Advisors
Our Office of Faculty Development maintains a roster of advisors with expertise on 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.
We encourage faculty to contact us at the following times:
- One year before promotion on the Academic FSM Promotion Pathway (APT) or the PFF Clinical Promotion Pathway (CPP).
- January - April before submission, to review the promotion packet.
The Office of Faculty Development will contact new faculty to identify domains and review professional activities and goals that align with the chosen domains and lead to career advancement.
We are now offering twice-monthly drop-in sessions to answer your questions about career development. Examples of topics include developing a solid workflow for clinical and academic duties, transitioning from trainee to attending, implementing a plan for research and other scholarship, creating a mentorship team/finding a sponsor, domain selection, etc. Sign up or drop in.
To meet with an advisor, please email us at pediatrics@luriechildrens.org.
Mark Adler, MD
Mark Adler, MD (Professor) is an attending physician in the pediatric emergency department. He is interested in developing and testing high-quality educational assessment tools, surveys, and simulation-based education, with a focus on interprofessional learners.
Valeria Cohran, MD
Valeria Cohran, MD (Professor) is a lead team member for the Department of Pediatrics Office of Faculty Development. She is the associate chair for diversity and inclusion, and an advocate for a diverse workforce that is inclusive of race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. She is an attending physician in gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition, and her primary clinical interests are intestinal failure and transplantation.
Todd Florin, MD
Todd Florin, MD (Associate Professor) is a lead team member for the Department of Pediatrics Office of Faculty Development and the director of research for the Division of Emergency Medicine. He is a recognized expert in respiratory infectious diseases in the acute care setting. His research aims to improve the diagnosis, management and outcomes of children with common, serious infections, focused on lower respiratory tract infections. Current work centers on developing risk stratification tools and using biomarkers to improve outcomes in children with pneumonia at the point of care. His work has also centered on resource usage, variation in care, antimicrobial stewardship and the use of clinical trials to improve treatments for respiratory tract infections in children. Florin is the strategy and operations officer for the Society for Pediatric Research.
Ruchi Gupta, MD
Ruchi Gupta, MD (Professor) is the founding director of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research. She is renowned for groundbreaking research on the prevalence of pediatric and adult food allergy. She has contributed to academic research on 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, her team develops, tests and shares interventions for families and works to inform health policy.
Aaron Hamvas, MD
Aaron Hamvas, MD (Professor) is the head of the Division of Neonatology. He has 25 years of experience in mentoring and advising trainees and junior faculty in research and clinical settings. His research interests are the genetic contributions to newborn and childhood lung diseases.
Ravi Jhaveri, MD
Ravi Jhaveri, MD (Professor) is head of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. His research is on the Hepatitis C virus, with a focus on the burden, clinical outcomes and treatment of HCV in infants, children and pregnant women. He serves on the AASLD/IDSA HCV guidelines panel and the AASLD viral hepatitis elimination task force. Jhaveri is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and 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 to 2019. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Irini Kolaitis, MD
Irini Kolaitis, MD (Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician) is a lead team member for the Department of Pediatrics Office of Faculty Development. She serves as associate chief of the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine and takes part in faculty recruitment, development and mentorship. Kolaitis has been an active member of the Faculty Affairs Board since 2014 and serves as its current co-chair. 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.
Mary McBride, MD, MEd
Mary McBride, MD, MEd (Professor) is a lead team member for the Department of Pediatrics Office of Faculty Development. She is also the director of Feinberg Academy of Medical Educators and focuses on medical education through the teaching and learning of students, trainees, staff and faculty. She uses simulation as her primary medium, supported by group didactic sessions that teach cardiac physiology, resuscitation, communication and teamwork.
Susanna McColley, MD
Susanna McColley, MD (Professor) is a pediatric pulmonologist focused on translational research in cystic fibrosis. She is the 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, she has extensive experience designing and conducting studies using large databases, prospective observational studies and clinical trials. She has a strong interest and experience in healthcare quality improvement and health disparities.
Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH
Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH is 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 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is also I an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Her research interests include communication, decision making, palliative care, and ethics. Currently, her research focuses on communication and decision making among patients, family caregivers, and professional caregivers in the pediatric intensive care unit using family care conferences. She 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. Her work uses qualitative and quantitative methods as well as patient/stakeholder engagement and community-based participatory research methods. She serves on mentorship teams of K awardees and early career investigators. She is dedicated to helping others achieve their full potential and follow their passion.
Angira Patel, MD
Angira Patel, MD (Professor) is a Lead Team Member for the Dept of Pediatrics Office of Faculty Development. She is also a Pediatric Cardiologist and Imager, a medical educator, and a bioethicist. Her education interests include roles in education of medical students, directing the McGaw Bioethics Scholars Program for trainees, coaching, and faculty development. Her research interests lie at the intersection of pediatric and fetal cardiology and clinical medical ethics. She explores 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. She also contributes to advocacy efforts by writing op-eds on topics related to medicine, education, public health policy, and ethics.
Vamshi Rao, MD
Vamshi Rao, MD (Associate Professor) is Associate Chair of Ambulatory Services, and a pediatric neurologist with a specific interest in childhood neuromuscular disorders. He is Associate Chair of Ambulatory Services. Dr. Rao co-directs the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at Lurie Children’s Hospital and runs multiple clinical trials as a site primary investigator. He participates in studying natural history of disease, looks to expand clinical trials, advises research leadership, and provides biosafety support to the IRB. He mentors trainees, and serves as the program director of the pediatric neuromuscular medicine fellowship. He is engaged in promoting pediatric advocacy and wishes to highlight health advocacy scholarship at large. He looks forward to helping colleagues with their career goals.
Sandra Sanguino, MD
Sandra Sanguino, MD, MPH (Associate Professor) is a general pediatrician who has made medical education the focus of her career. She is actively involved in advising and mentoring medical student and residents. She is Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at the FSM Augusta Webster, MD, Office of Medical Education.
Paul Schumacker, PhD
Paul Schumacker, PhD (Professor) is a basic scientist in the Division of Neonatology working on mitochondrial metabolism and its role in signal transduction, oxygen sensing and cancer biology. He runs a research laboratory and has trained undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical subspecialty fellows and junior faculty members. He is also interested in promoting career advancement for other faculty members.
Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH
Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH (Professor) practices both general pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine. Most of her research is public health–related and focuses on youth development, injury, and violence prevention. She uses her research to inform her work in advocacy. Although her primary interest has been injury and violence prevention, the strategies (policy, system and environmental change) used can be applied to other conditions. She looks forward to helping colleagues disseminate and implement their research findings to positively impact the health of children.
Meta Carroll, MD
Meta Carroll, MD (Health System Clinician/Master Clinician)
provide clinical care and family education for the children brought to the pediatric ED in times of illness, injury, and crisis, and provides ongoing education for PEM peer providers. Her focus is peer education and the improvement in the quality of care through small-group case-based conferences, quality improvement projects, large lecture formats, and written educational material. She completed a two-year clinical bioethics program in 2021 at Northwestern/IPHAM, and includes ethics and equity issues in new educational content. Patricia Chiamas, MD
Patricia Chiamas, MD (Instructor/Master Clinician) is the Division Head of Hospital-Based Medicine (Outreach). Her clinical interests surround clinical simulation activities and quality improvement. More recently, she has been using both of these tools to develop pediatric core competencies for the pediatric hospitalist. Shivani Desai, MD
Shivani Desai, MD (Health System Clinician/Associate Clinician) is the director of the neonatal development follow-up clinic. She also serves as the Chair of Physician Wellness at Central DuPage Hospital and teaches a training program to help with stress management and resiliency training for physicians. She has served as the physician liaison for the MNO initiative for the ILPQC. Her primary research interest during Fellowship was clinical neuroscience in neonatology specifically studying how physiologic stability in preterm infants related to cerebral oxygen levels. Most recently, she has studied the national trends in medication use for seizure treatment in neonates. Sarah Donahue, MD
Sarah Donahue, MD (Instructor/Master Clinician) is in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine (Outreach) where she is interested in pediatric simulation.
Corryn Greenwood, MD
Corryn Greenwood, MD (Health System Clinician/Associate Clinician) is in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine (Outreach). Her
clinical interests include optimizing nutrition of the premature infant and noninvasive ventilation. She also uses quality improvement methods to improve the care delivered to the patients in the NICU. Reema Habiby, MD
Reema Habiby, MD (Associate Professor/Master Clinician) is a pediatric endocrinologist primarily engaged in clinic care and medical education. Her clinical interests include the care of children with growth disorders including Turner syndrome, disorders of puberty, adrenal disorders and the care of children with long-term endocrine sequelae of cancer treatment and brain tumors. She is the Division Head of Endocrinology; co-director of the Turner Syndrome Multidisciplinary Clinic; and Director of the Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program. She served as a college mentor for the Feinberg School of Medicine Class of 2026.
Yolanda Holler-Managan, MD
Yolanda Holler-Managan, MD (Associate Professor/Master Clinician) is a Pediatric Neurologist. She is currently the Developmental Disabilities Specialist at Lurie Children’s at NM’s Central DuPage Hospital. Dr. Holler-Managan has been involved in advocacy and education locally and nationally. She served as the Chair of the Child Neurology Society’s Maintenance of Certification Committee for over 10 years. She has advocated for Neurology on Capitol Hill. She has co-authorship in 10 publications that include National Guidelines on management of headaches in children, tics in children and case studies on children with Autism and genetic disorders. Lastly, she has served as a mentor for students in high school, college and medical school.
Kiran Kulkarni, MBBS
Kiran Kulkarni, MBBS (Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician) is an attending physician in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine(Lurie)
with an interest in medical education and faculty development. She is a leader in Clinical documentation and as a Physician Advisor with a focus on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Her interests are in developing educational curricula for residents and faculty to improve communication amongst healthcare teams. Ronit Lever, MD
Ronit Lever, MD (Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician) is an attending physician in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine (Lurie). She cares for patients on the general medicine inpatient service at Lurie Children's as well as healthy newborn infants at Prentice Women's Hospital. She also serves as a consultant for pediatric inpatients at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Her clinical work involves both teaching and non-teaching roles. Dr. Lever's academic interests include resident and medical student education, child advocacy, and health literacy. She is the Assistant Lead for the Health & Society curricular element at the Feinberg School of Medicine and a member of the FAME. She has also completed the Advancing Pediatric Educator Excellence (APEX) program, a national faculty development course for pediatric hospitalist educators. She has served as local site leader for regional and national quality improvement initiatives.
Jeffrey Loughead, MD
Jeffrey Loughead, MD (Clinical Asst Professor/Master Clinician, Hospital-Based Medicine) is
Associate Chair for Northwestern Medicine West Region. He is heavily involved in quality improvement. Activities with national implications include developing a technique for securing endotracheal tubes in neonates and development of a bundle of care practices to prevent nosocomial airway infections in hospitalized neonates. The latter bundle of practices have become the standard of care across the United States. Recently he has been active in developing responses to the rapidly rising behavioral health crisis in adolescents, and has been working with pediatricians, psychiatrists and psychologists to find innovative and effective responses to our communities' marked increase in suicide attempts and ideation.
Lavanya Shankar, MD
Lavanya Shankar, MD, (Health System Clinician/Master Clinician) ) is President of the medical staff of Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. She also serves as an officer of the Medical Executive Committee. In this past year, Dr. Shankar completed her master’s degree in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety from NU. She serves as the Co-director of Quality, Division of HBM Outreach, and has been the lead on many QI projects at CDH and provides guidance for QI at other outreach sites. In addition, Dr. Shankar led a multi-disciplinary group to conduct innovative research using a shared database of NM visits and Lurie visits to explore mental health visits before and during the pandemic.
Shawn Smith, MD
Shawn Smith, MD (Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician) is an attending physician in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine (Lurie). She leads the curriculum for the Health Equity and Advocacy Thread. She is the Director of Health Equity Learning and Development for the Department of Pediatrics and the Site Lead for the Prentice NICU Hospitalists. She sits on the Northwestern Medicine Pediatrics and Neonatology Operations Committee, The Lurie Children's Pediatric Residency Committee and the Faculty Advisory Board. Dr. Smith is a Faculty Lead in the Office of Faculty Development, coaching faculty for promotion.She was awarded multiple grants to bring awareness of implicit bias in medicine.
Anita Swamy, MD
Anita Swamy, MD (Assistant Professor/Associate Clinician) is an endocrinologist and Medical Director of the Chicago Children’s Diabetes Center at La Rabida Children’s Hospital. Her clinical interests are pediatric diabetes, and weight and wellness management. She collaborates with national experts to develop and distribute diabetes education and resources for patients and their families, learners and providers. She is an active volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and has served as a medical advisor and annual speaker at yearly events since 2010. She and her team have created a national, virtual diabetes education program for caregivers and medical providers.
Amy Whalen, MD
Amy Whalen, MD (Assistant Professor/Master Clinician) is an attending physician in the Division of Academic General Pediatrics and Primary Care. She teach
hes both student and resident learners at Lurie Children's Uptown Clinic during their clinical rotations. She is a college mentor for the Feinberg School of Medicine which involves longitudinal support of students' professional development throughout their four years of medical school. She has an interest in healthcare resource utilization and antibiotic stewardship.