Author Bios

This blog is co-authored by several individuals who are part of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital & Medical Center community.

Scroll down to view all author bios alphabetically.

James M. Anderson is a special advisor to Michael Fisher, President and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s. Mr. Anderson was President and CEO from 1996 to 2009 and was instrumental in shaping the extraordinary growth at the medical center during that time. 

Mr. Anderson served on the Cincinnati Children’s board of trustees for 20 years, including four years as chairman. He is currently chairman of the Cincinnati Branch Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and chair of Cincy Tech. Prior to joining the staff at Cincinnati Children’s, Mr. Anderson was a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister for 24 years and president of US operations at Xomox Corporation.

Mr. Anderson is a graduate of Yale University (1963) and Vanderbilt School of Law (1966). He and his wife, Marjorie, have four children and five grandchildren.

Paula K. Braverman, MD is the director of community programs within the Division of Adolescent Medicine. Dr. Braverman attended Yale Medical School and completed her residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She then completed a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s, after which she took a position at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA, where she was the Chief of Adolescent Medicine.

She returned to Cincinnati Children’s in 2003 as the Director of Community Programs in the Division of Adolescent Medicine. In her current position, she serves as the Medical Director at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center and oversees the community health education programs.

Tom Dewitt, MD, is the Carl Weihl Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Division of General and Community Pediatrics, and Associate Chair for Education in the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s. 

He currently sits on the United States Preventative Services Task Force and the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Pediatrics.  He is known nationally and internationally for his publications and presentations in the areas of faculty development and community-based education and research. 

Dr. Dewitt attended the University of Rochester and completed his residency, chief residency and fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Pirooz Eghtesady, MD, PhD is interim director of cardiothoracic surgery in the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s.

Dr. Eghtesady earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at UCLA and UCLA School of Medicine, and studied physics at California State University, Fresno. He completed residencies in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital respectively.

Following residency, Dr. Eghtesady completed fellowships in cardiovascular surgery at Broussais Hospital and pediatric cardiac surgery at Marie Lannelongue Hospital, both in Paris, France. When he returned to the United States, he also completed a fellowship in pediatric cardiac surgery at UCSF/Stanford University Hospital.

In addition to his clinical service, Dr. Eghtesady’s laboratory is actively involved in developing and studying animal models of congenital heart disease, to better understand the mechanisms underlying in utero evolution of these lesions. Further, we are using these models to develop techniques for fetal cardiac surgery and intervention.

Gerry Fairbrother, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Child Policy Research Center. Her research areas include access and barriers to care, particularly for low-income children, and vaccine policies. She has led investigations on gaps and patterns of enrollment in child health insurance, barriers and cost to enroll in these programs, impact of Medicaid managed care on preventive screening for children, and impact of financial incentives on physician immunizing behavior.

Jim Feuer is senior media relations associate at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.  He has experience in the corporate world and in higher education.  He began his professional career as a correspondent and news anchor in public radio and has been at Cincinnati Children’s since 1992. 

Jim is the father of three children, a fact that could make his blog postings less frequent than some others’.  His spare time is devoted to landscape photography and watching hockey.  His favorite team, the St. Louis Blues, has broken his heart for 40 years.

Michael Fisher is president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s. He feels his whole professional life has been preparing him for his role as president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s.

A Cincinnati native, Fisher earned a degree in economics at Stanford, spent three years in administration at Northwestern University, and then returned to his hometown, where he has lived, worked and raised a family of four children.

He has been a principal in his family’s business, Fisher Investment Group, and president and CEO of Premier Manufacturing Support Services, which grew exponentially to be a global business under his leadership.

In January 2001, Fisher assumed the role of president of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s fifth largest Chamber of Commerce, with nearly 6,000 member companies in a 15-county region. In his five years as president, he provided visionary leadership during a particularly challenging period.

Fisher joined the Cincinnati Children’s board of trustees in 2004. In his years on the board, he has been a keen, insightful advisor and a passionate advocate for improving child health. He says that interviewing for the CEO position amplified his sense of commitment, understanding and excitement about Cincinnati Children’s and its future.

 Robert W. Frenck, Jr, MD,received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at San Diego in 1977 followed by his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1981. He trained at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland completing his pediatric residency in 1984. After 3 years as a general pediatrician at the US Naval Hospital, Japan, he entered pediatric infectious disease fellowship training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston which he completed in 1990. Dr. Frenck is board-certified in both pediatrics and infectious diseases.

Dr. Frenck’s research interests include therapeutic and vaccine clinical trials with special interest in enteric diseases. After completing a 25 year career in the Navy, Dr. Frenck joined the UCLA Center for Vaccine Research in 2004 and and served until 2006 as Director of the Center and a Professor of Pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Frenck has been active in the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently serves on the Red Book Committee. He is an acknowledged authority in infectious diseases and has authored over 60 articles and book chapters on various aspects of this subject.

Victor F. Garcia, MD,  developed Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s first regional Level I Pediatric Trauma Center and served as its Director from 1991 to 2009.

 Compelled by the exponential increase in children with gunshot wounds admitted to Cincinnati Children’s, Dr. Garcia led the development of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence and served as its Co-Chair until May 2008.

Prior to coming to Cincinnati, Dr Garcia was the Chief of General Surgery and Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and completed a residency in Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia under the tutelage of C. Everett Koop, MD.

Shelley Kirk, PhD, RD, LD is the director of HealthWorks! and a staff member of the Comprehensive Weight Management Center at Cincinnati Children’s.

HealthWorks! is a family-based program at the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s for young people ages 5 to 19 who are overweight, and is one of the first of its kind in the nation. The program uses a variety of methods to help overweight children and teens – and their families – improve their eating habits and become more physically active.

Dr. Kirk’s research interests are in developing effective interventions for overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Uma Kotagal, MBBS is Senior Vice President for Quality and Transformation and Director of Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

As Director of the Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness Program, Dr. Kotagal oversees the development of disease management teams and development and institution of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

Dr. Kotagal is a practicing neonatologist and was director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at the University Hospital and at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for several years.

More recently, she has broadened her interests, and obtained additional training receiving her Master of Science Degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Danielle Jones is a Media Relations Associate at Cincinnati Children’s. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and her Master’s in Business Administration degree with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati.

She has been recognized as the Young Professional of the Year by the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and as one of the 10 Leaders of the Future in Greater Cincinnati.

Danielle enjoys her job at Cincinnati Children’s because it allows her to change the lives of patients and families by sharing their stories with the world.

 Danielle is an energetic and positive person who loves to laugh. In her spare time, she volunteers at her church, participates in community service events and encourages young adults to achieve their dreams. When she’s not doing that, she’s having fun with her husband, friends and family.

 Peter Margolis, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Co-Director of the Center for Health Care Quality. He works with practices and health care organizations to assist them in designing better systems of care for children. Dr. Margolis obtained his MD from New York University and his pediatric training at the University of Colorado, where he also served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics. He subsequently spent three years in the National Health Services Corps in Rochester, NY, and Los Angeles, CA before pursuing a fellowship in clinical epidemiology. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also earned his PhD in Epidemiology. In 1994, Dr. Margolis was named Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Faculty Scholar at UNC where he also served on the faculty between 1991 and 2005. In 2006, Dr. Margolis joined Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to create a new center focused on Health Care Quality. His work encompasses the application and study of quality improvement methods in a broad range of areas, including primary and sub-specialty care, and public health settings to improve the health outcomes of children, families, and communities. He is currently leading Center projects in support of the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Margolis also devotes considerable time to teaching quality improvement methods.

 
Nick Miller is the science writer at Cincinnati Children’s and a former journalist.

 A newspaper reporter and editor for 20 years, Miller developed a knack for writing about cops, criminals, courts, the environment, and – of all things – decommissioning nuclear weapons plants. Miller left journalism to become a media relations and communications manager in the aviation industry. The career change was just in time for him to personally experience one of the worst industry downturns in the history of powered flight.

 His focus today is trying to uncover and tell stories about the amazing science coming out of the research laboratories of Cincinnati Children’s. He thinks the world should know more about the work of the medical center’s dedicated scientists – people who spend countless hours pursuing the discoveries of today, which may become the cures of tomorrow.

 When not haunting the halls of the research foundation, Nick spends his time preserving historic buildings and neighborhoods. He also works with local organizations trying to build bicycle/pedestrian trails, preserve green space and promote active lifestyles.

Stephen Muething, MD is a Pediatrician and Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Muething obtained his MD from the University of Cincinnati and performed his residency at Cincinnati Children’s, where he also served as chief resident. He was in private pediatrics in a small community in Indiana for 13 years before returning to Cincinnati Children’s to join the full time faculty in 2000.

Dr. Muething became a leader in quality improvement and transformation at Cincinnati Children’s. He has graduated from the advanced training program in Salt Lake and has advanced improvement methodology at Cincinnati Children’s. He has led improvement work at the acute care systems including improvements in evidence-based care and patient flow. He was a leader of the team that began Family-Centered Rounds.

Dr. Muething has now taken on a leadership role in Patient Safety and has a special interest in design for reliability and high relibiilty organization. He plays a key role in several national improvement efforts supplying expertise in improvement science.

Kate Setter is the media relations associate at Cincinnati Children’s. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Wilmington College, where she focused her studies on communications and marketing.

 Kate began her career in community relations at a Fortune 1000 corporation and then moved into a National and International media relations role with the same company.

At Cincinnati Children’s, Kate is telling the stories of people that make this medical center the amazing place that it is and keeping the public “in the loop” with news and advice from our experts.

Kate has an infant daughter and two crazy canine kids. She spends her weekends traveling to visit family, indulging her new-found obsession with portrait photography and enjoying good food.

Lisa Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, is Director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati. The Center provides evidence based information to inform policy and program decisions at the local, state, and national levels with an emphasis on strategies to improve the quality of health care, the effectiveness of public policies, and child well being.

Dr. Simpson served as the Deputy Director at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) from 1996-2002. During her seven years as AHRQ’s Deputy Director, she worked on shaping the transition of the Agency from AHCPR to AHRQ helping to manage periods of serious budget cuts (1996) as well as budget growth (1997-2001). She also spearheaded initiatives to increase the quality and quantity of child health services research sponsored by the Agency.

Mark C. Steinhoff, MD is director of the Global Health Center at Cincinnati Children’s. 

He attended the University of Chicago and completed his residency and chief residency in pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he also completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases.

The Global Health Center provides a focal point for advocacy, education, scholarship, research and leadership training for Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati.