Meet Our Current Fellows 

Connor Appelman, MD, is originally from Maysville, Ky., and completed medical school at the University of Kentucky and residency training at Penn State University in Hershey, Pa. He is currently living his dream of becoming a pediatrician in the Boston Children’s Hospital General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship program, where he cares for children of all ages and leads health system quality improvement initiatives. He is also a Master of Public Health Student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the health and social behavior field of study. In this program, he pursues studies aimed at improving health communication and public support for families. He aims to combine his academic interests to address challenges with housing insecurity and food insecurity at a clinic and population level while working closely with community partners to help all children access the resources and care that they need to live, play, and thrive. 

Zara Rafi Atal, MD, is a general academic pediatrics fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. She completed her pediatric residency at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York, where she co-designed and implemented a novel longitudinal legislative advocacy curriculum to increase resident’s engagement with local and state legislators as well as their local AAP chapter. She continues to remotely advise the residents in this work. She has a particular interest in food allergy prevention and policy and is currently working to improve access to life-saving epinephrine treatments along with prevention strategies in school and restaurant settings in Massachusetts and New York. Her academic interests lie in clinical innovation and evaluation, with her fellowship project focused on improving implementation of the early allergen introduction guidelines to reduce peanut allergy incidence. 

Anna Delamerced, MD, MSc, grew up in Ohio, finished college and medical school at Brown University, completed her pediatrics residency at Yale, and now is a general academic pediatrics fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is passionate about storytelling in medicine and is currently enrolled in a master’s on media, medicine, and health program. She seeks to explore how creative pursuits such as writing, poetry, and songwriting can support children’s overall mental, physical, and emotional well-being. 

Rosemary A. Martoma, MD, MBChB, FAAP, is a pediatrician and research fellow in general academic pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her work integrates clinical pediatrics, quantitative modeling, and systems innovation to improve child health. Dr. Martoma developed VaxEstim, a validated Bayesian model for estimating vaccination coverage during outbreaks, and introduced the C.A.R.E.S. Approach, an American Academy of Pediatrics–published framework that helps caregivers foster resilience in children facing adversity. Her research focuses on advancing data-driven, family-centered strategies that translate evidence into better outcomes for children and communities. 

Caroline Knoop, MD, earned her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, where she also was the captain of the college’s figure skating team. She then graduated from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. She went on to complete pediatric residency and a chief year at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Md. During residency, she hosted a podcast called Charm City Checkup, which delivered information about social justice to pediatric residents in the city. She has a particular interest in novel approaches to medical education. She moved to Boston with her husband, Kyle, who is currently a critical care fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.