Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee Leadership

Kshama Shah, MD, MPH, MA is an attending neonatologist at Endeavor Health in Illinois and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Additionally, she maintains an affiliation with The Gehr Family Center for Health Systems Science and Innovation at the University of Southern California. Drawing upon her background in public policy and clinical practice, Dr. Shah is dedicated to reducing disparities in perinatal outcomes. She is particularly interested in how research can help guide efforts to build equitable policies for where pregnant people access care, the care infants receive, and the support of families moving forward. Her previous research, conducted in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health, focused on perinatal regionalization and the relationship between access of hospital care in pregnancy and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Presently, her interests are centered on discordance in family and provider language preference and equity in neonatal care. Dr. Shah is also a lead for the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s Equity and Safe Sleep for Infants initiative in the Endeavor Health system. Dr. Shah earned her medical degree from the University of Florida, concurrently completing her Master in Public Health at the University of California Los Angeles. She continued her training through the Health Services Masters program during her pediatric residency at The University of Chicago and The Harris School of Public Policy. She had the privilege of completing fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine through Northwestern Medicine and previously served as faculty at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. 

Sarah A. Swenson, MD, DPhil, is a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow at the University of Minnesota whose work combines advocacy, quality improvement, and research to enhance opportunities for wellbeing for families impacted by neonatal intensive care. She received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota. Prior to medical school, she received her doctorate in the history of science and medicine from the University of Oxford, UK, which focused on the social and political factors that influenced biological theories of social behavior in the twentieth century. She has led quality improvement initiatives to implement standardized, routine perinatal mental health screening for parents of infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units. Her current policy focus seeks to expand Medicaid coverage for mental health visits in the postpartum year to non-gestational parents to mitigate financial concerns that limit access to treatment.

Dr. Levi Funches, Jr.  is a neonatologist at Riley Hospital for Children, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSOM), where he has been since 2016.  He currently serves as Associate Medical Director of the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital NICU. He is also currently an Associate Program Director or the Pediatric Residency Program at Riley Hospital for Children/IUSOM. He received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He then completed his pediatric residency at Advocate Christ Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, where he served as chief resident.  Prior to coming to IUSOM, he served as a physician with the U.S. Army. During his military service time he completed his neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Washington University (MO).  He is currently involved in research on engaging with fathers about their families and their communities to address infant mortality and health disparities.  He is an advocate for the importance of fatherhood and male care-givers to the overall environment for infants, children, and family, and a proponent for graduate medical education.

Dr. Valencia P. Walker serves as the Associate Chief Diversity and Health Equity Officer for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Additionally, she holds joint appointments as Associate Division Chief of Health Equity and Inclusion for the Division of Neonatology and Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. A practicing neonatologist, she champions the elimination of health inequities for pregnant people and their infants. As a physician leader, she is a member of the Executive Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section on Minority Health Equity and Inclusion. She also previously served as Chairperson for the California Medical Association’s Council on Legislation. A proud graduate of the HBCU, Florida A&M University, Dr. Walker received her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and obtained an MPH in Health Policy from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.