Faculty & Disclosures

Dr. Addington completed her medical education at University of Kansas School of Medicine and pediatric residency at Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City (CM). She is currently a pediatric urgent care physician with Children's Mercy Kansas City. She is the Medical Director for Children's Mercy Kansas City's East Urgent Care and the Director for Professional Development and Engagement for the Division of Urgent Care. In the professional development role, Dr. Addington is actively involved in mentoring pediatric urgent care providers through academic promotion. She is also working to develop meaningful engagement opportunities for pediatric urgent care providers within the CM organization.

Jaclyn Aldrich, PhD, is a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children's and a clinical assistant professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Aldrich is a member of the pediatric acute treatment team, with clinical specialization in youth crisis intervention and treatment, depression, and anxiety.

Magna Dias is a Founding Member of SPUC and its Immediate Past President. She began her career in Urgent Care when she founded the program for CHOP. She is now working for Yale Children's and is the Chair of Pediatrics for Bridgeport Hospital in the Yale system.

Dr. Gallentine attended the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, graduating in 2000 and completing her pediatric residency at Geisinger Medical Center in 2003. She started her career in the pediatric ED in Fayetteville NC and has been working in peds urgent care since 2007. She owned The Pediatric Express in Morrisville NC until she joined Palo Alto Medical Foundation in 2018.

Dr. Gushue is a Pediatric Pulmonologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.  After completing General Pediatrics residency in Memphis, TN, she pursued training at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Pediatric Pulmonology, where she currently works in the Cystic Fibrosis clinic, Neuromuscular Clinic, and General Pulmonary Clinic.  She has particular interest in pulmonary complications of neuromuscular disease and complex pulmonary      diseases.  Dr. Gushue enjoys working with medical students, residents and fellows, and she currently serves as Director of 4^th Year Rotations in the Pulmonary Division.

Caroline Hodgson, PhD. Dr. Caroline Hodgson is a Licensed Psychologist who currently specializes in treatment of acute psychiatric concerns, including suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, and severe mental illness. She received her PhD in School Psychology from the University of Missouri, where she studied school-based prevention efforts for depression and anxiety, as well as quantitative tools to improve early identification.

Dr. Hogencamp is the Regional Medical Director for PM Pediatrics and serves as the Director of Quality for the entire organization. She has worked in clinical program management and development as well as Clinical Quality for the last 10 years. As Regional Medical Director she is responsible for organizing telemedicine implementation in her regions. She also helps to oversee the telemedicine quality to insure it is aligned with PM Pediatrics standards of care.

Jessica B. Holstine, MBOE, LSSBB

As a coach on the field, behind a desk, and in front of a team, Jessica is passionate about driving toward excellence in process management and quality improvement (QI). Her role as a Quality Manager in the Center for Clinical Excellence at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) gives her the good fortune to work with healthcare leaders to raise the bar for clinical outcomes within Nationwide Children’s and set the bar for other pediatric institutions around the world. Her quality improvement tool belt is garnered from experience in the healthcare and banking industries along with lessons learned through Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification, and her Master of Business Operational Excellence degree from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. These allow this presenter to partner with clinical teams to evaluate the current state of processes, assess and test potential improvements, and spread initiatives across various arenas. But her most important job gives her the title of MOM to an avid equestrian, a competitive cheerleader, and a Taekwondo titan who require all the aforementioned process management skills she can muster.

Susan John completed her medical school at LSUHSC in Shreveport. She went on to complete her residency at LSUHSC New Orleans. She joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2012 and became the medical director of the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital After Hours Clinics in 2015.

Dr. Johnson is a pediatrician at Children's Mercy Kansas City.  She describes her clinical work as "pediatric urgentology", having spent her career in pediatric urgent care and emergency department settings since finishing her residency in Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at KU in Kansas City in 2003.  In 2016, she became the director of the new Division of Urgent Care for Children's Mercy where she oversees a network of pediatric urgent care sites in the KC metro area.  

She is involved nationally with the Society for Pediatric Urgent Care.  She also currently serves as a vice-chair for the AAP Provisional Section on Pediatric Urgent Care representing academic urgent care pediatricians.  Dr. Johnson describes the aim of "pediatric urgentology" as helping to promote quality, convenient, timely, and compassionate care for acutely ill and injured children who require medical attention when their medical home is not available and whose health care needs can be addressed outside of a costly emergency department.  

Alex R. Kemper, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., is the Division Chief of Primary Care Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Deputy Editor of Pediatrics.  Dr. Kemper completed his pediatric residency training at Duke University followed by combined fellowship training in health services research and medical informatics with residency training in preventive medicine at the University of North Carolina.  His research focuses on preventive services in the primary care practice setting.  Dr. Kemper’s work has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.  He has served as a member of the US Preventive Services Task Force and committees convened by the National Academy of Medicine.

Naomi Kertesz, MD, is Director of Electrophysiology and Pacing at The Heart Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Kertesz received her medical degree from Northwestern University. After completing her residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, she received her fellowship training for both pediatric cardiology and pediatric electrophysiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Kertesz's area of clinical expertise includes the diagnosis and management of arrhythmias, including radiofrequency and cryoablation of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. Her depth of experience includes experience in 3 dimensional mapping and remote navigational mapping with ablation and in the implantation and follow-up of pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators. Her research interests include the long term follow up of children with congenital AV block and the long-term follow-up of patients with pacemakers and defibrillators. Dr. Kertesz is certified in Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatrics.

Rebecca Kidd, MD. Dr. Rebecca Kidd completed her pediatric residency training at UAMS in Little Rock, Arkansas, later serving as chief resident.  She joined the pediatric emergency department at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in 2013, completing her fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.  She now serves as an attending physician in the pediatric emergency department and has a special interest in community and pre-hospital care of critically ill and injured children.  She serves as medical director for Vanderbilt LifeFlight, Nashville Fire Department and the CRPC outreach teams.

Brandon Kozar, Psy.D., M.B.A.
Director – Leadership Coaching & Development
Director – YOU Matter Program
Nationwide Children's Hospital

Dr. Brandon Kozar is a licensed clinical psychologist and currently serves as the Director of Leadership Coaching & Development, and the Director of the YOU Matter staff support program for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. His primary work focuses on developing services to support the emotional wellness of hospital staff, developing hospital leaders, and coaching chiefs of medicine in growing and managing their divisions. Dr. Kozar specializes in leadership coaching, interpersonal and team dynamics, personality assessment, and employee emotional wellness. He is a frequent presenter on topics related to leadership, emotional intelligence, stress management/burnout, resiliency, employee mental health, and interpersonal communication/conflict resolution.

Born and raised in northeast Ohio, Dr. Kozar graduated Magna Cum Laude from John Carroll University with a Bachelor’s of Science in psychology. He concurrently achieved his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and his Masters in Business Administration with a specialty in organizational development and leadership from Wright State University. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and enjoys living an active lifestyle with his wife Allison and their two sons, Connor and Carter.

Dr. William Leever is a pediatric integrated primary care psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a clinical assistant professor at the Ohio State University. His work primarily focuses on brief, evidence-based assessment and treatment of children and adolescents in primary care clinics in Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, Dr. Leever engages in research and training on transdiagnostic treatments for emotional disorder and behavioral disorders in youth. Dr. Leever’s clinical interests also include the application of pediatric digital health interventions in integrated care. 

Education: Psy.D., Doctorate of Psychology, Xavier University

Amy Manning is an assistant professor with the department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Raised in Traverse City, Michigan, she completed her medical education at the Ohio State University and Residency at the University of Cincinnati followed by a fellowship in pediatric otolaryngology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center before joining faculty at NCH in 2020. Her clinical and research interests include general pediatric otolaryngology, pediatric airway, voice and swallowing, and pediatric tracheostomy.

Ian McKay, PhD. Dr. McKay is a licensed Clinical Psychologist working at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr McKay specializes in providing evidence-based care to adolescents on the psychiatric inpatient acute care units. His clinical interests include suicide prevention, substance use disorders, early-onset psychosis, mood and anxiety disorders and motivational interviewing. My research interests include both developing and examining innovative approaches to existing treatment models in substance use recovery and the use of digital health interventions in improving care transitions for suicidal youth.

Michael D. Patrick, Jr, MD, FAAP

Dr Mike Patrick is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and an Attending Physician in Emergency Medicine and Medical Director of Digital Health for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He has hosted and produced PediaCast since 2006. This award-winning podcast for parents has reached millions of listeners across the country and around the world. He also hosts PediaCast CME, which offers Category 1 CME/CE credit for physicians and nurses. He co-authored the textbook, Social Media for Medical Professionals and directs a health care communications and social media elective for medical students and residents. Dr Patrick is a Spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, serves on the Executive Committee of the AAP Council on Communications and Media and is a dissemination expert for PECARN and EIIC. Dr Patrick attended college at Ohio Wesleyan University, received his medical degree from The Ohio State University and completed his pediatric training at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He practiced primary care pediatrics in an underserved area for over a decade before transitioning to pediatric emergency medicine.

Whitney J. Raglin Bignall, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Psychology and Neuropsychology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) and The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is the integrated primary care psychologist for NCH’s Linden Primary Care Center seeing patients between the ages 0-21.  Dr. Raglin Bignall received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from The Ohio State University, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her clinical residency at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a post-graduate National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Dr. Raglin Bignall’s academic and clinical work seeks to develop, empirically validate, and implement behavioral health interventions to narrow mental health disparities in children. Toward this end, her work aims to 1) understand psychosocial and cultural factors that contribute to health and mental health disparities, 2) design interventions that are contextually appropriate for underserved communities, 3) adapt and implement existing evidence-based treatments that are sustainable, 4) bridge the gap between health systems and the communities they serve to make evidenced-based interventions more accessible (e.g., creating community-academic partnerships with children’s hospitals, primary care offices, neighborhood schools, and community organizations), 5) foster and increase capacity of the community partners, and 6) provide mentorship and training to both medical and psychology to equip future clinicians and scientists with the tools needed to address the needs of health disparate populations. 

Amy Romashko, MD. Dr. Romashko completed her medical education at the University Of Wisconsin School Of Medicine and Public Health, and her pediatric residency at the Loyola University Medical Center Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital in Maywood, IL.   She practiced for two years in the Chicago suburbs as a primary care pediatrician for the Loyola University Hospital System before starting her career as a pediatric urgent care physician for Children’s WI in 2006. She has been the Medical/Program Director for the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Urgent Care Department since 2012. She is a trained facilitator for Language of Caring, a curricula designed to improve patient experience, and a certified At Our Best culture facilitator for Children’s WI. She serves on the SPUC Board of Directors, as well as the webinar subsection of the SPUC education committee.

Kerry L. Rosen MD, MBA is a general pediatric cardiologist at the Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Rosen is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.  Dr. Rosen’s undergraduate degree was in pharmacy from the University of Florida, 1985. Dr. Rosen graduated from the University of South Florida college of Medicine in 1990.  Post graduate training includes Pediatric residency from Fitzsimons Army Medical Center (1993), Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship from Texas Children’s Hospital (1995) and Master of Business Administration from Ohio State University (2011).   Dr. Rosen served in the United States Army as a general pediatrician from 1993-1995 and worked at Hershey Medical Center from 1998-2007.   At Nationwide Children’s Hospital Dr. Rosen has held leadership positions as director of outpatient cardiology services and associate administrative medical director leading hospital patient satisfaction teams and developing regional pediatric hospitalist programs.  Dr. Rosen’s clinical interests include outpatient cardiology and cardiology outreach.   Dr. Rosen has recently established a cardiology based complex syncope/POTS service at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

Tyanna Snider, Psy.D. is a psychologist in the Pediatric Psychology Program at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is the team psychologist for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition including the Bariatric Surgery Program; provides consultation/liaison services for the General Medical service; and provides outpatient therapy and evaluation.

Dr. Snider's research focuses on the treatment and psychosocial functioning of children and adolescents who are identified as overweight and obese.

Dr. Deirdre (DeeDee) Stewart completed medical school at the Medical College of Georgia and then completed her pediatric residency at Emory University. After working in a pediatric private practice for several years, she joined Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta as a pediatric urgent care physician. She now serves as Area Practice Director in urgent care. Dr. Stewart also serves as Co-Director of the Pediatric Urgent Care fellowship program at Emory University/Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and works with pediatric residency programs to provide Pediatric Urgent Care electives for residents.

Alan Sue, DPM. Dr Alan Sue currently practices at Palo Alto Medical Foundation Medical Group in Northern California.  He currently is involved in multiple leadership positions including Medical Director of surgical and medical specialties and Associate Director of strategic growth.  He is very involved in the local podiatric community by teaching as an adjunct professor at the California Podiatric School of Medicine and participating in his local podiatric society in Santa Clara County.  On the state level, he currently serves on the Board of Directors for the California Podiatric Medical Association.

Rajan K. Thakkar, MD, is a pediatric surgeon at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Thakkar is the trauma medical director as well as the co-director of the Burn Center. Dr. Thakkar is an associate professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and is a principal investigator at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences Research at the Abagail Wexner Research Institute of Nationwide Children's Hospital. His research focuses on pediatric thermal injury. Dr. Thakkar attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He completed his general surgery residency at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and completed his fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Cristina Tomatis, MD. I was born in Lima, Peru; and have trained in Peru, Spain and US. Discovered passion for infectious diseases and research early in my career and came to US to pursue a Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellowship, and have since stayed, with the goal of developing a physician scientist career. My research interests are viral infections, immune response to vaccines in different hosts, febrile infants, global health.

Matthew C. Washam, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and member of the Section of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Washam serves as the Chief of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Patricia M. Witman, MD, is the Chief of the Section of Dermatology at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She is also an attending dermatologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Witman received her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin where she also completed her dermatology residency. She then completed a fellowship in pediatric dermatology at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Witman is board certified in both dermatology and pediatric dermatology. 

Dr. Witman is currently listed in America's Best Doctors. Her clinical and research interests include hemangiomas, vascular malformations, morphea, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and cutaneous markers of genetic diseases. Dr. Witman is also an active participant in the Hemangioma and Vascular Malformation Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dr. Witman also teaches medical students, dermatology residents and pediatric residents.

Cynthia S. Zimm, MD, MBA, is the Division Chief of Urgent Care Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Zimm attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine, graduating with research honors. She completed her pediatric residency at Jacobi Medical Center, and one year of a clinical pathology residency at Montefiore Medical Center. She has worked as a Pediatric ER attending and in pediatric private practice. Dr Zimm completed her MBA with a concentration in strategic management at Indiana University, Kelly School of Business before moving into Urgent Care. She was the Regional Medical Director of Northern NJ at PM Pediatrics Urgent Care before joining Nationwide Children’s Hospital in August 2022. At PM Pediatrics Dr. Zimm worked on the COVID task force, operations management technology and education initiatives. She believes in the value of the urgent care setting for both medical education and community outreach. Dr. Zimm oversees 7 urgent care centers that provide care to over 140,000 pediatric visits annually.