Dr. Al-Rawi is joining us from the pediatric residency program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She completed her medical degree at Jordan University of Science and Technology. During residency, she completed a clinical research project evaluating Non-Invasive Neurally-Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA) treatment of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and ongoing respiratory failure. She presented her research as first author at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting. She was also involved in research on cardiovascular physiology of neonates and was listed as middle author on two additional abstracts presented at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting. She hopes to research neonatal cardiopulmonary diseases during fellowship.

Dr. Apkon completed her pediatric residency training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. During residency, Dr. Apkon led a project focused on digital content development for the hospital’s Reach Out and Read program. She was a member of the Resident and Fellow Quality Improvement Council and helped implement a new longitudinal QI curriculum. During fellowship, Dr. Apkon hopes to continue her QI research focusing on developmental outcomes.

Dr. Aribindi completed her pediatric residency training at the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University and her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. During residency, she was on the Leadership in Equity and Advocacy Track, and for her research project she developed an electronic vaccination campaign where local community pediatricians educated patients and families about the COVID-19 vaccine. Her residency research involved analyzing developmental and behavioral outcomes of infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome using mother-infant dyad datasets. She presented the results of her research at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting as an oral abstract. Dr. Aribindi is interested in pursuing health equity and neonatal longitudinal outcome research during fellowship.

Dr. Arora completed her pediatric residency training at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She received her medical degree from the Government Medical College Chandigarh, India, followed by a master’s of health sciences degree from the Yale School of Medicine. During residency, she researched the use of AI and machine learning techniques to determine BPD endotypes. She received the House Officer Research Award from the Society of Pediatric Research at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting for her presentation titled: A genomic analysis to create bronchopulmonary dysplasia endotypes. She hopes to continue her research on neonatal lung disease and applications for AI and machine learning.

Dr. Banfield completed her pediatric residency at the University of Miami. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the University of the West Indies, Barbados. During residency, she investigated the antenatal administration of mesenchymal stem cell derived extracellular vesicles and their impact on placental and fetal lung senescence in experimental pre-eclampsia. She presented her work at the 2023 PAS Annual meeting. She has also been researching human cardiac organoids to determine if hyperoxia accelerates cardiac myocyte senescence. As a fellow, she hopes to gain more experience in neonatal palliative care and continue researching stem cell-based approaches to the treatment of neonatal diseases, particularly BPD.

Dr. Cano-Guerra completed his pediatric residency at Tufts Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the University of the Oriente School of Medicine in Venezuela, and then he completed his pediatric residency at the J.M. de Los Rios Children’s Hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, prior to obtaining his post-doctoral degree from the Central University of Venezuela. As a resident he worked on a quality improvement project to reduce unplanned extubations in the NICU. Dr. Cano-Guerra also examined the rates of maternal breast milk usage with an opt-out donor milk consent process. He presented a preliminary status of his work in the 2024 PAS Annual Meeting. He is interested in pursuing quality improvement research during fellowship focused on cost-effectiveness and resource use in the NICU.

Dr. Duncan completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Duke University and her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She originally entered residency in the child neurology track and, accordingly, for her residency research she investigated the differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes between male and female neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. She is interested in pursuing clinical research in neuroprotection and neurodevelopmental outcomes during her fellowship.

Dr. Dalvie completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program. She received her bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She obtained her medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine. During residency, she conducted a mixed-methods project designed to understand the barriers and challenges to engaging families of color from transition to NICU to specialty clinics, and to better establish NICU GraDS as a medical home for all medically complex children. She is interested in inequities in NICU follow-up and clinical outcomes, and methods to improve family engagement in the NICU. She is completing a concurrent fellowship in the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship and pursuing a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Evans completed her pediatric residency at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Program as chief resident. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology, biology, and dance from Barnard College of Columbia University, and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. During residency, she studied the effects of pandemic-associated visitation policy changes on Staphylococcus aureus colonization in our patients, as well as diffusion-weighted imaging findings in neonates with encephalopathy. As chief resident, she developed a program to support professional grief in pediatric residents, and presented this work at multiple local and national meetings. Her fellowship research centers on neonatologists’ lived experience of patient death and non-death loss.

Dr. Kotsopoulou completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. She received her undergraduate and medical degree at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, in Athens, Greece. During residency, she researched developmental changes of the fetal and neonatal thyroid gland, and functional consequences on the cardiovascular system. She is interested in neuronal damage following brain hypoxia-ischemia.

Dr. Lima completed her pediatric residency at the University of Florida. She received her bachelor’s degree and medical degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. During residency, she created a program aimed at providing breastfeeding education to uninsured women, which was incorporated into the University of Florida’s Equal Access Prenatal Clinic. She also developed a breastfeeding lecture to be included in the residency’s academic half day. She is interested congenital heart disease and prematurity outcomes, as well as predictive analytics and neonatal hemodynamics.

Dr. Verscaj completed a combined pediatric and genetics residency at Stanford. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biometry and Statistics at Cornell University. She obtained her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine. During residency, she led a national survey of the current state of adherence to Medical Genetics curricular guidelines across all medical schools to ensure uniform access to adequate genetics education among physicians in training. She hopes to improve the education of patients, parents, and providers about the molecular diagnostics available to diagnose the etiology of complex congenital anomalies.

Dr. Howard completed her pediatric residency at University of California, San Francisco. She received her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Amherst College and completed a Master of Philosophy degree in Biological Science from University of Cambridge. She obtained her medical degree from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. During residency, she studied the development of blood vessels in the fetal brain, analyzed human single cell RNA sequence data of the fetal vascular microenvironment, and identified cell-to-cell signaling networks and their evolution across multiple developmental stages. She is interested in basic science research focused on defining the unique in utero environment that contributes to brain development to ultimately improve care for extremely premature infants.

Dr. Juttukonda completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program. She received her undergradu- ate degree in Chemistry and Violin Performance, and her medical degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from Vanderbilt University. During residency, she was a research associate under Dr. Elisha Wachman and Dr. Elizabeth Taglauer and investigated the placental immune response to COVID-19 using placental clinical samples. She is interested in basic and translational research, specifically examining how early life inflammation from microbial infections can alter neonatal immune development and function, and to translate this information into clinical care in the NICU.

Dr. McCullagh completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program as chief resident. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College and obtained her medical degree at the Penn State University College of Medicine. During residency, she worked with a research team to develop an innovative, systems-based approach to address ingrained inequities in access to services that optimize care for infants followed in the NICU Growth and Developmental Support (GraDS) Program under Dr. Jonathan Litt. She also worked to form a task force that will review previously collected data from interviews with families/staff and health literacy assessments. She is interested in health services research and quality improvement with a focus on optimizing the outcomes for high-risk infants in the NICU GraDS program. She is currently serving as chief fellow.

Dr. Michael completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program. She received her undergraduate and medical degree at the University of Athens School of Health Sciences. During residency, she worked under Dr. Sule Cataltepe at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in a retrospective study comparing the efficacy of hydrocortisone and dexamethasone for decreasing respiratory support in premature infants with developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). She previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Helen Christou’s lab and is interested in basic science research in neonatal lung biology.

Dr. Yannekis completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as chief resident. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and chemistry from Barnard College. She obtained her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During residency, she conducted a retrospective cohort study delineating the differential impacts of neonatal intensive care unit level and volume on morbidity of minority versus non-Hispanic white neonates, and evaluated effects of delivery hospital quality on disparities in neonatal outcomes. Her work was presented at multiple national conferences and published in the Journal of Perinatology. She is concurrently completing the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship and is pursuing a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Yannekis’ fellowship research focuses on the impact of delivery hospital NICU quality on neonatal outcomes and on evaluating barriers to universal access to high-quality care. She is currently serving as chief fellow.