Biography
As a clinical neonatologist, a health services researcher, and a former early elementary special education teacher, I am uniquely positioned to bridge the medical and educational systems to support lifelong health and wellbeing among children born preterm. In my clinical work, I witness how parent-child separation during the NICU hospitalization affects early parent-child relationships, which are strongly associated with health and educational outcomes. I also see that preterm children have unique behavioral phenotypes which can require specialized parenting and educational supports. As a physician-scientist, my goal is to apply these clinical insights to research that improves the lifelong health and wellbeing of children born preterm.
I examine how tailored supports for children born preterm and their families can improve health and educational outcomes among this population. My work focuses on filling research gaps that can inform intervention development: How can interventions respond to the unique factors such as parent-child separation during the NICU hospitalization that impact early relational health and associated early academic outcomes? What are the best ways to educate parents, developmental specialists, and teachers about the “preterm behavioral phenotype”? What are parent preferences for interventions? How can we leverage existing systems such as Early Intervention and special education services to serve the unique needs of preterm children and their families?
To investigate these questions, I collaborate with multidisciplinary researchers from fields including education, psychology, early intervention, and occupational therapy. My work uses a strengths-based framework that acknowledges multilevel ecological influences on child health, development, and academic achievement. I use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and employ a community-engaged approach to ensure my work centers the voices of families with lived experience.
Previously, I received my undergraduate degree in History and Spanish from Middlebury College. Between college and medical school, I taught early elementary special education on the South Side of Chicago as a Teach for America corps member and earned a Masters in Teaching Special Education. I received my MD from Boston University School of Medicine. I completed my postdoctoral clinical training in Pediatrics in the Urban Health and Advocacy Track of the Boston Combined Residency Program (2017-2020) and in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine in the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program (2020-2023). During the research-focused portion of my clinical training, I completed a fellowship in Pediatric Health Services Research at Boston Medical Center (2021-2023).