We are a dynamic, organic group of University faculty engaged in education on many levels and fighting to improve the lives of children and their families.
Read more about who we are below and please join us or sign up to learn more about our current events.
Mohammed Kabir Abubakar
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics / Neonatology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Neonatology.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Newborn care.
Affinity Areas: Clinical Practice, Global Health Policy and Practice, Perinatal and Infant Health and Development
Joan Alker
Where I Work: Director, Center for Children and Families, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Public policy solutions to promote children’s access to coverage and care; reduce disparities.
About My Work: My work focuses on access to high quality affordable coverage for children and families especially those who are disadvantaged by economics and/or race. My center has a great deal of work in this area focusing on Medicaid/CHIP and the ACA. We have 18 FTEs and have state partners and many other partnerships with organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics. We are entirely externally funded – primarily by foundations.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Intima Alrimawi
Where I Work: School of Nursing, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Public health, nursing, children health.
About My Work: Improve the quality of nursing care for vulnerable families and children with complex health concerns.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Research.
Renee Antoine
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Maternal and child health.
About My Work: Technical Assistance provider for infant and early childhood mental health. Equity trainer on perinatal and birth outcomes.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Maternal mental health, infant mental health, perinatal health, health equity, racial equity.
Rachel Barr
Where I Work: Department of Psychology Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infant cognitive development, learning in multilingual and digital worlds.
About My Work: Have you ever wondered what babies are learning or remembering from the world around them? We focus on children under 5 years of age because this is a time of rapid development in many domains. We are particularly interested in how children pick up information from multiple sources around them. For this reason we have a number of ongoing projects examining learning and memory focused on how children grow up in multilingual households and in a digital world.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Multilingual research, research in children technology.
Sejal Bavishi
Where I Work: Pediatrics- clinical, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Care of the medically complex/chronic care kids, inpatient care.
About My Work: I am a primary care pediatrician with an inpatient and outpatient role, with an interest in caring for children with medically complex needs.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Interested in learning more about work/projects focused around chronic care of medically complex kids.
Deus Bazira
Where I Work: Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Infectious diseases; health services outcomes; application of health technology; integrated services delivery.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Global Health Policy and Practice, Domestic Policy and Systems Building, Early Childhood Health and Development, School Age Health and Development.
Joseph Bellanti
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics & Microbiology-Immunology, The International Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology (ICISI), Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Immunology, infectious diseases, allergic diseases, and the autoimmune disorders.
About My Work: Dr Bellanti is a recognized world authority in research, education and clinical activities in immunology and has devoted over 65 years of activity working at Georgetown. He is an emeritus Professor and continues his research and teaching at Georgetown University. A major investigative effort of his current research is being directed to studies of epigenetics, the microbiome and development of new vaccine development based upon the immunoinductive properties of methylated oligonucleotide (ODN) sequences.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Immunology.
Matthew Biel
Where I Work: Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Child mental health, child development, trauma/resilience, early childhood, school mental health, mental health care of medically ill children, public mental health, global mental health.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Child mental health, child development, trauma/resilience, early childhood, school mental health, mental health care of medically ill children, public mental health, global mental health.
Rachel Brady
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early Childhood, Early Intervention, Disability, Workforce Development.
About My Work: I am the training director for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) and the Certificate in Early Intervention. We compile and disseminate the results of evaluation data on our programs.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Program evaluation, training, understanding needs of people with lived experience and their families.
Noel Bravo
Where I Work: School of Medicine / Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early childhood development, community mental health, parent and family leadership, community based participatory research, school mental health, racial equity.
About My Work: I serve as Director of Project Development for the Early Childhood Innovation Network, which is a partnership between MGUH, Children’s National Hospital and multiple community partners working to integrate mental health supports for families with young children into non-clinical settings. I also co-lead a racial equity learning community at CCHD.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood development, community mental health, parent and family leadership, community based participatory research, school mental health, racial equity.
Kim Bullock
Where I Work: Department of Family Medicine, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Disabilities health.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: curriculum development, community projects and research.
Elisabeth Wright Burak
Where I Work: Center for Children and Families, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early childhood and maternal health policy in Medicaid and CHIP.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Cross-center information sharing/awareness-building.
Ana Caskin
Where I Work: Community Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: School-based health, mental health, reproductive health, medical legal partnership.
About My Work: I have been practicing pediatrics since 2000. I serve as Medical Director for the School Based Health Centers at Anacostia High School and Roosevelt Senior High School. I also serve as the Deputy Medical Director of the Health Justice Alliance, a medical-legal partnership between Georgetown University School of Medicine and Georgetown Law. I have conducted research in topics relating to Social Determinants of Health, Health Equity and reducing barriers to care.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: I am interested in collaborating in the areas of service delivery issues, and economic, legal and policy considerations.
Luciane Cavalli
Where I Work: Department of Oncology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Basic and translation research in pediatric cancers.
About My Work: I am currently an adjunct professor at the Oncology department and a full time professor at the research institute at the largest Pediatric Hospital in Brazil, Hospital Pequeno Príncipe (was full time at Georgetown for about 20 yrs). My team conducts research in genomics and epigenomics in pediatric patients with cancer; mostly neuroblastoma and tumors of the nervous central system. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can augment diagnosis and prognosis and predict treatment response.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Cancer molecular biology and epidemiology , translational research.
Dominique Charlot-Swilley
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development / Early Childhood Innovation Network, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early relational health/IECMH; racial equity and social justice; mindfulness; wellness & wellbeing; integrated behavioral health.
About My Work: My interests include early relational health and exploring individual and organizational wellbeing. This work incorporates a systems perspective, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), healing-centered engagement, and Gottman therapeutic framework. Infused in this work is a focus on racial equity and social justice. Additionally, family/community-centered engagement research where co-creation is the nexus of this work.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Racial equity and social justice; early relational health; individual and organizational wellbeing; mindfulness.
Elizabeth Chawla
Where I work: Department of Pediatrics, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Mental and behavioral health of children; models of integrated mental health care; early childhood development; pediatric residency training.
About My Work: As co-director of the Integrated Mental Health clinic at MGUH Pediatrics at Tenleytown and the Associate Director of the Pediatrics Residency Program at Georgetown, most of my work focuses on mental and behavioral health of children and families, including social-emotional development, and mental health curriculum and training for pediatrics residents both at Georgetown and nationally.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Mental and behavioral health of children and families, Medical Education research.
Elizabeth Cilenti
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: General pediatrics, medical education, social determinants of health
About My Work: Primarily clinical, research in medical education.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: General pediatrics, social determinants of health, medical education.
Shawnese Clark
Where I Work: Pediatrics, Southern Maryland Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Racism, adverse childhood experiences, resilience.
About My Work: I am interested in studying systemic racism’s impact on child health, other adverse childhood experiences and was to increase resilience in children. I am also interested in practicing physician’s attitudes on how systemic racism impacts health.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Mia Coutinho
Where I Work: Neuroscience (IPN), Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Language and learning.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early education, language, teaching the community, speaks Spanish.
Shannon CrossBear
Where I Work: Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, TA Project Launch. Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Children and Families.
About My Work: Technical Assistance Specialist.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Equity and Inclusion.
Affinity Areas: Global Health Policy and Practice, Domestic Policy and Systems Building, Early Childhood Health and Development.
Sarah Davidon
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Children’s mental health, public policy, early childhood systems integration.
About My Work: My experience is in guiding organizations, policymakers, philanthropy, and state systems in decisionmaking about policies, funding, and strategies that support children’s mental health. I serve as a Senior Policy Associate with the Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, and Technical Assistance Specialist for the federal Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems awardees.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Public awareness, dissemination of best practices, public education, public policy.
Annie Davis
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Evaluating early childhood mental health services.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood; early relational health; program evaluation; community-based participatory research; integrated behavioral health care; dyadic interventions.
Pam Diener
Where I Work: Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Studying and implementing best therapeutic treatments for individuals with neurologic conditions with acute/chronic/complex needs such as Rett syndrome, cerebral palsy, prematurity/failure-to-thrive, dysphagia, prenatal exposure to alcohol &/or cocaine; training caregivers.
About My Work: In general, as a clinician (OT) and developmental neuroscientist, I am interested in studying the effectiveness of using varied enriching sensorimotor experiences to improve recovery of function in individuals with congenital and acquired neurologic disorders. My current research focuses on using customized computer gaming created in our lab to train purposeful arm/hand use and minimize engagement in hand stereotypies in order to improve the ability of girls (and women) with Rett syndrome to participate in their daily life activities.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: medically complex children; child development and critical windows of development; motor and cognitive deficits that impact play, participation in daily activities and performance in school and social settings; parental & sibling education/training; early intervention.
Katharine Donato
Where I Work: Institute for the Study of International Migration, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Displacement and international migration, migrant children.
About My Work: My research covers many areas related to displacement and international migration. Related to migrant children, I have two projects: a book project on the management and treatment of unaccompanied migrant children in the United States, and a project on the integration of those who entered as unaccompanied migrants and refugees (funded by the Russell Sage Foundation).
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: International migration and displacement.
Michael Donnelly
Chair, Department of Pediatrics and Chief of the Pediatric Service Line, Medstar Health
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Primary care of adults and children, teaching of residents and medical students.
About My Work: My work focuses on enhancing the health of children and adolescents in all areas of our Pediatrics Department and throughout the entire Medstar footprint.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Medical education research, vaccine research, policy, health equity, and advocacy.
Jenn Drake-Croft
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infant and early childhood mental health, child trauma, adverse childhood experiences/positive childhood experiences, infant and early childhood policy, child abuse prevention.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early prevention, effective policies/systems for infants and young children, building resilience and creating lifelong health foundations.
Guinevere Eden
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Brain imaging, reading, math, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia), early bilingualism.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Angela C. Epps
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Developmental Disabilities and Cultural and Linguistic Competence.
About My Work: I help support grant projects obtained by the GUCEDD and the National Center for Cultural Competence that focus on individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Child mental health and the intersect of disability.
Rebecca Epstein
Where I Work: Center on Poverty and Inequality, Georgetown University Law Center.
My Areas of Focus: Marginalized girls.
About My Work: We conduct research and produce reports on how public systems can improve their support and treatment of girls of color and low-income girls.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Developing curricula to inform healthcare system workers about adultification bias; examining health and other protective factors for girls of color in schools.
Eduardo Ferrer
Where I Work: Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative, Georgetown University Law Center.
My Areas of Focus: Youth defense, youth justice policy, delinquency, traumatic stress, resilience, local DC policy.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Youth defense, youth justice policy, delinquency, traumatic stress, resilience, local DC policy.
Elizabeth Ferris
Where I Work: Institute for the Study of International Migration, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Refugees, migration, humanitarian emergencies.
About My Work: I have many years of experience working with and researching refugee and migrants. For the past four years or so, I have worked a lot on refugee and migrant children’s issues, including teaching courses and working with UNICEF to develop guidelines on Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change. I am also finishing a book on Unaccompanied Migrant Children with Katharine Donato.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Children in humanitarian crises, climate change and children, refugee and migrant children.
Megha Fitzpatrick
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Medical education, health equity.
About My Work: I am currently Vice chair of education and clerkship director for the pediatrics clerkship. I also serve as the co-chair of the Working Group for Racial Justice.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Medical education, healthy equity, racial justice.
James Giordano
Where I Work: Department of Neurology and Pellegrino Center of Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatric neurology, psychiatry and ethics.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Pediatric neurocognitive health and wellness.
Vicki Girard
Where I Work: Georgetown University Law Center.
My Areas of Focus: Medial-legal partnership.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Health equity, interprofessional education.
Beth Glicker
Where I Work: University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities; Education, Research and Service, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Parenting Support Program.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Gultekin Gollu
Where I Work: Department of Health Management and Policy – School of Health, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Health economics, health policy analysis, health data analytics.
About My Work: My research interests are in health policies’ impact on the labor market, crime, and health outcomes with an emphasis on existing disparities in U.S. society. I also collaborate with healthcare organizations on data analytics projects to improve efficiency in hospital operations and patient outcomes.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Health policy evaluation, health data analytics
Tawara D. Goode
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Advancing cultural and linguistic competence and equity, diversity, and inclusion in health, mental health, education (K-12), university and other social and human service systems – across the life course.
About My Work: For over 25 years, my work has centered on increasing the capacity within systems to respond to the interests and needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations in the United States, territories, tribal nations as well as internationally and to promote equity. This includes but is not limited to: contributing to the body of knowledge through research; teaching and professional development; curricula development; checklists, tools, resources, CLC assessment instruments; peer reviewed literature, publications in the gray literature (i.e., guides, monographs, policy briefs); and community engagement.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Research, teaching, community engagement, and any partnerships focused on reducing health and mental health disparities and addressing both the social and political determinants of health.
Wiwit Grandison
Where I Work: Parenting Support Program (PSP), Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Home visitor.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Sara Greengrass
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development / US-Afghan Women’s Council, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Women and Gender.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Connecting resources for resettlement, safety, and security of Afghan women and girls.
Kirsten Hawkins
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Section of Adolescent Medicine, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Adolescent medicine.
About My Work: My research interests include adolescent confidentiality, teen substance abuse and nicotine prevention, adolescent vaccination, adolescent transition to adult care, and communicating with teens.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Adolescent transition to adult health care, adolescent confidentiality, pediatric medical education, teaching communication skills, adolescent cancer prevention, adolescent nicotine use and prevention.
Nneka Holder
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Adolescent specific vaccines, adolescent reproductive health.
About My Work: I am an adolescent medicine physician with strong interest in adolescent vaccines, as well as issues regarding vaccine hesitancy. I am also interested in menstrual disorders (especially heavy menses) that affect adolescents.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Vaccines for adolescent age groups, menstrual disorders.
Katrina Holt
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Oral health care and primary care.
About My Work: I’m the director of the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, a federally funded project with the mission to support professionals working in states and communities to improve oral health care for pregnant women, infants, children, and adolescents, including those with special health care needs, and their families.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Integration of care.
Neal Horen
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early childhood mental health, systems development.
About My Work: I direct or co-direct a number of national training and technical assistance centers, as well as early childhood mental health certificate programs.I do international work in the Middle East and Latin America.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood work.
Gillian Huebner
Where I Work: Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement/Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Supporting the development, strengthening, and coordination of programs and systems to enhance community-based and nationally-owned approaches to building young people’s resilience and supporting children at risk.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Global children/youth issues, particularly related to protection.
Amy Hunter
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early Childhood Mental Health.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood mental health; family well-being; preventing substance use disorders/supporting families in recovery; supporting staff/faculty who support child health and well-being; mental health consultation; trauma, resilience and healing.
Diane Jacobstein
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early Childhood, Developmental Disabilities Across the Lifespan.
About My Work: Teaching: Leadership Education in Developmental Disabilities
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Policy, equity in access to services.
Anna Johnson
Where I Work: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Child development and social policy, Low-income children and child and family wellbeing.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Child wellbeing; family functioning; post-COVID child and family wellbeing.
Nina Kadan-Lottick
Where I Work: Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Cancer survivorship outcomes, pediatric oncology clinical trials, etiology of childhood cancer.
About My Work: I am an NIH-funded physician scientist focused on measuring and reducing the burden of long term outcomes after childhood cancer. I am the PI of NCI cooperative clinical trials at Georgetown in pediatric oncology.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Childhood cancer survivorship, epidemiological studies in the etiology of childhood cancer.
Michael Kessler
Where I Work: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Hand surgery.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Improving access to hand care for pediatric patients.
Sarah Klaus
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: International early childhood development.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Health equity, nurturing care, parenting, cultural brokers/mediators.
Anjalee Kohli
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Violence prevention, gender, social determinants of health, reproductive health.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
John Kraemer
Where I Work: Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Health, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Child health in sub-Saharan Africa, impact evaluation, epidemiology.
About My Work: Most of my work focuses on evaluating and learning from policies and programs to improve health in sub-Saharan Africa, including long-running collaborations focused on community health worker-delivered interventions. Methodologically, I mostly work with complex sample surveys.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Child health in low-income settings and evaluation.
Lan Le
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Center for Child and Human Development, Maternal and Child Health Evidence Center, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Maternal and child health, children’s behavioral health, research and evaluation.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Initiatives focused on strengthening the evidence base for maternal and child health programs.
Joel Lim
Where I Work: Pediatric Gastroenterology (Tinley Park), MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Research
About My Work: I am a pediatric gastroenterologist and working for Pharma research.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Research.
Affinity Areas: Clinical Practice.
Joan Lombardi
Where I Work: Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
About My Work: Focused child development and social policy related to young children and families, domestically and internationally. Special interest in child care, displacement and emergencies, environmental issues.
My Areas of Focus: Child development and social policy.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: International issues facing young children and families.
Toby Long
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infants and toddlers with disabilities; Service systems; International early intervention.
About My Work: My work focuses creating equitable, effective service delivery systems for infants and toddlers with disabilities including training of interdisciplinary service providers in the US and globally.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: International early childhood education including early intervention.
Phyllis R. Magrab
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.
My Areas of Focus: Policy development and systems change for disability, early childhood, mental health, and gender; gender equity issues in Afghanistan; collaboration with international organizations including UNESCO and OECD.
About My Work: My work focuses on marginalized groups of children and their families. Through developing and implementing best practices and effective policies, I address systems development both nationally and globally to improve and enhance the quality of life for these children and their families.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Afghanistan policy, humanitarian aid and resettlement; global health and education related to children; collaboration with international and bilateral organizations.
Abigail Marsh
Where I Work: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Social/affective neuroscience; empathy; aggression.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Ranit Mishori
Where I Work: Family Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Migrant and refugee children (effects of conflict, sexual violence, FGM/C, family detention, children’s rights); underserved communities; COVID-19.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Migrant and refugee children (effects of conflict, sexual violence, FGM/C, family detention, children’s rights); underserved communities; COVID-19.
John Monahan
Where I Work: Office of the President, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Health law and policy.
About My Work: I work on global health law/policy (governance, health security, HIV), domestic law/policy (social determinants of health), and refugee/migrant issues.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Open to all collaborations.
Elissa Newport
Where I Work: Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Language acquisition, pediatric stroke.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Pediatric stroke.
Sylvia Ojoo
Where I Work: Center for Global Health Practice and Impact—based in Kenya, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infectious disease.
About My Work: Public health systems including HIV services delivery for children.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Non communicable disease development over the life cycle and in transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Pinaki Panigrahi
Where I Work: Division of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Gut dysfunction, microbiome, probiotics, stunting, global health.
About My Work: I have worked in the U.S. nurseries and overseas (India, Bangladesh, Ghana) conducting large scale surveillance and intervention projects (clinical trials) mostly funded by NIH, some by the Gates Foundation. I work closely with the overseas sites that continue to struggle with high infant mortality, very high rate of stunting (>35%), and developmental delays. I am working with faculty members at GUMC and the main campus and starting collaborations to generate preliminary data as we provide some service via clinical and educational training. Similar problems exist in the immigrant and African American populations in and around DC and many parts of the U.S. Any work we do together, any innovation that comes out of this work will have local to global ramifications.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Childhood development, delays, and interventions, socio-economic impacts, use of mobile technologies.
Amittia Parker
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University., Georgetown University
My Areas of Focus: Research, training, teaching and service on maternal and infant and early childhood mental health, birth equity, Black mental health.
About My Work: My work focuses on advancing maternal, infant, and early childhood mental health, equity, justice through research, training, teaching, and service. I am currently providing training and technical assistance on health equity, mental health, and staff wellness the National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety. I also am working on the DC Health Health Start evaluation team exploring the impact of doula services and centering pregnancy. I am also disseminating my research on Black maternal mental health and supports for wellness and exploring next steps.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Birth equity, Black mental health, maternal infant and early childhood mental health, racial equity, and anti-racist organizational change.
Paola Pergami
Where I Work: Pediatric Neurology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatric stroke, Neonatal stroke, Neonatal neurology, rehabilitation.
About My Work: I am interested in Pediatric Stroke and rehabilitation. I have participated contributed to many multi-center studies with the IPSS, including acute and long-term outcome trials. I am interested in neuro-rehabilitation, mechanism of brain plasticity in stroke recovery including modalities to translate research findings into clinical practice.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Pediatric and neonatal stroke and rehabilitation. Prediction of neurologic outcome by advanced MRI modalities in neonates with ischemic injury.
Affinity Areas: Clinical Practice, Perinatal and Infant Health and Development, Early Childhood Health and Development.
Deborah Perry
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.
My Areas of Focus: Community-engaged research and program evaluation; perinatal and infant/early childhood health; medical-legal partnerships; interventions to reduce health disparities.
About My Work: I serve as the Director of Research and Evaluation for our Center and for the Health Justice Alliance—a medical-legal partnership between Georgetown’s Law and Medical Centers. In these roles, I provide leadership on a broad array of community-based program evaluations and mixed methods studies. Much of my research has centered on pregnant and postpartum people in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Community partnerships to advance health equity and interventions to reduce perinatal disparities.
Shy Porter
Where I Work: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Perinatal mental health; maternal health; couple/parent relationship processes; adolescent mental health; sexual and reproductive health; racial/ethnic health disparities; social determinants of health.
About My Work: I am a relationship scientist with expertise in couple relationships, perinatal mental health (PMH), and the intersection of the two. As a clinician, I specialize in work with couples; pregnant and postpartum women (alone or with their partners) contending with PMH concerns; and adolescent and adult individuals. As a researcher, I study mental health conditions associated with the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods and work to develop clinical intervention strategies to bring psychological relief to women and their partners. I also study romantic relationship development, maintenance, and dissolution processes for adolescents and adults. Race, culture, racial/ethnic health disparities, and the experiences of racial/ethnic minorities are central components of my research.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Perinatal mental health; maternal health; couple/parent relationship processes; adolescent mental health; sexual and reproductive health; racial/ethnic health disparities; social determinants of health.
Caileigh Pudela
Where I Work: Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatric cancers and blood disorders; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
About My Work: In the clinical setting, I treat children with a wide range of pediatric cancers, including leukemias and retinoblastoma, as well as blood disorders. I am also interested in advancing health equity and reducing disparities in access to health.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Clinical Practice, Domestic Policy and Systems Building, Adolescent and Young Adult Health and Development.
Lauren Rabinovitz
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early Childhood.
About My Work: I work supporting states, tribes and territories to create, develop and implement Infant and Early Childhood Consultation programs. I am deeply invested in the intersection of population health and vulnerable children and families.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood systems development, workforce development to support early childhood work.
Josef Rauschecker
Where I Work: Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Development of sensory systems; development of speech.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Development of Sensory Systems; Development of Speech.
Mary Jane Reen
Where I Work: Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus:
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Clinical Practice, Domestic Policy and Systems Building, Early Childhood Health and Development, School Age Health and Development.
John Richards
Where I Work: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health.
My Areas of Focus: Evidence-based public health; technology and health communication.
About My Work: My work has focused on dissemination of health information through technology and implementation of evidence-based strategies.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Technology involved in workforce development; policy and program development. Evidence-Based Decision Making.
Lewis Rubin
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, GUMC, MGUH, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Translational research, clinical trials, global maternal/child health, implementation science; epigenetics, metabolomics, microbiome, nutritional neuroscience, social drivers of health, maternal/child nutrition and metabolism, qualitative research methods.
About My Work: I lead or participate in several clinical trials, largely in maternal and infant/child health: current studies: role of probiotics in preterm infant development (multi-omics outcomes), effect of vegan diet in pregnancy on neonatal metabolome/ anthropometrics/ neurodevelopment, biomarkers of parental stress/depression in the NICU, maternal diet/gene variants/stress effects on breast milk composition, novel non-invasive clinical tools in neonatal intensive care (vibroacoustics, lung ultrasound). My lab focuses on brain neuroprotection using brain organic models, neuroinflammation in brain injury, and molecular mechanisms of micronutrient effects in breast cancer.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Clinical trials; developmental neuroscience; maternal/child nutrition; metabolomics; social drivers of health; global health.
Rebecca Ryan
Where I Work: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Child development, parenting.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Susmita Sarangi
Where I Work: Pediatrics, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Sickle cell disease, platelet disorders, adolescent and young adult cancer, blood disorders.
About My Work: I work to bring the latest therapeutics in the care of my pediatric adolescent and young adult patients with cancer and blood disorders. I am part of national efforts reporting outcomes of COVID19 infection in our immunocompromised populations.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Registry development, bioinformatics, Health outcomes research.
Julia Sayles
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.
About My Work: I currently support training and TA for Head Start National Center on Health Behavioral Health and Safety as well as the NTTAC infant and early childhood team. Areas of interest include trauma, trauma informed care, educator wellness, infant and early childhood mental health consultation.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: I would love to collaborate on research, publication, and training efforts in the infant and early childhood mental health space.
Mariastella Serrano
Chief, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition – Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Outpatient Operations
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Medical care of pediatric patients with gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition issues; teaching of pediatric fellows, residents and students; coordination of outpatient pediatric subspecialty and primary care; establishing collaborative relationships between international and North American NGOs that support the health and well-being of children in Latin America, India and the Middle East.
About My Work: My work focuses on enhancing the health of children and adolescents treating them for gastrointestinal, liver or nutritional issues, and working within our Pediatrics department to coordinate care within other pediatric specialties and primary care. Also supporting educational efforts in developing countries, and networking between organizations there and in the U.S.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: International health and education, public policy for children’s nutrition and health.
Callie Silver
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Early childhood mental health, social-emotional learning, exclusionary discipline and disparities, early childhood workforce well-being, racial equity, Head Start.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Early childhood mental health, social-emotional learning, exclusionary discipline and disparities, early childhood workforce well-being, racial equity, Head Start.
Eric Stern
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatric infectious disease, travelers health.
About My Work: I work primarily as an inpatient and outpatient pediatric infectious disease clinician and teacher. Background in public health and foreign languages.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Infectious disease, public health, community health, athletics/wellness.
Ella Striem-Amit
Where I Work: Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Brain plasticity in sensory and motor deprivation.
About My Work: .
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Developmental studies of sensory or motor atypical experience.
Siva Subramanian
Where I Work: Georgetown University Medical Center.
My Areas of Focus: Bioethics, prematurity, infant mortality, trace element nutrition, global maternal & infant health.
About My Work: My RO1 is in Trace Element metabolism and my U10 grant focused on infant mortality, adolescent pregnancy, and published also in Bioethics.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Bioethics, global maternal & Infant health, and NICU related areas.
Fumitaka Sugiguchi
Where I Work: Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatrics, clinical
About My Work: 2022 Graduate of Medstar Georgetown Pediatrics Residency.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Newborn health, pediatric urgent care.
Tara Suntum
Where I Work: Pediatrics, Adolescent, and Young Adult Oncology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus:
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Jeffrey Toretsky
Where I Work: Departments of Oncology and Pediatrics, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (AYA), sarcoma, post-transcriptional regulation of cancer.
About My Work: My research focuses on the mechanism of EWS-FLI1 oncogenesis in Ewing sarcoma and creates novel drugs that can be advanced to clinical trials.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: AYA oncology, sarcoma, super-resolution microscopy.
Sarah Vittone
Where I Work: Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, GUMC; Georgetown-Howard Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences; School of Nursing, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Bioethics; research ethics.
About My Work: I am a clinical bioethicist and provide research ethics consultation for the Georgetown-Howard Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CTSA grant).
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Research ethics; consent/assent; vulnerable protections; promoting research in underrepresented pediatric populations.
Jennifer Woolard
Where I Work: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Adolescent development; juvenile and criminal justice; parent-adolescent interaction; parent-peer support in child-serving systems.
About My Work: .
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Adolescent development; juvenile and criminal justice; parent-adolescent interaction; parent-peer support in child-serving systems.
Dawn A Yazzie
Where I Work: EC Department, Georgetown University. Work remotely from Navajo Nation in Fort Defiance, AZ.
My Areas of Focus: Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation and IECMH with consideration of Indigenous practices.
About My Work: IECMHC and IECMH with consideration of Indigenous practices, particularly from the traditional Navajo perspective.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: All areas of development prenatally through age 8.
Edilma L. Yearwood
Where I Work: School of Nursing, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Child and adolescent mental health; mental health of immigrant children and families.
About My Work: I currently have a HRSA grant titled, Nurturing: Child Well-Being: Educating Communities on the Social Determinants of Health. Will be teaching both providers and parents about SDoH and the potential impact on child well-being. Will also educate on ways to mitigate negative impact.
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Mental health; parent and child relationships; community based participatory research.
Soumia Yesraoui
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus:
About My Work: .
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Negar Nikki Zahiri
Where I Work: Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Infant and early childhood mental health.
About My Work: .
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas:
Arash R. Zandieh
Where I Work: Department of Radiology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
My Areas of Focus: Pediatric radiology.
About My Work: .
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: Neonatology, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and all relevant subspecialties.
Wu Zeng
Where I Work: Department of International Heath, School of Health, Georgetown University.
My Areas of Focus: Health economics, health financing, global health.
About My Work:
I am Interested in Collaborating in the Following Areas: