Advisors
Our Office of Faculty Development maintains a roster of advisors with expertise regarding career paths, the promotion process, and academic productivity. The advisor will also coach faculty members to identify individual goals and begin exploring how to achieve these goals. It is never too early to start planning for advancement. Faculty are encouraged to contact us a year or so in advance of promotion on the Academic FSM Promotion Pathway or the PFF Clinical Promotion Pathway, and then again between January - April before submission for a review of the promotion packet.
The Office of Faculty Development will contact New Faculty to identify domains, and review professional activities and goals that will align with the chosen domains and lead to future advancement.
Please contact us if you're interested in meeting with an Advisor.
Advisors
Mark Adler, MD
Mark Adler, MD: I am an attending in the pediatric emergency department, and I am interested in the development and testing of high-quality educational assessment tools, survey development and simulation-based education, with a focus on an interprofessional learner population. Elizabeth Alpern, MD
Elizabeth Alpern, MD: I am a Professor of Pediatrics, Division Head of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and Associate Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Pediatrics. I am a health services researcher, and clinical epidemiologist. My research interests include the use of large databases within research networks to improve the quality of care and decrease disparities of care delivered to children through application of evidence-based work. My research has been funded by NIH, AHRQ, and HRSA. I serve on the mentorship teams for multiple K-level career development awards and have a longstanding interest in academic medicine mentorship. I also serve as a standing member of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Informatics and Digital Health study section.
Valeria Cohran, MD
Valeria Cohran, MD: I am Associate Chair for Diversity and Inclusion, Department of Pediatrics, and advocate for a diverse workforce that is inclusive of race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. I am also an Associate Professor in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and my primary clinical interests are intestinal failure and transplantation.
Todd Florin, MD
Todd Florin, MD: Director of Research for the Division of EM. Nationally recognized expert in the field of respiratory infectious diseases in the acute care setting. Research aims to improve the diagnosis, management and outcomes of children with common, serious infections, with a current focus on lower respiratory tract infections. PI of CARPE DIEM, a prospective cohort study of children with community-acquired pneumonia. Current work centers on development of risk stratification tools and use of biomarkers to improve outcomes in children with pneumonia at the point-of-care. His work has also centered on resource utilization, variation in care, antimicrobial stewardship and use of clinical trials to improve treatments for respiratory tract infections in children. He is also the Strategy and Operations Officer for the Society for Pediatric Research.
Ruchi Gupta, MD
Ruchi Gupta, MD: Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at NUFSM and a Clinical Attending at Lurie Children's Hospital. I am the founding Director, Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research. I am renowned for groundbreaking research on the prevalence of pediatric and adult food allergy in the US, and has significantly contributed to academic research in the areas of food allergy prevention, socioeconomic disparities in care, and the daily management of these conditions. To reduce the burden of these diseases and improve health equity, our team develops, evaluates and disseminates interventions for families and conducts work to inform local, national, and international health policy.
Aaron Hamvas, MD
Aaron Hamvas, MD: I am a professor of Pediatrics and the division head of Neonatology with 25 years of experience in mentoring and advising trainees and junior faculty in both the research and clinical settings. My research interests are the genetic contributions to newborn and childhood lung diseases.
Ravi Jhaveri, MD
Dr. Ravi Jhaveri is Division Head for Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Prior to joining the faculty at Lurie/Northwestern, he spent time on the faculty at both Duke and UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Jhaveri’s research spans many aspects of Hepatitis C virus, with a particular focus on the burden, clinical outcomes and treatment of HCV in infants, children and pregnant women. He currently serves on the AASLD/IDSA HCV Guidelines Panel as well as the AASLD Viral Hepatitis Elimination Task Force. Dr. Jhaveri is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and currently serves as Chair of the IDSA Standards and Practice Guidelines committee. He is a Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and served on the PIDS Board of Directors from 2015-2019. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Irini Kolaitis, MD
Irini Kolaitis, MD: is an Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine. She has been at Lurie Children’s Hospital since her residency in 2010. Since 2018, she has served as the Associate Division Head of Hospital-Based Medicine. In this leadership role, she actively participates in the recruitment, orientation, and onboarding of new hospitalist faculty and supports the career development, promotion, and mentorship of faculty in the Division of of Hospital-Based Medicine. In addition, she has been an active member of the Faculty Affairs Board since 2014 and recently took on the role of Co-Chair of the FAB. In 2019, she was the inaugural recipient of the Department of Pediatrics Faculty Excellence Award in Leadership and has served as the Co-Chair of the Awards and Visibility Committee since 2020
A. Kyle Mack, MD
A. Kyle Mack, MD: I am a pediatric hematologist who trained at Johns Hopkins and the NIH. I am interested in sickle cell disease and blood donation and advocacy for these patients. I also have a passion for general hematology as well. I was selected as a Signature Fellow for Leadership Greater Chicago, a civic leaders fellowship program designed to help leaders solve problems in Chicago. I have also had the good fortune of participating in the Public Voices Fellowship, where I have learned to find my voice as an African American physician. I am happy to help faculty members find their niche in non-traditional aspects of academic medicine.
Mary McBride, MD, MEd
Mary McBride, MD, MEd: I am the director of Feinberg Academy of Medical Educators (FAME) and focus on medical education through the teaching and learning of students, trainees, staff and faculty. Through this work, I use simulation as my primary medium as well as small and large group didactic sessions in teaching cardiac physiology, resuscitation, communication, teamwork, feedback and coaching. Clinically, I am a pediatric cardiac intensivist and I care for children of all ages with congenital and acquired heart disease who require critical care.
Susanna McColley, MD
Susanna McColley, MD: I am a pediatric pulmonologist focused on translational research in cystic fibrosis, associate chief research officer for clinical trials at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute and associate director for child health at the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. As principal investigator of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Pediatric Therapeutics Development Center at Lurie Children’s, I have extensive experience in the design and conduct of studies utilizing large databases, prospective observational studies and clinical trials. I also have strong interest and experience in healthcare quality improvement and health disparities.
Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH
Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH: I am Professor of Pediatrics, Julia and David Uihlein Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities and Chief Ethics Officer for the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I am also an attending physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in the division of pediatric critical care medicine. My research interests include communication, decision making, palliative care, and ethics. Currently, my research focuses on communication and decision making among patients, family caregivers, and professional caregivers in the pediatric intensive care unit using family care conferences. I also studies disparities in access to bereavement support for people after the death of a child and opportunities to improve enrollment in clinical research through recruitment in community-based clinics using novel technology. My work uses qualitative and quantitative methods as well as patient/stakeholder engagement and community-based participatory research methods. I serve on mentorship teams of K awardees and early career investigators. My research has been funded by the NIH, PCORI, National Palliative Research Center, American Cancer Society, and the Greenwall Foundation. I am dedicating helping others achieve their full potential and follow their passion.
Angira Patel, MD
Angira Patel, MD: I am a Pediatric Cardiologist and Imager, a medical educator, and a bioethicist. My education interests include roles in education of medical students, directing the McGaw Bioethics Scholars Program for trainees, coaching, and faculty development. My research interests lie at the intersection of pediatric and fetal cardiology and clinical medical ethics. I explore the societal, ethical, and legal implications of emerging technology and intervention as it relates to medical management and shared decision-making in patients with congenital heart disease. I also contribute to advocacy efforts by writing op-eds on topics related to medicine, education, public health policy, and ethics.
Jacqueline Pongracic, MD
Jacqueline Pongracic, MD: Professor Emeritus, and former division head of Allergy/Immunology. I am a clinical investigator in the areas of asthma and food allergy, with many years of experience conducting multi-center clinical trials in large, NIH-funded asthma research networks. I also engaged in industry-sponsored clinical trials for novel therapeutics in food allergy.
Vamshi Rao, MD
Vamshi Rao, MD: I am a pediatric neurologist with a specific interest in childhood neuromuscular disorders. My clinical service as an attending neurologist, includes co-directing the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at Lurie Children’s Hospital and running multiple clinical trials as a site primary investigator. I participate in studying natural history of disease, look to expand clinical trials, advise research leadership, and provide biosafety support to the IRB. I mentor trainees, both while serving as program director of the pediatric neuromuscular medicine fellowship and associate program director of the child neurology fellowship. I am engaged in promoting pediatric advocacy and wish to highlight health advocacy scholarship at large. I am on faculty mentoring committees and look forward to helping colleagues with their career goals.
Anne Rowley, MD
Anne Rowley, MD: I am a Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Lurie Children’s, caring for children with a wide variety of serious infections. My research program focuses on the pathogenesis of Kawasaki Disease and has been consistently funded by NIH for more than two decades. I lead the Center for Kawasaki Disease at Lurie Children’s, which includes clinical care, education, and both bench and clinical research studies of this important disease of childhood.
Sandra Sanguino, MD
Sandra Sanguino, MD: I am a general pediatrician who has made medical education the focus of my career. I am actively involved in advising and mentoring medical student and residents. I currently serve as the associate dean for student and career development at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Paul Schumacker, PhD
Paul Schumacker, PhD: I am a basic scientist in the Division of Neonatology working on mitochondrial metabolism and its role in signal transduction, oxygen sensing and cancer biology. I run a research laboratory and have trained undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical subspecialty fellows and junior faculty members. I am also interested in promoting career advancement for other faculty members.
Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH
Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH: I practice both general pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine. I obtained my MPH as a junior attending, and most of my research is public health–related. My research focuses on youth development, injury and violence prevention. I use my research to inform to my work in advocacy. Although my primary interest has been injury and violence prevention, the strategies (policy, system and environmental change) that I have used in injury prevention advocacy can be applied to other conditions. I look forward to helping colleagues disseminate and implement their research findings to positively impact the health of children.