ARBORMETRIX - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Quality Improvement Committee
- Member of Committee
Adam Ware, MD is a Pediatric Cardiologist at the University of Utah and Primary Children's Medical Center. Dr. Ware specializes in the care of children and adolescents with congenital heart disease, cholesterol disorders, and other genetic and acquired heart diseases. He is the medical director of the Cardiac Care Unit in Primary Children's Hospital and leads research and quality improvement efforts on that unit. Dr. Ware completed his medical education at the Mayo Clinic and subsequently completed a pediatrics residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Utah and Primary Children's Hospital. Dr. Ware is a native of a rural Utah community and provides service to children throughout the state.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Acute Care Advanced Practice Providers at Texas Children 's Hospital
Amanda Jones currently works as the assistant director of acute care advanced practice providers at Texas Children's Hospital, including working as an inpatient nurse practitioner on the acute care cardiology unit. She started her nursing journey at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she earned her BSN and was involved with research on local housing and the effects on physical and mental health. Amanda's first position as a registered nurse was in North Carolina in the Pediatric ICU before she transitioned to the Pediatric Cardiology ICU. She finished a MSN in Pediatric Primary Care and a post masters in Pediatric Acute Care at Duke University. She then moved to Philadelphia where she worked for over 6 years and completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Drexel University with a capstone focusing on vocal cord paralysis after congenital heart surgery. She recently moved to Texas where she continues to work as a provider in the acute care cardiology inpatient unit, as well as expanding her leadership roles to cover cardiology, renal and pulmonary.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Assistant Director of Acute Care Advanced Practice Providers at Texas Children 's Hospital
Amanda Willis currently works as the assistant director of acute care advanced practice providers at Texas Children's Hospital.
Amy brings over 10 years of experience in data management, analytics, programming, public health, and academic research to the PAC 3 Team
Job Titles:
- Quality Improvement Consultant
Prior to PAC3, she co-led the Cystic Fibrosis Learning Network (CFLN), a network of CF Care Centers focused on improving health outcomes for people with cystic fibrosis.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Committee
- Education & Outreach Committee Co - Chair
Brittney K. Hills, MD went to medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and surgeons and completed her pediatric residency at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Read More Learn more about the Education & Outreach Committee
Cortney has a Master's of Science degree in Health Education from Texas A&M University.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- Program Specialist
- Program Specialist for PAC3 and the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program at Children 's Health Dallas
Craig Schott is the Program Specialist for PAC3 and the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program at Children's Health Dallas. Craig grew up in the Houston area until leaving to study Philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. In recent years his focus has been in higher education, as the Operations Specialist for the Educational Opportunity Program at California State University, San Bernardino, and then in the Office of Academic Programs at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He has also worked as a photographer, a fine art printer, and a 911 operator and emergency dispatcher. He is a fan of disc golf, gaming, and sci-fi & fantasy.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Committee
- Education & Outreach Committee Co - Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Doctor
Dr. Anthony Hlavacek is a doctor who takes care of children with heart problems. Some of these patients are born with abnormally developed hearts, while others develop heart problems later in childhood. He sees patients in outpatient clinics, and is also the medical director of our pediatric cardiology acute care unit in the Children's Hospital of the Medical University of South Carolina. In addition, he performs pediatric echocardiography, cardiac CT, cardiac MRI, and fetal echocardiography.
He is originally from Missouri, but went to college at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He then went to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas for medical school. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Texas Children's Hospital before coming to the Medical University of South Carolina for a fellowship in pediatric cardiology. He has advanced training in cardiac imaging and also completed a Masters in Clinical Research. He is well-respected expert in cardiac imaging and cardiac anatomy, and had been invited to speak at regional, national, and international conferences about these topics. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 10 book chapters, and co-authored a textbook.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Co - Chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Health Equity Advocates ( IDHEA ) Committee
- Member of Committee
Dr. Figueroa is a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Read More
Dr. Mayte Figueroa is a native New Yorker and completed her medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1992.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Founder and Executive Director of Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium
Dr. Michael Gaies is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the University of Michigan. He received his Bachelor of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University in 1997, MD and Master of Public Health from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002, and MS in Health and Healthcare Research from the University of Michigan in 2013. He completed pediatrics residency at Boston Children's Hospital in 2005 and served as Chief Resident in 2005-2006 and was as a clinical fellow in Pediatric Cardiology and cardiac intensive care at the University of Michigan until 2010.
Dr. Gaies is the founder and Executive Director of Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC 4), an international quality improvement collaborative. His current research interests center on defining and understanding variation in clinical outcomes and health-care resource utilization between cardiac surgery centers and identifying the cardiac intensive care structure and process variables that drive observed variation. Dr. Gaies collaborates with researchers who direct regional and national quality improvement collaboratives in pediatric and congenital cardiac care and across other specialties. He also is the co-founder and co-Director of Cardiac Networks United.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr. Samuel Hanke is a pediatric cardiologist and an assistant professor in clinical pediatrics in the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center.
After general pediatrics residency at Michigan State, she completed both her pediatric cardiology and cardiac critical care fellowships at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She was recruited back to Pediatric Cardiology to become the director for general inpatient cardiology. In addition to this responsibility, she participates in echocardiography interpretation and provides outpatient care in the single ventricle clinic. Her clinical research focus is in improving the outcome of patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr. Evonne Morell completed her medical degree at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Jennifer Russell graduated with her MD degree from the University of Ottawa after completing a BSc at the University of Calgary. She completed her pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. Jennifer received her pediatric cardiology fellowship training at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, after which she joined the cardiology staff. She established the current cardiac ward structure when appointed as the Section Head of Inpatient Cardiology, a new role within the division at the time. Jennifer is also the Program Director for the Pediatric Cardiology Training program at Sickkids. Her main research interests are in the area of exercise physiology as she also oversees the exercise laboratory and in topics related to the inpatient ward.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Katherine Bates became interested in pediatric cardiology as a medical student at the University of Michigan and then stayed at Michigan for her pediatrics residency.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Database Committee
- Lead Clinical Data Specialist
- Member of Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Expert
Mary McLellan is an expert pediatric cardiovascular nurse at Boston Children's Hospital's (BCH) Heart Center. Early in her nursing career, she started on the Inpatient Acute Cardiac Care Unit in 1992, quickly advanced into the nursing leadership team and became the Clinical Educator in 2006. Her quality improvement and research focus has primarily been on cardiopulmonary arrest prevention including creator / primary investigator of the Cardiac Children's Hospital Early Warning Score. Mary completed a Master's in Public Health and a Global Health Certificate in 2015. She expanded her position and is the Clinical Inquiry Coordinator to support research, quality improvement, and advanced education for her unit. She is actively involved in several national and international quality improvement collaboratives for pediatric cardiovascular care.
In addition to her nursing career, Mary is a certified massage therapist and was instrumental in creating the country's first inpatient pediatric integrative medicine team at BCH in 1997. The team provides clinical integrative therapy services to BCH patients as well as research opportunities for clinicians. In 2000, the Pediatric Integrative Medical Education Program was established through a 5-year NIH grant to provide education to medical students, faculty, and physicians (include a resident elective) at BCH, Boston Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.
Mary enjoys spending time traveling, hiking, kayaking and relaxing with family & friends at her beach house.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Patient & Family Action Committee
- Member of Committee
Missy Smith is a lifelong Michigander and mom to 4 lovely daughters ages 13-16.
Nicolas L. Madsen, MD, MPH, joined the Heart Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Scientific Review Committee
- Member of Committee
Dr. Tanel attended medical school at the University of Miami.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Patient & Family Action Committee
- Member of Committee
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of the Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity Advocates
- Co - Chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Health Equity Advocates ( IDHEA ) Committee
- Member of Committee
Sarah Plummer, MD is a pediatric cardiologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University, and earned her medical degree from Duke University in 2006. Dr. Plummer then completed her residency in pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh before returning to Duke University to complete her fellowship training in pediatric cardiology as well as advanced cardiac imaging. She completed her training in 2015 and moved back home to Cleveland, Ohio for her position at Rainbow. Dr. Plummer is the Director of Quality for the Rainbow Heart Center, as well as Co-Director of the Single Ventricle Program and Director of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Initiative.
Dr. Plummer's research and clinical interests are thus in quality improvement - particularly in the inpatient setting, the care of the patient with single ventricle heart disease, neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with congenital heart disease, echocardiography, and the diagnosis and management of fetal heart disease. In addition, she believes in the best outcomes for all patients and that all patients deserve to receive equitable care regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation. It is this belief that has fueled her desire to improve health equity for pediatric cardiology patients and their families.
Dr. Plummer is a pediatric cardiologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Shannon Feehan grew up in Menlo Park, California. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at the University of San Francisco in 2010 and her Master of Science in Nursing degree at Chamberlain College of Nursing in 2016. She began her bedside nursing career in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Stanford Children's Hospital. She went on to become the Nurse Educator on the Acute Care Cardiology unit at Stanford, and she is now the Patient Care Manager of that unit. She has also served as adjunct faculty at the University of San Francisco. Her interests and passions at work are education and quality improvement.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Quality Improvement Committee
- Member of Committee
I believe that my role as a physician is to provide the highest level of care for both my patients and their families, recognizing that each family is unique and should feel informed and supported in making decisions regarding their child's health. I serve as Co-Director of Quality and Patient Safety for our Texas Children's Heart Center, and spend my inpatient service time in the Cardiac Acute Care Unit.
Job Titles:
- Member of Committee
- Scientific Review Committee Chair of Analytics
Sonali Patel joined the Heart Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado in August 2013.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of Database Committee
- Member of Committee
Stephen Hart, MD is a pediatric cardiologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.