BBCH Scholars Academy Leadership Team - MITE MMC Institute for Teaching Excellence

Founder and Advisor

Mary Ottolini, MD, MPH, MEd

Mary Ottolini, MD, MPH, MEd is the George W. Hallett MD Chair of Pediatrics at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, a Tufts University Professor of Pediatrics, and the founder and advisor of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy. In her role as the Chair of Pediatrics she oversees the academic and clinical work of pediatric faculty at the BBCH and the MaineHealth Children’s Health Service Line.

Prior to joining Maine Medical Center, Dr. Ottolini was most recently the Vice Chair of Education at Children’s National Hospital where she supervised over 1000 trainees annually in developing expertise in pediatrics across the spectrum of learners from medical students to sub-specialty fellows and faculty. While in the Washington DC area, she also led a practice-based research network comprised of primary care pediatricians in the area.

Through her scholarship, Dr. Ottolini is a nationally recognized expert in medical education with particular expertise in eLearning. During her 30 year career as a medical educator she has presented numerous workshops and original research in medical education at national meetings. She has published book chapters, review articles, and original educational research in peer-reviewed journals. She has served as the Education Chair for the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and as the APA President. Dr. Ottolini was awarded the prestigious Pediatric Academic Society’s (PAS) Ray Helfer award three times for the most outstanding educational research study presented at the annual PAS meeting as well as the APA’s Teaching Program Award four times for educational programs she helped develop and implement. Dr. Ottolini was awarded the Parker Palmer Courage to Lead Award by the ACGME in 2016 for outstanding Graduate Medical Education leadership as the Designated Institutional Official at Children’s National Hospital and Lifetime Achievement Award for Medical Student Education Leadership from the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics in 2017. In 2019 she was awarded the Pediatric Hospital Medicine LifeTime Achievement Award. In 2020 she was named an inaugural member of the National Academy of Distinguished Educators in Pediatrics and a MITE Academy Master Educator.

In addition to earning a Medical Degree and Master’s Degree in Public Health, she completed a Master’s Degree in Medical Education from the George Washington University Graduate School of Education.

Scholarship areas of interest: the use of technology to innovate the learning process – including eLearning and simulation with augmented reality

Directors

Alexa Craig, MD, MSc, MS

Alexa Craig, MD, MSc, MS is a Neonatal and Pediatric Neurologist at Maine Medical Center and Maine Medical Partners, a clinical researcher, and the Director of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy. A New England native, she attended the University of Vermont College of Medicine for her medical degree followed by two years of pediatric residency at Maine Medical Center and a residency in Child Neurology at Washington University and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Craig did an additional year of fellowship in Neonatal Neurology at the University of Washington and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In 2012, Dr. Craig returned home to Maine Medical Center to start her Neonatal Neurology Program and academic career. Following her return to MMC, she was the recipient of a KL2 career development award through the Tufts University College of Medicine and obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Craig’s clinical interest are in the areas of Neonatal Neurocritical Care, specifically neuroprotective treatments such as therapeutic hypothermia and employing telemedicine to eliminate outcome disparities for rural-born newborns. In the outpatient setting, Dr. Craig started the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Cerebral Palsy Program and is working to improve neurodevelopmental follow up for neonates cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Neuroprotective treatments including therapeutic hypothermia, the use of telemedicine to eliminate outcome disparities for rural-born newborns

Jillian Gregory, DO

Jillian Gregory, DO, CPPS is a Pediatric Intensivist at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center and holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. At BBCH, Dr. Gregory is the Director of Patient Safety, leading numerous quality improvement initiatives and is Vice Chair of the MaineHealth Medical Group Board’s Quality Committee. Dr. Gregory is an Academy Scholar of the Maine Medical Center Institute for Teaching Excellence, completed the Academic Pediatric Association QI Scholars Program, and is currently completing a Masters Degree in Healthcare Quality and Safety at Harvard University. She is a Certified Professional of Patient Safety through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. In her spare time, she enjoys competing in triathlon and spending time with her husband and dogs. She received her medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at Maine Medical Center, where she was also a Co-Chief resident. She completed a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Quality improvement and patient safety with a concentration on the transportation of critically ill children and early warning systems

Laura Faherty, MD, MPH, MSHP

Laura Faherty, MD, MPH, MSHP is the Associate Director of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy and an attending physician in the MMP Pediatric Clinic at Maine Medical Center. Outside of her work at Maine Medical Center, Dr. Faherty is a physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Dr. Faherty’s clinical interests include caring for families affected by substance use and families who have come to Maine from all over the world. She enjoys thinking about systemic solutions to challenges her patients are facing that affect their health and wellbeing. Her research focuses on maternal-child health and public health emergency preparedness and response, both in U.S. and non-U.S. settings. Dr. Faherty attended Emory University for both her MD and MPH in global epidemiology. She then completed her residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She also received her MS in health policy research from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Faherty lives in the Portland area with her husband and two daughters.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: maternal-child health, pandemic preparedness and response

Leah Mallory, MD

Leah Mallory, MD is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine in 2003, and a graduate of Stanford University in 1997. Prior to beginning medical school, Dr. Mallory worked as an Emergency Medical Technician and Firefighter. Dr. Mallory completed her residency in Pediatrics, in the Boston Combined Residency Program (a collaborative program between Children’s Hospital Boston/ Harvard University and Boston Medical Center/ Boston University), staying an extra year to serve as Chief Resident. Dr. Mallory is currently a Pediatric Hospitalist at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. She is a member of the TUSM Maine/Track admissions committee and director of the pediatric simulation program. Dr. Mallory’s teaching responsibilities encompass both undergraduate and graduate medical education as well as pediatric simulation-based interprofessional team training in the hospital setting. Other academic interests include simulation-based assessment of trainees and quality improvement issues in pediatric hospitalist medicine, specifically hospital-to-home transitions. Dr. Mallory’s interests outside of the hospital include surfing, triathlon training, and ocean kayaking, as well as enjoying a busy family life.

Special Interest Group Leadership Area: Simulation Research

Research Staff

Anya Cutler, MS, MPH

Anya Cutler, MS, MPH is a Research Analyst III at MaineHealth Institute for Research Center for Interdisciplinary and Population Health Research (CIPHR). She holds an MS in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Vermont and an MPH in Global Epidemiology with a certificate in Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology from Emory University.

Prior to starting at CIPHR, Anya’s varied interests carried her through research in allergy & immunology, soil science, environmental health, reproductive health, and bee biology labs. She spent several years as a bench scientist and transitioned to statistics and data science upon completing her MPH. She joined CIPHR in 2020 as a data scientist, working with clinicians across the MaineHealth system in study design, data analysis, and data communication. She loves the variety in patient-centered research topics and the statistical and data visualization challenges she works on with Barbara Bush Scholars Academy members. She is also a lover of DAGs and R programming.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Social determinants of health, causal inference modeling, rural/urban health disparities, colorful data visualization.

Leah Marie Seften, BS

Leah Marie Seften, BS is a Children’s Health Research Navigator at Maine Medical Center. In her role she supports various scholarship projects for members of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy. Additionally, she supports Dr. Alexa Craig’s Acute Care Research & Rural Disparities COBRE project on telemedicine for assessment of neonatal encephalopathy and Drs. Melendi and Zanno on their Acute Care COBRE Pilot Project. Prior to joining the Department of Pediatrics at Maine Medical Center, Leah Marie worked for the MaineHealth Institute for Research Clinical Trials Office supporting studies related to neurology and Covid-19.

Leah Marie received her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Saint Michael’s College where she was awarded a national fellowship for positive engagement, “Dialoguing Across Differences”. Leah subsequently worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Neurosurgery and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Department of Neuro-oncology as a Clinical Research Coordinator coordinating clinical trials for the neuro-oncology, stroke, and spine divisions.

Outside of work, Leah volunteers as a Bereavement Facilitator for the Center for Grieving Children and loves to run, bike, and paddleboard with her dog.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Clinical trials, oncolytic viruses, neuroplasticity, and grief

Tara Palnitkar, MS

Tara Palnitkar, MS is a Research Coordinator with the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. In her role she supports various scholarship and research projects for Scholars Academy members.

Tara received her BA in Mathematics from Bowdoin College, followed by her MS in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota. After completing her studies, she worked at the University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. There, she was a part of a clinical research team focused on the implementation of ultra-high field (7 Tesla) MRI in the context of Parkinson’s disease, movement disorders, and DBS Surgery.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Data analysis, medical imaging, study design, and research compliance

Steering Committee

Aaron Weiss, DO

Aaron Weiss, DO is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist the Maine Children’s Cancer Program at Maine Medical Center and a member of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy steering committee.

Dr. Weiss graduated from the University of Rochester in 1994 and subsequently earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1999. He completed a pediatric emphasis internship at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine/Albert Einstein Medical Center in 2000 followed by a pediatric residency at the AI duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE in 2003. He then went on to complete a pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN in 2006. He subsequently spent six years as an attending pediatric hematologist-oncologist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey/University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

Dr. Weiss has particular interest in sarcomas, particularly improving outcomes for patients with these disease types. He has co-authored a number of publications on this subject and is currently involved in conducting clinical trials both locally and nationally in the fields of desmoid tumor and soft tissue sarcoma. He is the Vice-Chair of the Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee and Associate Vice-Chair of the Adolescent and Young Adult Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: desmoid tumor and soft tissue sarcoma, clinical trials

Colby Wyatt, MD, PhD

Colby A. Wyatt, MD, PhD, is chief of the division of pediatric pulmonary medicine and medical director of pediatric specialty care at the MaineHealth Medical Group. Dr. Wyatt’s experiences growing up in Burnham, Maine greatly influenced his interest in serving the children of rural Maine affected by poverty and difficulty accessing health care. He attended Colby College, then worked in labs studying Hepatitis C virus and HIV for two years before returning to graduate school completing his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry at Dartmouth College. After 1 year of post-doctoral study, he finished his medical degree at what is now known as the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Wyatt then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for pediatric internship, residency, and pulmonary fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2013, Dr. Wyatt returned to his home state of Maine with goals of improving pediatric respiratory health across the state and access to specialty clinical care for Maine’s rural children. In addition to his academic and clinical appointments, at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, Dr. Wyatt is a member of the cystic fibrosis therapeutic development network research team, a member of the MaineHealth clinical advisory committee, serves on the board of directors for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, and served on the medical advisory board for the Gorham School District, and the board of health for Gorham, Maine.

Stephen DiGiovanni, MD

Stephen DiGiovanni, MD graduated from Jefferson Medical College @ Thomas Jefferson University in 1996. He completed his pediatric residency and a pediatric chief year at Maine Medical Center from 1997 to 2001. Dr. DiGiovanni then provided primary pediatric care at Bayview Pediatrics in Yarmouth Maine for 9 years. In 2011, Dr. DiGiovanni returned to Maine Medical Center to teach and provide care at the MMC Pediatric Clinic Residency Clinic.

Since 2013, Dr. DiGiovanni has been the Medical Director for the Maine Medical Center Outpatient Clinics. The Clinics serve a diverse population while providing an excellent platform for primary care medical education for residents and medical students. Dr. DiGiovanni is also the Medical Director for the MaineHealth Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Program. The objectives of the program are to prevent, identify and treat Adverse Childhood Experiences/Trauma. The MaineHealth ACES Program utilizes a trauma informed model built upon standardized workflows, mental health integration, community collaboration and data utilization to support implementation at the practice level.

Project Name: Screening and Responding to Adversity/Trauma at Pediatric Primary Care Offices

Thomas Miller, DO

Thomas Miller, DO is a pediatric cardiologist at Maine Medical Center and the Division Director of Pediatric Cardiology. He received his medical degree from the University of New England, completed his residency in Pediatrics at Maine Medical Center, and completed his fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Utah. He underwent an additional year of subspecialty training in Advanced Imaging, focusing on fetal cardiology as well as research. He previously developed and directed the Heart Center Neurodevelopmental Program at the University of Utah and Primary Children’s Hospital. Dr. Miller continues to be Adjunct Faculty at the University of Utah, collaborating on research initiatives regarding cardiac neurodevelopment and neonatal neurobehavior. He has been a co-investigator in NHLBI-sponsored Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium (PCGC) and Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) research activity. He is active in the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative (CNOC) serving on both the Research Committee and Steering Committee. Dr. Miller’s clinical interests include fetal cardiology, echocardiography and general pediatric cardiology.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: cardiac neurodevelopment, the application of concepts of developmental programming to explain and provide novel mechanisms to treat the heterogeneity in outcomes that affects much of pediatric cardiovascular care

Project Name: Development and Implementation of a Neurodevelopmental Screening Program for Congenital Heart Disease Utilizing Telehealth and In-Person Evaluations

Special Interest Group Leadership Area: Children’s Health Service Line Regional Access and Equity in Utilization