2022 Annual Pediatrics Symposium Biographies
Nava Yeganeh, MD
COVID-19 Vaccine in Children, Past, Present and Future
S. Michael Marcy Memorial Lecture
8:10 AM – 8:50 AM
Dr. Yeganeh, MD MPH is a visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Disease at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Her current research focuses on preventing transmission of HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia to infants through the implementation of TRIPAI, an initiative focused on involving male partners of pregnant women in prenatal care. Her research is currently taking place at collaborating research sites in Brazil but she has also worked in over 15 international settings including Lesotho, China, Honduras, South Africa and Iran. Dr. Yeganeh is an attending physician at Mattel Children’s Hospital, teaching infectious disease fellows, pediatric residents and medical students. She is also the founder of the International Travel/Adoption Clinic at Mattel Children’s UCLA Pediatric Specialists. Through her research, she has created close collaborations with both members of the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, and School of Engineering, and will continue to perform research with new fellows both at UCLA and in Brazil. She has served as mentor to several students in training both at UCLA and in Brazil interested in promoting women’s health, and continues to work on research translating evidence based clinical interventions to policies optimizing the health of pregnant women and infants. Board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases.
Smita Malhotra, MD, FAAP
Leading the Second Largest School District with 600,000 students and 75,000 staff Through The COVID-19 Pandemic
8:50 AM – 9:30 AM
Dr. Smita Malhotra is a mother, pediatrician, writer and speaker. After completing her pediatric residency and chief residency in New York City, she moved to Los Angeles where she has been caring for children and newborns for more than 10 years. She believes in healing the whole child and family by combining traditional medicine with alternative therapies such as mindfulness, meditation and yoga. She has directed a program that helps to build resilience in children and families going through trauma for Los Angeles County. Currently she is the Medical Director for Los Angeles Unified School District where she has led the District in emergency preparedness and response during the COVID-19 pandemic and guided the safe reopening of schools. She is an advocate for providing children and those who care for them the tools to cope through the peaks and valleys of their lives. She believes in the power of writing and social media to spread that message and has contributed to The Washington Post, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, CNN and other publications.
Margaret Mou, DO, MEd, FAAP
Combatting Compassion Fatigue
9:30 AM – 10:10 AM
Margaret Mou is currently an academic pediatric hospitalist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she is also co-chair for the Physician Well-being Committee. She did her residency at NYU Long Island, where she implemented a wellness curriculum in her chief year. She went on and did PHM Fellowship at Texas Tech University, where she received her Master’s in Education, and focused her research on resiliency and physician burnout especially within academia. She is now the current Vice Chair of AAP SOHM Subcommittee on Provider Wellness.
Reshma Shah, MD, MPH
Healthy Plate, Healthy Planet: What Pediatricians Need to Know About Climate, Health, and Food
10:40 AM – 11:20 AM
Dr. Reshma Shah is a board-certified pediatrician, mother, plant-based home-cook, teacher, perpetual student, and co-author of the award-winning book, Nourish: The Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families. She currently serves as an instructor for Stanford’s Healthy Living Program and oversees the nutrition curriculum for the Stanford University Pediatric Integrative Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Shah received teaching awards from Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and from Stanford University School of Medicine.
Anisa Ibrahim, MD
Providing Safe Havens: Compassionate Evidence Based Care for Young Immigrants
11:20 AM – 12:00 PM
Anisa Ibrahim is a UW Clinic Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the medical director at Harborview Pediatrics Clinic. Dr. Ibrahim’s specific clinical interests include caring for and outreach to immigrant and refugee populations, specifically those with medical or social complexity. She is committed to caring for low income, socially vulnerable populations with low English proficiency in order to connect them to the resources and services they need for their health and well-being. Dr. Ibrahim is a strong advocate for community focused work and partnerships.
Karinne Van Groningen, MD, MPH
Legislative Update
12:00 PM – 12:25 PM
Karinne Van Groningen, MD, MPH is a UCLA preventive medicine and public health fellow physician and board-certified pediatrician. She grew up in Fremont, CA, and attended Georgetown University for both her undergraduate and medical school education. She then returned to CA for a pediatrics residency at UCLA. This past year she received her MPH with an emphasis in health policy and management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Van Groningen is interested in pursuing a career in health policy with part-time clinical practice promoting health equity and justice. She is currently involved in various policy projects including writing policy briefs for Whole Person Care – Los Angeles. She is also the AAP California Chapter 2 legislative and policy analyst.
Carol D. Berkowitz, MD, FAAP
AAP President, 2004 – 2005
Presidents Panel - Threats to Children, Culturing Change
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Dr Berkowitz graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and did her pediatric residency at the Roosevelt hospital in New York. She is a Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics and also served in numerous other national leadership positions including President of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association (APA, now the Academic Pediatric Association), President of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD), Chair of the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Pediatrics, Chair of the Council of RRC Chairs, President of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS). She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). She is a delegate from the AAP to the AMA and serves on the AMA’s Council on Medical Education. She is a general pediatrician who is also Board-certified in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and in Child Abuse Pediatrics. Her interests have focused on women in medicine, medical education, pediatric emergency medicine and child maltreatment.
Colleen A. Kraft, MD, FAAP
AAP President, 2018
Presidents Panel - Threats to Children, Culturing Change
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Colleen A. Kraft, MD, MBA, FAAP is the 2018 Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her background includes work in primary care pediatrics, pediatric education, and health care financing.
Dr. Kraft led a pediatric accountable care program at Cincinnati Children’s from 2014-2017. Her financial model incorporated investments to address social determinants of health, population health data-driven quality improvement initiatives and improved payment for primary care services. Dr. Kraft served as Interim Medical Director for the Complex Care Program at Cincinnati Children’s from 2016-2017, where she led family-centered design with team-based professionals in the care of medically complex children. She was the Primary Investigator at Cincinnati Children’s for the Children’s Hospital Association Health Care Innovation Award.
Moira A. Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP
AAP President, 2022
Presidents Panel - Threats to Children, Culturing Change
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Dr. Szilagyi is a primary care pediatrician, advocate, educator, and Professor of Pediatrics at UCLA (since 2014) where she is Interim Division Chief of General Pediatrics and Chief of Developmental/Behavioral Pediatrics. She completed her MD, PhD, and pediatric residency at the University of Rochester. During her 30 years in Rochester, she developed a community-based, integrated-care medical home for children in foster care, worked in a suburban private practice, created and led a regional child abuse program, conducted research highlighting vulnerable children, and mentored trainees in Continuity Clinic. Dr. Kraft led a pediatric accountable care program at Cincinnati Children’s from 2014-2017. Her financial model incorporated investments to address social determinants of health, population health data-driven quality improvement initiatives and improved payment for primary care services. Dr. Kraft served as Interim Medical Director for the Complex Care Program at Cincinnati Children’s from 2016-2017, where she led family-centered design with team-based professionals in the care of medically complex children. She was the Primary Investigator at Cincinnati Children’s for the Children’s Hospital Association Health Care Innovation Award.
Lindsay Wells, MD, FAAP
Implicit Bias
2:00 pm – 2:40 pm
Dr. Lindsay Wells is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UCLA. She received her medical degree from Indiana University and completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UCLA, where she became a faculty member in 2012. In the last eight years, she has championed efforts to create a more inclusive and diverse medical community at UCLA. Dr. Wells has served as a clinical lecturer and faculty advisor to the Alliance PBS Health Services Academy-UCLA Physician Shadow Program, contributing to the development of the curriculum, as well as mentoring high school aged participants, mainly students of color and/or students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. For the past several summers, she has served as a clinician preceptor for the UCLA PREP summer program, providing pre-medical students from disadvantaged backgrounds an array of clinical experiences while offering them assistance with medical school preparation. For the past two years, she has served as a key member of the UCLA Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residency
Applicant Committee. Her work on that committee entailed creating educational materials for the Internal Medicine-Pediatric faculty on how to recognize implicit bias within the application process and how to conduct a holistic review of residency applications. Dr. Wells is an experienced and well-respected medical educator who has consistently received outstanding teaching evaluations and has been nominated twice for clinical teaching awards. She has published on the importance of teaching advocacy in medical education and has co-authored a textbook chapter on addressing the social determinants of health. In October 2020, she was appointed the inaugural co-chair of the UCLA School of Medicine Anti-Racism and Health Equity Theme Thread. In that role, she works towards creating a robust focus on anti-racism, structural and social determinants of health, and health equity throughout all four years of the medical school curriculum.
Meeryo Choe, MD
Autonomic Dysfunction and POTS
3:00 pm – 3:40 pm
Meeryo Choe, MD, FAAN grew up in the Los Angeles area, traveled east to attend Amherst College, where she majored in Fine Arts completing a senior thesis in Printmaking. She then returned to L.A. to attend medical school at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. After completing her child neurology residency in 2012, she combined her personal interest in sports with her professional interest in the developing brain by completing a Neurotrauma/Sports Neurology Fellow at UCLA. She is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor in Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. After 3 years as Associate Program Director, she became the Program Director in 2016 for the child neurology program. She is also the current clerkship director for the child neurology elective at the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. She is also the Associate Director of the UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program, and helps oversee its mission, providing clinical care for injured student athletes, performing clinical research in pediatric TBI, and educating the community about sports-related concussion. Her research focuses on clinical outcome after pediatric TBI, specifically with an interest in gender disparities in concussion incidence and recovery. Other clinical interests include autonomic dysfunction after pediatric concussion. She serves as the neurologist in the multi-disciplinary Autonomic Dysfunction Clinic as well. She was a co-author on the CDC’s pediatric mTBI review and guidelines published in JAMA Pediatrics, and is a site-PI for the Four Corners Youth Consortium’s multi-institutional longitudinal pediatric concussion study. She has previously presented on pediatric concussion and gender differences at the CNS and AAN Annual Meetings as well as the AAN Sports Concussion Conference and National Neurotrauma Symposium.
James Thomason, DO
Resident Research Awards and Presentation: Providing Standardized and High Quality Nursery Discharge Anticipatory Guidance
3:40 pm – 4:05 pm
Dr. James Thomason is a second-year pediatrics resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is currently involved in a quality improvement project that is attempting to standardize nursery discharge anticipatory guidance. He is very passionate about medical education for both patients and providers. He graduated from Midwestern University – Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He plans to go into general pediatrics.
Desired Outcome
Apply lessons learned on the latest research presented by the winner of the Pediatric Trainees Research Awards.
