General Pediatrics Research

Meet Our Fellows

The General Pediatrics Research Fellowship, designed as a three-year training program, has demonstrated unparalleled success in recruiting and training high-quality candidates to be leaders in primary care research and in defining the primary care research agenda. This multidisciplinary fellowship focused in research in pediatric primary care attracts trainees in medicine, nursing, psychology, public health, epidemiology, and related disciplines, with cohorts of six to eight fellows in their first, second, and third years of training. Graduates have exceeded our goals and national benchmarks for publishing in peer-reviewed journals, presenting their research at national meetings, and receiving federal research awards. Graduates have benefited from the rich resources at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the institution’s strong level of commitment to research and training. Faculty and trainees in this multidisciplinary training program, which started in 1998, strive to improve the health of children and adolescents, reduce health disparities, and redesign systems that work better for families and the community.

Current Fellows

Kim Hartley, PhD (3rd Year Fellow) Pre-doctoral Training: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholars Doctoral Training: University of Cincinnati, Nursing Research Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship Projects: Associations between greenness and perceived stress, comparison of subjective and objective measures of greenness, greenness and adolescent mental health, greenness and child respiratory health, gestational PBDE exposure and adolescent social skills Certification: Certified Pediatric Nurse, Nursing Professional Development Research Interests: Public Health, Environmental Health, Adolescent Mental Health, Nature, Greenness, Environmental Justice Projects: Public Health, Environmental Health, Adolescent Mental Health, Nature, Greenness, Environmental Justice Projects: Associations between greenness and perceived stress, comparison of subjective and objective measures of greenness, greenness and adolescent mental health, greenness and child respiratory health, gestational PBDE exposure and adolescent social skills, evaluation of adolescent perceptions of nature and environmental attitudes, understanding how adolescents use nature to relieve stress Contact: 513-517-1330 or kim.hartley@cchmc.org
Margaret Jones, MD (2nd Year Fellow) Medical School: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Residency: Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Chief Residency: Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship Certification: Pediatrics Research Interests: Antiracism, health equity Projects: The Patient Family Experience of Racism in Outpatient Pediatrics; Improving Continuity of Care in Pediatric Primary Care Settings; Civic Engagement in Healthcare Settings; Health Disparities in Pediatric Palliative Care Utilization Among Children with High Intensity Neurologic Impairment; Evaluating Resident Perceptions of What Constitutes an Effective and Actionable Anti-Racism Curriculum Contact: 513-636-4506 or margaret.jones@cchmc.org
Michelle March, MD, MPH, FAAP (2nd Year Fellow) Medical School: Rush Medical College Residency: Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Chief Residency: Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship; Applied Epidemiology Fellowship through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Certification: Pediatrics Research Interests: Improving childhood health through the development and implementation of innovative programs targeting social determinants of health (SDH) and injury prevention Projects:Pending Contact: michelle.march@cchmc.org
Landon Krantz, MD (1st Year Fellow) Medical School: University of Missouri - Columbia Residency: Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship Certification: Pediatrics Research Interests: Adolescent mental health; public health; school-based health and primary care partnership Projects: Pending Contact: landon.krantz@cchmc.org
Michelle Gorecki, MD, MPH (1st Year Fellow) Medical School: Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine Residency: Pediatrics, University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship Certification: Board eligible Pediatrics Research Interests: Environmental factors that influence a child’s ability to live a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, health equity Projects: Pending Contact: 513-803-4705 or michelle.gorecki@cchmc.org
Kelsey Wiggs, PhD (1st Year Fellow) Pre-doctoral Training: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Pre-Doctoral Clinical Psychology Internship Doctoral Training: Indiana University Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship; National Institute of Mental Health T32 Fellowship; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development T32 Fellowship Research Interests: Etiology and treatment of ADHD and related diagnoses Projects: Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) in Teens with ADHD and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT); Examining Daily Stimulant Medication Use and Sleep in Adolescents with ADHD Contact: kelsey.wiggs@cchmc.org
Chelsey Anderson (1st Year Fellow) Pre-doctoral Training: Shirley Ryan Ability Lab Prosthetics Residency; Boston Children’s Hospital Orthotics Residency Doctoral Training: University of Colorado Fellowship: General Pediatrics NRSA T32 Research Fellowship Certification: Prosthetics and Orthotics Research Interests: Improving health outcomes and self-management for people with chronic health conditions, with a special interest in shared decision-making among populations with lower limb amputations, and prosthetic and orthotic rehabilitation needs Projects: Pending Contact: chelsey.anderson@cchmc.org

Recent Fellowship Graduates

Kara Duraccio, PhD (Graduated 2021)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Understanding the risk factors for insufficient sleep in youth; determining the impact of shortened sleep on dietary outcomes in adolescents; understanding how various factors (e.g., mental health, obesity status, race, income) impacts insomnia improvement in youth following Behavioral Sleep Medicine Intervention; highlighting the dynamic relationship between sleep and cardiometabolic health in youth over time

Keith Martin, DO (Graduated 2021)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Barriers and Facilitators to Prevention and Care of COVID-19 infections in Cincinnati Latinx Families, Association between unscheduled pediatric primary care visits and risk of developmental delay, Shared reading and social-emotional problems, Shared reading and social-emotional problems

Brandon Terrizzi, PhD (Graduated 2021)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: The effects of early exposure to environmental toxins on children’s later cognitive functioning, Characterizing the longitudinal variability of young children’s performance on a standardized motor assessment between infancy and early childhood, Understanding providers’ perspectives about decision making in the care of transgender youth.

Clare Crosh, DO (Graduated 2022)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Relational not clinical: reframing dialogic reading; Parental beliefs and motivations towards early shared reading in the first 6-months of life; Literacy heatmap

Marie Pfarr, MD (Graduated 2022)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Identify Factors associated with High Telehealth Use in Children with Medical Complexity, Evaluation of Home Telehealth Technology in Children with Medical Complexity, Improving Hospital to Home Transitions with Children with Medical Complexity- CMC Transition Task Force, Healthcare provider contact prior to critical illness in children with medical complexity

Jessica M. Aguilar, PhD, CCC-SLP (Graduated 2020)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: I-InTERACT Secondary Outcomes; OHIO Discourse; Survey of speech-language pathologists’ experience with EF interventions for adolescents with TBI and interest in learning about and using an evidence-based intervention (TOPS) in clinical practice

Ashley Jenkins, MD (Graduated 2020)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Inpatient Healthcare Transition for Adolescent and Adult Patients with Chronic Conditions of Childhood; Spina Bifida Action Research (SBAR): Using Concept Mapping to Assess the Health Needs of Individuals with Spina Bifida Transitioning to Adulthood; Interdisciplinary Communication Project: Using Group Level Assessment to Guide Healthcare System Improvement

Jean Chia, MD (Graduated 2019)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Understanding Patient/Family-Stated Goals Elicited during Care Planning for Children with Medical Complexity; Retrospective cohort analysis on goal-directed care planning for children with medical complexity

Whitney J. Raglin Bignall, PhD (Graduated 2019)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Promoting emotional and behavior health in primary pediatrics; Trust in Primary Care; Investigating the psychometric properties of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire

Erik R. Hoefgen, MD (Graduated 2018)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: The economic impact of missed wages on non-healthcare related expenses incurred by families of hospitalized children; Non-complex chronic health care super-utilizers

Allison Parsons, PhD (Graduated 2018)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: PEAS – Sleep and Physical Activity; Diversity and Health Disparities Grant: Eliminating health disparities block by block; Living within systems of discrimination: Tools to communicate within and between groups; Identifying existing equity gaps in assets and barriers that influence child wellbeing through community engagement; Living within systems of discrimination: Tools to communicate within and between groups

Amrik Singh Khalsa, MD (Graduated 2018)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Attainment of ‘5-2-1-0’ Obesity Recommendations in Preschool-Aged Children; Exploring the relationship between caregiver intuitive eating behaviors, infant feeding styles, and infant growth trajectories; Psychometric Properties of the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 in a low-income urban population; Maternal Body Dissatisfaction and Perceptions of Infant Weight

Catherine S. Forster, MD, MSc (Graduated 2017)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: NGAL in recurrent UTI; Predictive ability of NGAL in distinguishing colonization and infection in CIC patients; Consensus criteria to distinguish UTI from colonization in kids on CIC; Antibiotic resistance in CIC patients

Megan E. Narad, PhD (Graduated 2017)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Driving after pediatric TBI; 3 RCTs for interventions for children and families following pediatric TBI

John S. Hutton, MD, MS (Graduated 2016)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Neurobiological Effects of Home Reading Environment, Screen Time and Animated Format in Preschool Children Processing Stories; Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children Listening to Stories; Correlation Between Home Reading Environment Domains and Neural Activation During Story Listening in Preschool Children Informing an Expanded Emergent Literacy Model; Story Time Turbocharger? Increased Cerebellar Activation in More Highly Engaged
Preschool-Age Children During Story Listening

Stephanie Donauer, PhD, MS (Graduated 2016)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Prenatal Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Infant Neurobehavior; Prenatal Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals and Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Early Infancy

Stephen P. Becker, PhD (Graduated 2015)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Integrating Child-Report of Internalizing Symptoms into ADHD Portal; Phenotypic Correlates Distinguishing Sluggish Cognitive Tempo from ADHD

Annie A. Garner, PhD (Graduated 2015)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Patterns of Visual Attention in Teen Drivers with ADHD; Decision Making Regarding Driving and Licensure in Teens with ADHD

Roohi Y. Kharofa, MD, MPH (Graduated 2015)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: WIC Study; School BMI Policies in order to create a BMI policy for the Milwaukee Public School Systems; Modifiable factors of clinic attendance for children seen in primary care for a well-child check

Joanna E. Thomson, MD, MPH (Graduated 2015)
Selected Research Projects During Fellowship: Prospective cohort of children with medical complexity; Pneumonia in children with neurologic impairment; Hospital Medicine complex care service

Fellowship Graduates within Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Sarah J. Beal, PhD (Graduated 2014)
Andrew F. Beck, MD, MPH (Graduated 2012)
Stephen P. Becker, PhD (Graduated 2015)
Patrick W. Brady, MD, MSc (Graduated 2011)
William B. Brinkman, MD, MEd, MSc (Graduated 2006)
Kristen A. Copeland, MD (Graduated 2008)
Tanya E. Froehlich, MD, MS, FAAP (Graduated 2007)
Sheela Rath Geraghty, MD, MS, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM (Graduated 2003)
John S. Hutton, MD, MS (Graduated 2016)
Roohi Y. Kharofa, MD, MPH (Graduated 2015)
Tanya L. Kowalczyk Mullins, MD, MS (Graduated 2010)
Mona E. Mansour, MD, MS (Graduated 1999)
Megan E. Narad, PhD (Graduated 2017)
Allison Parsons, PhD (Graduated 2018)
Jeffrey M. Simmons, MD, MSc (Graduated 2009)
Joanna E. Thomson, MD, MPH (Graduated 2015)
Kim Yolton, PhD (Graduated 2003)

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