital Zika virus infection model. She is also elucidating which features of the maternal humoral immune responses are correlates of protection.

Moorthy, Lakshmi

She qualitatively explored SLE’s impact on children’s/parents’ HRQOL, and developed/validated and cross-culturally validated the scale, Simple Measure of the Impact of Lupus Erythematosus in Youngsters (SMILEY). She assessed the impact of a N. America-wide pediatric rheumatology mentoring program. Her other focus areas include improving health literacy, enhancing provider knowledge, and the studying the needs of patients during the pandemic.

Moran, Timothy

Dr. Moran is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. His research focuses on how the indoor environment impacts the development of allergic diseases, including asthma and food allergy, which are significant causes of childhood morbidity. His goal is to identify potential therapeutic targets for environment-mediated disorders and develop interventions to decrease allergic disease prevalence.

Morton, Sarah

Sarah Morton is a physician-scientist dedicated to translating scientific discoveries to clinical care. Sarah identified novel congenital heart disease genes and genetic factors associated with patient outcomes. Sarah led projects that improved neonatal nutrition, focused on enteral feeding and iron deficiency. This work supports her long-term career goal of improving neonatal health and outcomes by addressing individual patient characteristics.

Mosquera, Ricardo

Dr. Mosquera is a self-motived and versatile clinician, with 7 years in pediatrics and 13 years as a pulmonologist/complexivist. He is the father of a child with special healthcare needs, which allows him to provide a unique perspective to research and the clinical aspect. So far, his biggest accomplishment is a 360-degree approach, designed to reduce fragmentation of care for CMC in outpatient, inpatient-hospital and home via telemedicine.

Nasir, Arwa

Arwa Nasir, MBBS, MSc, MPH, is an academic general pediatrician who received her medical degree from the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine before completing her pediatric residency training, degree in Medical Family Therapy, and Masters in Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Nasir currently practices pediatrics in an academic inpatient and ambulatory primary care setting, and also has extensive past experience in pediatric emergency medicine and urgent care.

Nemerofsky, Sheri

Dr. Nemerofsky is an academic neonatologist and the director of newborn services. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and her interests are focused on quality improvement and improving neonatal outcomes of premature infants. In 2018, she joined the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Peer mentoring program. She is now mentoring a group of junior faculty throughout the Department of Pediatrics to navigate the academic arena.

Nicholson, Maribeth

Dr. Nicholson has a broad background in pediatric research and has conducted studies evaluating pediatric Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) which were completed through a T32 training grant, the Thrasher Early Career Award, and an institutional KL2 award. She has established the Pediatric Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) program at Vanderbilt and is the co-PI on a multi-center consortium evaluating FMT in pediatric patients.

Niescierenko, Michelle

Michelle Niescierenko, MD, MPH is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician, director of the Global Health Program. The Boston Children’s Global Health Program works to improve child health globally through partnerships for clinical quality improvement, education, research, and advocacy globally. Her areas of interest are the provision of healthcare in humanitarian settings through system development and the role of children in these settings.

Numis, Adam

During his training, Dr. Numis had the had the privilege to witness the spectrum of outcomes in clinical epilepsy. In seeing the limitations of our current therapeutics, his interests expanded toward identification of cohorts for whom interventions may prevent the development of epilepsy. Currently, he is PI of a study evaluating circulating cytokines and micro-RNA after acute symptomatic seizures in neonates to predict development of epilepsy.

O’Brien, Caitlin

Caitlin O’Brien, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. She divides her time between clinical practice in the PICU and translational research. Her research focuses on improving neurologic outcomes after cardiac arrest. Current projects include understanding mechanisms of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and the use of post-arrest pharmacologic therapy to improve outcomes.

O’Connell, Amy

Dr. O’Connell is an MD/PhD physician scientist with board certifications in both neonatology and allergy/immunology, and a doctorate in immunology. Her laboratory investigates molecular regulation of development in the premature infant. The scientific goal of the lab is to understand the developmental susceptibilities that allow NEC to occur in premature infants. In addition, Dr. O’Connell is studying immune development in premature infants.

Olson, Micah

Micah Olson, MD, is a Pediatric Endocrinologist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. He completed pediatric residency at Phoenix Children’s and pediatric endocrinology fellowship at UT Southwestern. He is the Project Physician of the NIH-sponsored Preventing Diabetes in Latino Youth clinical trial. His research interests include pediatric obesity, dyslipidemia, and prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Patterson, Jackie

Jackie Patterson, MD, MPH, is a neonatologist and implementation scientist with expertise in technology-based interventions to improve perinatal mortality in low and lower-middle income countries (LMICs). Her particular research emphasis is on newborn resuscitation.

Perez, Iris

Iris A. Perez, MD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC). She completed her pediatric residency and chief residency at the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine and her pediatric pulmonology fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). She is the Director of the Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) and Diaphragm Pacing Program at CHLA, member of the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) Admission Committee and is the Associate Program Director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program at KSOM.

Pesek, Robbie

Robbie Pesek, MD, is an associate professor of Allergy/Immunology and Pediatrics for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. He received his medical degree from UAMS and completed a residency in Pediatrics at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. He completed his fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. He has been on faculty at Arkansas Children’s since 2011.

Phan-Vo, Thao-Ly

Dr. Phan is an Associate Professor/Research Scientist at Nemours. Her research focuses on addressing psychosocial determinants of pediatric obesity, using innovative strategies to engage families in treatment. She was the recipient of the APA’s RAPID award and the NICHD’s K23 award, and has received funding through the Delaware CTR and INBRE. She has participated in national networks, including PEDSnet, the AAP’s IHCW, and the ISPCTN.

Rahimi, Homaira

Dr. Rahimi is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Rochester, NY. Her research focuses on inflammatory disease with a particular interest in sex differences in inflammatory arthritis. She has secondary interests in lymphatic dysfunction and in interstitial lung disease. Her lab works with animal models of inflammatory arthritis and lung disease which have been translated to human studies.

Rahman, Arshad

Dr. Rahman completed his graduate studies in India and received his postdoctoral/junior faculty training at Northwestern Medical School and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Rahman’s overall focus is to understand the mechanisms of evolution and resolution of acute lung injury, with the ultimate goal of identifying therapeutic targets to resolve the injury in patients. He enjoys mentoring postdocs and junior faculty in career development.

Ramagopal, Maya

Maya Ramagopal completed medical school and a pediatric residency in Pondicherry, a former French colony in southern India. Following a fellowship in respirology at Montreal Children’s Hospital, she joined the faculty at University of MD, Baltimore. A chance observation during the creation of a database lead to her research interest in Asthma and OSA in and now includes the effect of the indoor environment on both asthma and snoring in children.

Ramani, Manimaran

Manimaran Ramani, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his medical education at Chennai Medical College, India, Pediatric residency at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He received his Executive-Masters in Health Administration degree at UAB. He is the Associate Fellowship Program Director for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship program and the Director of Neuro-Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in UAB.

Reichman, Nancy E.

Nancy E. Reichman is a Professor of Pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School with a broad portfolio of research focusing on linkages between socioeconomic status and health, including studies of determinants of infant and child health, effects of child health on families, sources of health disparities, and effects of public policies and other contexts on child and family well-being.

Rios, Danielle

Danielle R. Rios is trained in neonatal-perinatal medicine, clinical pharmacology, and neonatal hemodynamics. She earned a Master of Science degree in Clinical Investigation through the Clinical Scientist Training Program in 2014. Her areas of academic focus are the hemodynamics of critically ill neonates, with particular focus on those born prematurely, and predictive analytics to improve outcomes of extremely low birth weight infants.

Rose, Shannon

Dr. Rose is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She utilizes novel cell biology techniques and metabolomics to study mitochondrial and redox biology in health and metabolic diseases. Her current studies focus on understanding how bioenergetic changes occurring in immune cells during obesity contribute to inflammation, a primary driver of type 2 diabetes development.

Rosen, David

David A. Rosen, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Molecular Microbiology at Washington University in St. Louis who focuses on basic pathogenic mechanisms of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Leveraging various murine models of infection, the Rosen lab studies differential regulation of virulence determinants and adaptive immune responses to Klebsiella in the lung with an emphasis on treatments and vaccine development.

Salas, Ariel

Ariel Salas, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and an Attending Neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama and the UAB Hospital. His primary goal as an academic neonatologist is to provide high-quality care for critically ill newborns. His specific research aim is to optimize dietary interventions in the neonatal period.

Samuels-Kalow, Margaret

Dr. Samuels-Kalow is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in both emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine at MGH. Her work focuses on developing interventions to reduce disparities in emergency care and improving quality of care provided to vulnerable families.

Sanchez-Valle, Amarilis

Dr. Sanchez-Valle’s research interest is inborn errors of metabolism and treatment for these rare disorders. She has been working in multicenter clinical trials finding treatment for rare genetic disorders. One of her goals is to raise awareness about these rare metabolic disorders to improve diagnosis and management. Another area of interest is improving the newborn screen process for the families and the healthcare professionals.

Sanda, Srinath

Dr. Sanda is a pediatric endocrinologist with expertise in clinical and translational research. His work includes laboratory research into the immunology and genetics of type 1 diabetes and cystic fibrosis related diabetes. In addition, he runs large multi-center clinical trials using immune modulators in type 1 diabetes as part of the NIH-sponsored clinical trial consortium, the Immune Tolerance Network.

Sant’Angelo, Derek

Derek B. Sant’Angelo, PhD, is a Professor in the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, Director of the Division of Immunobiology, the Harold L. Paz, M.D. Endowed Professor of Developmental Biology and the Associate Director of Basic Science, Child Health Institute of NJ. He is also a full member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of NJ and the Center for Nutrition, Microbiome and Health.

Schieltz, Kelly

Kelly Schieltz, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior displayed by children with developmental disabilities. She is an investigator on two NIH-funded grants that (1) trains parents in their homes via telehealth and (2) evaluates behavioral persistence and treatment relapse when treatment is challenged.

Schilling, Samantha

Dr. Schilling’s research agenda focuses on identifying and mitigating child maltreatment risk by supporting parents and providing them with tools to succeed in parenting. She has conducted 3 RCTs of PriCARE, a brief manualized group parenting intervention designed to improve child behavior and positive parenting. She plans to continue her research program by evaluating the impact of PriCARE on child maltreatment prevention in a multisite RCT.

Sengupta, Shaon

Dr. Sengupta is a neonatologist and physician scientist with a long-standing interest in lung health. Dr. Sengupta’s research interests focus on two main areas: (1) Determining the mechanisms of the circadian regulation of lung inflammation, injury and repair/regeneration. (2) Effect of early life exposures on the development (or maldevelopment) and function of pulmonary circadian networks in adulthood.

Shah, Birju

Inspired by family, Dr. Shah pursued science and medicine while growing up in Gujarat, India. Intrigued by birth asphyxia, he dedicated a career in academic pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. Under the tutelage of several exceptional mentors, he got a deeper understanding of core concepts of scholarship. His focus is resuscitation. He is passionate about integrating innovative strategies, tools and systems to enhance skills of teams.

Shalish, Wissam

Dr. Shalish is a Neonatologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. He also completed a PhD in Experimental Medicine at McGill University which focused on the assessment of extubation readiness in extremely preterm infants. His research aims to harness the power of biomedical signals to better understand and improve various aspects of respiratory care in preterm infants, particularly non-invasive support provision and control of breathing.

Shapiro, Jason

Dr. Shapiro’s clinical and academic focus is in the field of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He is involved in a number of institutional and multi-center studies and was site principal investigator of the Ocean State Crohn’s and Colitis Area Registry (OSCCAR), a novel cohort of IBD patients in Rhode Island. One of his current projects is exploring patterns of IgA-coated bacteria in the microbiome of patients enrolled in OSCCAR.

Sheehan, Karen

Dr. Sheehan is a Professor of Pediatrics, Medical Education, and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research is best described as community engaged and action oriented. Her primary areas of research interest are preventing injury and violence and improving the health of vulnerable populations.

Silvester, Jocelyn

Jocelyn A. Silvester, MD PhD, is the Director of Research for the Celiac Disease Program at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is co-Investigator on the Manitoba Celiac Disease Cohort Study, involved in clinical trials for new therapies and is leading a consortium of pediatric celiac centers across the United States to develop tools to improve follow-up care.

Soghier, Lamia

Dr. Lamia Soghier is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington DC. She is a board-certified neonatologist and the Medical Director of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the Quality and Safety Officer at Children’s National Hospital. Her research interests are centered around use of simulation-based education to improve the quality and safety of patient care.

Srinivasan, Shylaja

Dr. Shylaja Srinivasan is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UCSF. She is a clinician-scientist with expertise in youth onset type 2 diabetes. Dr. Srinivasan leads a dedicated clinic for youth with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes at UCSF. Her clinical research program is focused on understanding the genetic determinants and the predictors of medication response in youth with type 2 diabetes.

Starmer, Amy

Dr. Starmer is the Associate Medical Director of Quality in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on workforce trends as well as standardizing provider communication and clinical care. Dr. Starmer led the development of the I-PASS Handoff Program which has been disseminated on an international level and received multiple awards including the Eisenberg award for National Innovation in Patient Safety.

Taglauer, Elizabeth

As a neonatologist with extensive research expertise in placental biology/immunology, Dr. Taglauer has developed a unique niche to explore how the intrauterine environment can be optimized to improve neonatal health. Her current research utilizes pre-clinical models to understand how pathological alterations in the placental immune repertoire impact the intrauterine developmental niche, particularly for the fetal lung.

Tantisira, Kelan

Dr. Tantisira trained in pediatric and adult pulmonology. His primary research focuses on precision medicine in asthma, with an emphasis on pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. He has detailed many aspects related to the clinical, epidemiologic, and genetic underpinnings of the response to inhaled corticosteroids and other asthma medications, recently extending this work to genomic, small RNA, and systems biology investigations of asthma.

Torres, Alcy

Alcy Torres, MD, is a pediatric neurologist who specializes in traumatic brain injury. He is an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Neurology and Boston University School of Medicine and is currently the Director of the Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Program. He has developed a Standardized Clinical Assessment and Management Plans to continuously review individual patient data for areas in our practice that need improvement, thus ensuring that the Brain Injury program always provides the best, most cost-effective care for the patients.

Tucker, Elizabeth

Dr. Tucker received her medical degree from Wake Forest and completed her pediatric residency and critical care medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins where she is an Assistant Professor. Dr. Tucker’s research works to optimize treatment of tuberculous meningitis in the developing brain with the first pediatric rabbit model. Her approach is to improve antimicrobial delivery to the brain and target the neuroinflammation with host-directed therapy.

Turley, Christine

Dr. Christine Turley is Professor/Vice Chair of Research at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, NC. Her research has focused on improving the health of individuals and populations, leading multiple vaccine trials at all phases, and conditions affecting long term child health outcomes; she is also board certified in Clinical Informatics. She has held numerous research and clinical leadership roles in Texas, SC and NC.

Vali, Payam

Payam Vali, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at UC Davis in Sacramento, CA, and Neonatal Medical Director at Adventis Health Lodi Memorial.

Veerapandiyan, Aravindhan

Aravindhan Veerapandiyan is a Child Neurologist with specialized interest and training in neuromuscular disorders in children. He is the Director of the Comprehensive Neuromuscular Program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. He also has a particular interest in evaluating and treating children with headache disorders. His research interests include pediatric neuromuscular disorders and headaches.

Viswanathan, Sreekanth

Sreekanth Viswanathan, MD, is a neonatologist at Nemours Children’s Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. FL. He completed his neonatology training from MetroHealth Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a MS in clinical research. His academic vision is to develop translational clinical research protocols to transform dysfunctional feeding patterns in NICU infants.

Watson, Sara

I completed medical school and residency in pediatrics at the University of Louisville. My fellowship training in pediatric endocrinology was at Indiana University. My research focuses on improving outcomes for youth with diabetes. I also am m-PI for an ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network Site aimed at increasing building infrastructure to improve access to trials for rural and underserved youth.

Wilkinson, James

James D. Wilkinson, M.D., M.P.H. is a Research Professor and the Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He received both his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and his Medical Doctorate from the University of South Florida, and his Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Miami. He completed a pediatric residency at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y. and a post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Intensive Care and Anesthesiology at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D. C. Dr. Wilkinson’s academic clinical years were primarily spent at the New York Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City followed by an appointment at the Children’s National Medical Center/ George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Williamson, Ariel A.

Ariel A. Williamson, PhD, DBSM, is a pediatric psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Her research focuses on (1) understanding pediatric sleep health disparities and (2) behavioral approaches to promote pediatric sleep health and treat sleep problems in primary care and in partnership with community organizations.

Wojcik, Monica

Dr. Wojcik is a clinician-researcher in the Divisions of Newborn Medicine and Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her academic focus is on the application of genomic medicine in infancy, and she has a particular interest in using genomic sequencing to understand infant mortality and in disparities in genomic medicine. Overall, her research strives to apply her unique clinical background to improve infant health outcomes.

Wu, Eveline

Dr. Wu is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Divisions of Pediatric Rheumatology and Allergy/Immunology at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Wu is engaged in clinical and translational research involving a spectrum of diseases affecting the immune system. She is involved in a variety of highly collaborative research efforts related to advancing the health of children with rare rheumatic disorders and immunodeficiencies.

Wu, Tai-Wei

Tai-Wei Wu, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine and Director of Neonatal Neuroprotective Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Wu’s research interest is in neonatal brain injury and hemodynamics. He studies hemodynamic changes during therapeutic hypothermia for HIE. His understanding of cerebral blood flow & metabolism coupling is further enhanced by magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Yen, Elizabeth

As a K12 BIRCWH grant awardee, Dr. Yen focuses her research on neonatal salivary diagnostics and brain imaging that may explain sex-dependent hypothalamic/reward pathway dysregulation underlying feeding aberrance in neonates with prenatal opioid exposure. Dr. Yen aims to provide objective evidence of the adverse effects of prenatal opioids on the developing brain and to utilize these non-invasive methods to monitor this vulnerable population.

Young, Bridget

Dr. Young’s researches the impact of obesity and insulin resistance on breast milk composition, and resultant programming effects in the infant. She particularly focuses on the effect of oral insulin in human milk on infant pancreatic function and intestinal maturation in the neonate. Dr. Young also conducts research to optimize the composition and derived benefit of donor human milk for premature infants.