First-year Fellows

Katie Ballantyne

Katie Ballantyne, MD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Ballantyne joins us from her residency with the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She completed her undergraduate studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University and her medical degree at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. During her residency, she conducted research on current antimicrobial practices/antimicrobial stewardship in NICUs across the country. She hopes to continue studying infectious diseases in the NICU through Fellowship.

Lauren Claus

Lauren Claus, MD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Claus completed her residency through the Massachusetts General Hospital Pediatric Residency Program. Prior to residency, she completed her undergraduate degree in English at Harvard University and her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During residency, she explored outcomes of infants born to parents who receive magnesium for the treatment of non-severe preeclampsia while also looking at the NICU experience for families who have limited English proficiency. She is hopes to continue investigating the influence of materials and sociodemographic factors on neonatal outcomes during Fellowship.

Allison Fialkowski

Allison Fialkowski, MD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Fialkowski joins us from the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She completed her undergraduate studies in nursing at Emory University, an honors program in nutritional science through the University of Georgia, and her medical degree at Harvard Medical School. During residency, she studied refeeding-like syndrome in very-low birth weight infants. She hopes to continue focusing on neurodevelopmental outcomes of perinatal care during Fellowship.

Hayley Martin

Hayley Martin, MD, PhD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Martin comes to us from a residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She completed her undergraduate degree in biology and anthropology at the State University of New York College at Geneseo, and her MD/PhD at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. During residency, she primarily looked at the risk factors for postpartum depression in relation to NICU exposure, developing particular skills in informatics. She also comes with expertise in breastfeeding and maternal mental health from her doctoral training in epidemiology. During Fellowship, she hopes to continue exploring the impact of maternal mental health on breastfeeding outcomes.

Sitarah Mathias

Sitarah Mathias, MD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Mathias completed her residency through the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She obtained her medical degree from St. John's Medical College. During residency, she scoped evidence for different antibiotic regimens in infant infections. She also collaborated with Cloudphysician Pvt. Ltd., a tele-ICU company, as well as the Boston Children's NICU on projects related to understanding factors that contribute to neonatal acute kidney injury, to identify strategies to be used in low-resource settings. She hopes to continue with her research around advancing neonatal care in low resource limited settings, particularly around neonatal AKI, during Fellowship.

Tatyana Olivari

Tatyana Olivari, MD

Neonatal Class of 2028

Dr. Olivari completed her residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She obtained her undergraduate degree in biology from Wellesley College and her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. During residency, her research has focused on studying discrimination as a social determinant of periconceptional diets. During Fellowship, she hopes to continue her research on prenatal care and interventions that address dietary risks and disparities.

Jennifer Lee

Jennifer Lee, MD

Neonatal Class of 2029

Dr. Lee comes to us from the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She completed her undergraduate degree in computer science, biology, and music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as graduate degree in computer science. She obtained her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. During residency, she worked on a computational genetics project to better understand disease-relevant outcomes and patient genomes. She is looking forward to applying her expertise in computer science in the clinical setting throughout Fellowship.

Second-year Fellows

Rawan Al-Rawi

Rawan Al-Rawi, MBBS

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Al-Rawi is joining us from the pediatric residency program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She completed her medical degree at Jordan University of Science and Technology. During residency, she completed a clinical research project evaluating Non-Invasive Neurally-Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA) treatment of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and ongoing respiratory failure. She presented her research as first author at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting. She was also involved in research on cardiovascular physiology of neonates and was listed as middle author on two additional abstracts presented at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting. She hopes to research neonatal cardiopulmonary diseases during fellowship.

Dana Apkon

Dana Apkon, MD

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Apkon completed her pediatric residency training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. During residency, Dr. Apkon led a project focused on digital content development for the hospital’s Reach Out and Read program. She was a member of the Resident and Fellow Quality Improvement Council and helped implement a new longitudinal QI curriculum. During fellowship, Dr. Apkon hopes to continue her QI research focusing on developmental outcomes.

Haritha Aribindi

Haritha Aribindi, MD

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Aribindi completed her pediatric residency training at the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP). She received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University and her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. Her residency research involved analyzing developmental and behavioral outcomes of infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome using mother-infant dyad datasets. She presented the results of her research at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting as an oral abstract. Dr. Aribindi is interested in pursuing neonatal longitudinal outcome research during fellowship.

Tanima Arora

Tanima Arora, MD, MHS

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Arora completed her pediatric residency training at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She received her medical degree from the Government Medical College Chandigarh, India, followed by a master’s of health sciences degree from the Yale School of Medicine. During residency, she researched the use of AI and machine learning techniques to determine BPD endotypes. She received the House Officer Research Award from the Society of Pediatric Research at the 2023 PAS Annual Meeting for her presentation titled: A genomic analysis to create bronchopulmonary dysplasia endotypes. She hopes to continue her research on neonatal lung disease and applications for AI and machine learning.

Kimberly Banfield

Kimberley Banfield, MBBS

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Banfield completed her pediatric residency at the University of Miami. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the University of the West Indies, Barbados. During residency, she investigated the antenatal administration of mesenchymal stem cell derived extracellular vesicles and their impact on placental and fetal lung senescence in experimental pre-eclampsia. She presented her work at the 2023 PAS Annual meeting. She has also been researching human cardiac organoids to determine if hyperoxia accelerates cardiac myocyte senescence. As a fellow, she hopes to gain more experience in neonatal palliative care and continue researching stem cell-based approaches to the treatment of neonatal diseases, particularly BPD.

Christhian Cano-Guerra

Christhian Cano-Guerra, MD

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Cano-Guerra completed his pediatric residency at Tufts Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the University of the Oriente School of Medicine in Venezuela, and then he completed his pediatric residency at the J.M. de Los Rios Children's Hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, prior to obtaining his post-doctoral degree from the Central University of Venezuela. As a resident he worked on a quality improvement project to reduce unplanned extubations in the NICU. Dr. Cano-Guerra also examined the rates of maternal breast milk usage with an opt-out donor milk consent process. He presented a preliminary status of his work in the 2024 PAS Annual Meeting. He is interested in pursuing quality improvement research during fellowship focused on cost-effectiveness and resource use in the NICU.

Caitlin Duncan

Caitlin Duncan, MD

Neonatal Class of 2027

Dr. Duncan completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Duke University and her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She originally entered residency in the child neurology track and, accordingly, for her residency research she investigated the differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes between male and female neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. She is interested in pursuing clinical research in neuroprotection and neurodevelopmental outcomes during her fellowship.

Third-year Fellows

Nisha Dalvie

Nisha Dalvie, MD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Dalvie completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program. She received her bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She obtained her medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine. During residency, she conducted a mixed-methods project designed to understand the challenges to engaging families of color from transition to NICU to specialty clinics, and to better establish NICU GraDS as a medical home for all medically complex children. She is interested in NICU follow-up and clinical outcomes, and methods to improve family engagement in the NICU. She is completing a concurrent fellowship in the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship and pursuing a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Hailey Evans

Hailey Evans, MD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Evans completed her pediatric residency at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Program as chief resident. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology, biology, and dance from Barnard College of Columbia University, and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. During residency, she studied the effects of pandemic-associated visitation policy changes on Staphylococcus aureus colonization in our patients, as well as diffusion-weighted imaging findings in neonates with encephalopathy. As chief resident, she developed a program to support professional grief in pediatric residents, and presented this work at multiple local and national meetings. Her fellowship research centers on neonatologists' lived experience of patient death and non-death loss.

Ioanna Kotsopoulou

Ioanna Kotsopoulou, MD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Kotsopoulou completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. She received her undergraduate and medical degree at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, in Athens, Greece. During residency, she researched developmental changes of the fetal and neonatal thyroid gland, and functional consequences on the cardiovascular system. She is interested in neuronal damage following brain hypoxia-ischemia.

Giulia Lima

Giulia Lima, MD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Lima completed her pediatric residency at the University of Florida. She received her bachelor’s degree and medical degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. During residency, she created a program aimed at providing breastfeeding education to uninsured women, which was incorporated into the University of Florida’s Equal Access Prenatal Clinic. She also developed a breastfeeding lecture to be included in the residency’s academic half day. She is interested in congenital heart disease and prematurity outcomes, as well as predictive analytics and neonatal hemodynamics.

Courtney Verscaj

Courtney Verscaj, MD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Verscaj completed a combined pediatric and genetics residency at Stanford. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biometry and Statistics at Cornell University. She obtained her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine. During residency, she led a national survey of the current state of adherence to Medical Genetics curricular guidelines across all medical schools to ensure uniform access to adequate genetics education among physicians in training. She hopes to improve the education of patients, parents, and providers about the molecular diagnostics available to diagnose the etiology of complex congenital anomalies. Dr. Verscaj is currently serving as chief fellow.

Fourth-year Fellows

Clare Howard

Clare Howard, MD, PhD

Neonatal Class of 2026

Dr. Howard completed her pediatric residency at University of California, San Francisco. She received her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Amherst College and completed a Master of Philosophy degree in Biological Science from University of Cambridge. She obtained her medical degree from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. During residency, she studied the development of blood vessels in the fetal brain, analyzed human single cell RNA sequence data of the fetal vascular microenvironment, and identified cell-to-cell signaling networks and their evolution across multiple developmental stages. She is interested in basic science research focused on defining the unique in utero environment that contributes to brain development to ultimately improve care for extremely premature infants. Dr. Howard is currently serving as chief fellow.