Meet Our Faculty

Hometown: Abita Springs, LA

Research Interests: 

Surfactant Protein Regulation and Function

What makes our program unique? 

Ability to manage high volume and acuity of neonates while providing academic enrichment to our trainees.

Favorite aspect of working with fellows: 

Being present when fellows mentally take over a research project and enthusiastically develop new research goals .

Committee Membership: 

With respect to the division, I'm the Chair of the Scholarly Oversight Committee, and I joined to get personally involved in helping our fellows complete their scholarly product.

Hometown: Nnobi, Nigeria

Research Interests: 

Medical Education, Global Health

Clinical Interests: 

Quality Improvement

What makes our program unique? 

Diversity of patients and staff

Favorite aspect of working with fellows: 

Their educational curiosity, commitment to their patients and the unlimited learning  opportunities in our program.

Committee Membership: 

Children’s Hospital Pediatric Quality and Safety Committee, NPM fellowship Program Evaluation Committee, NPM Clinical Competence Committee, Neonatal Quality Improvement Council, NICU Infection Control Council, Pediatric Medication safety committee.

I Joined UT as Faculty in 2011 after completing Fellowship 2008-2011 and Residency 2005-2008, both at McGovern MS.

My fellowship research was in exploring the role of nitric oxide substrates in a cell model of necrotizing enterocolitis.  I’ve continued to work closely with the division of Pediatric Gastroenterology as one of the Neonatologists on the multidisciplinary STAR (Small Bowel Therapy and Rehabilitation) team that helps optimize care for our NICU patients affected by Short Bowel Syndrome.

I am a member of the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion committee where I try to help ensure that our program continues to be as accepting to LGBTQ+ individuals as I have felt during each level of my training.

My favorite aspect of my job is the direct, in clinical setting, teaching I get to do with residents and fellows.

(after completion of fellowship at UTHealth)

Hometown: Houston, TX

Research Interests: 

• • Genetic and environmental factors in the development and outcomes in congenital heart defect

  • Head of the BioRepository of NICU Diseases

  • Director of the NICU Summer Research Program – a 10-week program for rising MS2s interested in neonatal research

Clinical Interests: 

• • Screening of congenital hypothyroidism targeting premature infants. 

  • Director of Medical Student Education - facilitate shadowing and elective rotations in the NICU for medical students. 

What makes our program unique?

Our participation in the Neonatal Research Network means we participate in multi-center clinical trials and see first-hand the advancement of neonatal medicine.  We are part of the Vermont Oxford Network which allows us to compare outcome metrics for quality improvement against other NICUs in the country. 

Favorite aspect of working with fellows?

I love watching the personal growth of fellows, whether that may mean their clinical acumen, leadership role on a team, or their interest in education and/or research.

Committee Membership: 

Related to the fellowship program, I am part of the Scholarly Oversight Committee and the Program Evaluation Committee.  The SOC’s main purpose is to keep fellows on track with their scholarly projects, while the PEC ensures that the fellows’ needs and concerns are translated into actionable items to improve our program.  I benefitted from both those committees as a fellow and so I know their value first-hand. 

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky 

Research Interests: 

• • Neonatal nutrition with a focus to improve mother’s own milk to improve outcomes

  • Clinical trials involvement in the Neonatal Research Network (NRN)

  • Learning and teaching evidenced based medicine and critical appraisal of research in the McGovern Medical School Master’s Program for Clinical Research

Clinical Interests: 

• Innovation and revision of clinical neonatal nutritional practices and guidelines with quality improvement

What makes our program unique?

Participating in the NRN trials allows for collaboration and learning from other level IV NICUs around the country in addition to contributing to improvements in neonatal care. Working alongside like-minded people with a focus on developing a clinical research program at UTHealth gives me the supportive family to growth my research career .

Favorite aspect of working with fellows?

I love to watch fellows find their passions in neonatology whether it’s clinical work, QI, or research. 

Additional contributions:

• Nutrition Quality Improvement

• KL2 Scholar

Hometown: Frankfort, KY

Research Interests:   

• Development of suck-swallow-breath rhythms in newborn feeding.  

• Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.  

• Adaptive technology for physicians.

Favorite Aspect of working with Fellows: I love being a teacher. After 5 years in a clinical-only position, I found that one of the things I missed was being a teacher. I returned to academic medicine specifically to be a teacher and researcher, in addition to being a clinician.  Training the next generation of Neonatologists to have their own successes in clinical care and research is very rewarding.

What makes our program unique?  The people!  In my career, I have transitioned through many different work settings.  Our neonatology group is by far the best team I have ever worked with.  It is easy to tell that we are all on the same team, working toward the same goal of having the best Neonatology Division we can from clinical care, teaching and research perspectives.

Committee Memberships:  Fetal Interventions Ethics Committee, Neonatology Liaison to Pediatric Surgery, Scholarly Oversight Committee

Hometown: Lakeville, MN

Research Interests:   

• Births ≤23 weeks’ gestation 

• Variations in clinical practice

• Heterogeneity of effects observed in clinical trials

Clinical Interests:

• Extremely preterm infants

• Antenatal intervention

• Implementation of research evidence into practice

• Congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Favorite Aspect of working with Fellows: Fellows bring a fresh perspective. They’re uniquely equipped to make new observations, challenge assumptions, and offer clever solutions. Being smart, creative, insightful, and skilled, they can make uniquely valuable contributions to the care of our patients and their families.

What makes our program unique?  UTH has major strengths in clinical research, with the NICHD Neonatal Research Network and Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network, as well as the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Study Group, and excellent clinical and research mentorship.