Low Birth Weight Babies and Disability (2024)
Chapter: Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Appendix C
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Walter R. Frontera, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP (Chair), is a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and professor of physiology at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. He formerly served as the inaugural chair and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and as dean of medicine at the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Frontera’s main research interest is study of the mechanisms underlying muscle atrophy and weakness in the elderly and the development of rehabilitative interventions for sarcopenia. He is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the immediate past president of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and a Ph.D. in applied anatomy and physiology from Boston University. Dr. Frontera is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served on numerous National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including the Standing Committee of Medical and Vocational Experts for the Social Security Administration’s Disability Programs, Committee on the Use of Selected Assistive Products and Technologies in Eliminating or Reducing the Effects of Impairments, the Committee on Selected Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue and Disability, and the Report Review Committee. He was chair of the Program Committee for a workshop on Long-Term Health Effects Stemming from COVID-19 and Implications for the Social Security Administration.
Bree Andrews, M.D., M.P.H., is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine. She is an academic neonatologist and specializes in the post-discharge care of infants as the medical director of The Center for Healthy Families, the NICU follow-up clinic. In her research, Dr. Andrews examines the costs and outcomes of infants born 22–25 weeks premature, the impact of the microbiome on infant neurodevelopment (NIH funding associated) and the use of mobile technology to improve parenting engagement in the NICU. She is the vice chair of the Perinatal Advisory Committee of the Illinois Department of Public Health, which has recently been revising the maternal and perinatal code to improve safety and quality in Illinois. She is a nominated and elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research. She is a co-developer of PreeMe+You, an application designed to improve education and engagement for parents of premature infants. Dr. Andrews graduated from the University of Illinois in medicine and public health in 2001 and finished her pediatrics residency in 2004 as well as her neonatal perinatal fellowship in 2007 at the University of Chicago. Dr. Andrews was also recently named the inaugural chief wellness and vitality officer for the Biological Sciences Division and UChicago Medicine.
Jennifer Casteix, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a clinical professor in speech, language, and hearing sciences at the University of Arizona, and a faculty member of the Arizona Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ArizonaLEND). Ms. Casteix has more than 30 years of experience working in NICU, PICU, and pediatric acute care and outpatient settings. She has been a member of interprofessional developmental long-term care and pediatric tracheostomy steering committees and led a NICU feeding task force. She has presented nationally and internationally on how speech language pathologists can best support infants in the NICU, and feeding and swallowing disorders in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. She currently provides instruction and mentoring to graduate students in the department’s on-campus clinic, mentors ArizonaLEND trainees, and teaches courses on pediatric feeding disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Ms. Casteix is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Society for Ear Nose and Throat Advancement in Children, and a member and past president of the Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association, where she also served as the government affairs chair. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her M.S. degree at the University of Arizona.
Aaron B. Caughey, M.D., MPP, M.P.H., Ph.D., is professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology and associate dean for women’s health research and policy at Oregon Health & Science University. His residency training was at the combined Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts
General Hospital program in OB-GYN and his fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine was at the University of California San Francisco. In Oregon, he founded and chairs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–funded Oregon Perinatal Collaborative to improve outcomes for women and babies through deliberate guidelines and policies working with all of the health systems in Oregon. Nationally, he has served on the United States Preventive Services Task Force and serves on the ACOG Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines—Obstetrics. His research focuses on utilizing epidemiologic, biostatistical, decision analytic methods, and clinical trials to examine clinical questions related to complications of term and preterm pregnancies, management of labor and delivery, gestational diabetes, and prenatal diagnosis. He is currently funded to do research on prenatal genetic testing, management of the second stage of labor, diet and gestational diabetes, and the impact of guidelines and insurance coverage on obstetric care and outcomes.
José F. Cordero, M.D., M.P.H., is the Patel Distinguished Professor of Public Health and head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. He served for 27 years in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and as former dean of the University of Puerto Rico School of Public Health. His research focuses on environmental factors associated with pregnancy outcomes. As co-director of the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT), a Superfund Research Center, he studies the role of persistent organic pollutants on preterm births and low-birth weight babies. He is the recipient of many awards including the 2021 Children’s Environmental Health Network, Child Health Advocate, Science Award, the Arnold Capute Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics for notable contributions to the field of children with disabilities, and the 2017 Sedgwick Memorial Medal bestowed by the American Public Health Association for outstanding accomplishments in the field of public health. He received his M.D. from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health.
Wendy J. Coster, Ph.D., M.S., is professor emeritus in occupational therapy at Boston University. She retired in September 2021, having joined the faculty in 1986 and later serving as department chair for 23 years. Dr. Coster’s primary area of clinical expertise is children with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive developmental disorders, especially autism. Much of her research career focused on developing functional outcome measures that would better represent the real-world outcomes of children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities, including the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), the School Function Assessment (SFA), the Participation
and Environment Measures for Children and Youth (PEM-CY), and portions of the Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care (AM-PAC). All of these are now in broad use nationally and internationally in both practice and research. She has received several research and service awards from the AOTA and American Occupational Therapy Foundation, notably the Slagle Lectureship. Dr. Coster initially trained as an occupational therapist and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard, where she studied individual differences in children related to temperament and family dysfunction. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Standing Committee of Medical and Vocational Experts for the Social Security Administration’s Disability Programs and previously served on the Committee on Improving Health Outcomes for Children with Disabilities.
Sherin U. Devaskar, M.D., is distinguished professor of pediatrics and Mattel executive endowed chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; physician-in-chief, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital; assistant vice chancellor of children’s health, UCLA Health; and executive director of the UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute. Dr. Devaskar is a highly accomplished pediatrician/neonatologist, researcher, and educator. Her research focuses on elucidating mechanisms and processes responsible for placenta-fetal/neonatal origins of chronic disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and neuropsychiatric conditions. She is president of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations. She served as chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pregnancy and Neonatology Study Section, chair of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-Maternal and Child Health Committee, and member of the NIH-Human and Embryology Study Section. She was president of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs and a member of the Pediatric Policy Council, president of the American Pediatric Society (APS) and served on the International Pediatric Research Foundation Board. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and is currently on the NAM Nominating Committee. She received the 2021 APS Howland Award. Dr. Devaskar emphasizes academic development and focuses on supporting and mentoring fellows and junior faculty interested in becoming physician-scientists or clinician-researchers.
Andrea F. Duncan, M.D., MSClinRes, is associate professor, distinguished endowed chair, and associate chair of diversity and equity in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she is also the medical director of the Neonatal Follow-Up Program. Dr. Duncan is the principal investigator (PI) for Neurodevelopmental Follow-Up for the CHOP site of the NICHD Neonatal Research Network and the PI for the
CHOP site of the Cerebral Palsy (CP) Foundation Early Detection of CP Network. Her main research interest is in long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of NICU graduates. This has included funded research investigating cognitive, motor, language, executive functioning, and behavioral outcomes in preterm children, both in early life and school age and investigations of correlates of neonatal neuroimaging and parenting style on outcomes. She has also studied the effects of implementation of the international guidelines for early assessment for CP on diagnoses and outcomes in high-risk infants and was invited to co-author the recent “high-risk for cerebral palsy” designation clinical consensus statement. She was elected to the Society for Pediatric Research Council and serves on the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine sub-board of the American Board of Pediatrics. Dr. Duncan also is a member of the CP Foundation Board of Directors. She completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine with a special focus in neurodevelopment at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Deborah Gaebler-Spira, M.D., FAAP, FAAPMR, is professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and pediatrics at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Feinberg Northwestern School of Medicine; and Lurie Children’s Hospital. Currently she attends in the NICU follow-up clinic for high-risk infants. Dr. Gaebler-Spira has been involved as a leader in early diagnosis of cerebral palsy and providing life-long care to those with cerebral palsy. She was the director of the Cerebral Palsy Program at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and previously split academic activities between clinical research advocacy and education at Feinberg Northwestern School of Medicine. She is the medical chair of the Scientific Advisory Council for Cerebral Palsy Foundation and a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, Past President of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy, former chair of the Pediatric Special Interest Group for the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR) and served as the AAPMR liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics national Council on Children with Disabilities (COCWD). Locally, Dr. Gaebler-Spira served on the Pathways Awareness Foundation and served as the chair of the Illinois chapter of COCWD. Her research has focused on children with cerebral palsy and outcomes throughout the lifespan. She received the lifetime achievement award at the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine, as well as the Gabriella Molnar Award from the AAPMR. Trained in both pediatrics at the University of Chicago and then physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, she was on the original task force to develop the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship through the AAPMR and American Board of Medical Specialties.
Michelle M. Greene, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and associate professor with an adjunct affiliation at Rush University Medical Center. She also is currently the behavioral health innovation lead for Amazon. Her research and clinical practice has focused on neurodevelopmental functioning and behavior in children born prematurely and their families. She served as a multiple principal investigator on an NICHD R01 grant investigating the impact of a digitally-delivered parenting program on preventing behavioral problems in young children born prematurely. Dr. Greene is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research. She earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and her B.S. and M.B.A. from Northwestern University. She completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL.
Jennifer I. Koop, Ph.D., is a pediatric clinical neuropsychologist and medical director of neuropsychology for Children’s Wisconsin (CW). She has academic appointments at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) as professor of neurology (neuropsychology) and neurosurgery. As a pediatric neuropsychologist, Dr. Koop has the specialized training and expertise to explore brain-behavior relationships and the impact that various neurological insults or diseases, such as prematurity and low birth weight, have on the developmental trajectory of specific cognitive functions. She provides developmental evaluations for the Neonatal Intensive Care Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Clinic at CW and has clinical expertise in evaluation of cognitive functioning and development in preschool aged children. Clinical research activities have focused on developmental and cognitive outcomes in various clinical populations including epilepsy, brain tumors, and spina bifida. Dr. Koop is board certified in clinical neuropsychology and pediatric neuropsychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology. She currently is the chair of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology Subspecialty in Pediatric Clinical Neuropsychology. She has served on two prior National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees sponsored by the Social Security Administration. Dr. Koop completed her Ph.D. in clinical rehabilitation psychology (focus on neuropsychology) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, an internship at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital, and a postdoctoral fellowship at MCW.
Dennis Z. Kuo, M.D., MHS, is professor of pediatrics and chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center/Golisano Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kuo has longstanding interests in the growth, development, and life course of children with disabilities and medical complexity, particularly graduates of the neonatal intensive care unit. His academic work has focused on care systems, family-centered care, early childhood, and care coordination supporting the medical home. His
clinical care experience includes primary care, newborn hospital medicine, developmental disabilities, and neonatal follow-up. Dr. Kuo is the immediate past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children with Disabilities. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his pediatrics residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, followed by a fellowship in general academic pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a master of health science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Paul H. Lipkin, M.D., is professor of pediatrics at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, as well as KKI’s director of medical outpatient services. Dr. Lipkin’s clinical and research careers have focused on the early identification, evaluation, and treatment of children and adolescents with developmental disabilities, including autism, learning, and attention disorders. He has focused his academic work on surveillance and screening for developmental and behavior problems, including autism, for nearly two decades through the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and is co-author on the 2020 AAP Clinical Report providing guidance on this practice. He also directed the Interactive Autism Network, a family-centered online research registry for autism from 2013 to 2019. Dr. Lipkin’s academic and research focuses are currently on suicide and safety in children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders as well as the implementation of developmental and autism surveillance and screening in health care settings. Dr. Lipkin has been honored as the recipient of the AAP’s Arnold J. Capute Award in 2011 for his efforts on behalf of children with disabilities, and as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in 2010–2011, working in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He completed his undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Rutgers College/Rutgers University, followed by his Doctor of Medicine at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School. He subsequently trained in pediatrics at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and developmental pediatrics at KKI and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Lipkin currently specializes in neurodevelopmental disabilities and developmental and behavioral pediatrics at KKI, where he has been since 1995.
Heather Miller Monihan, P.T., DPT, PCS, is the pediatric rehabilitation therapy manager at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. She is a board certified pediatric clinical specialist in pediatric physical therapy and her clinical interests include rehabilitation of medically complex infants in the critical care environment. Dr. Miller is a graduate of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Columbia University in the City of New York. In 2021, she contributed to a poster presentation titled Effects of Positioning Interventions Performed by Healthcare Providers on Pain in Preterm Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) presented at the APTA National Conference.
Lucie Schmidt, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College. Previously she spent 19 years on the faculty of Williams College, where she most recently served as the John J. Gibson Professor of Economics. She is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an editor of the Review of the Economics of the Household, and a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Dr. Schmidt is an empirical microeconomist working in the fields of labor and health economics and the economics of the family. She has worked extensively on social safety net programs in the United States with a particular focus on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which provides income support for individuals with disabilities. Dr. Schmidt’s work on SSI has been published in the Journal of Human Resources, the Journal of Public Economics, the American Journal of Health Economics, and the Social Security Bulletin, among others. She is involved in a collaborative work using SSA administrative data for low birth weight infants to examine participation and outcomes by individual and county-level characteristics. She has an A.B. in government from Smith College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.
