Meet the team

Dr. Balsitis started his career in virology as an Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellow at the CDC studying pandemic preparedness. He earned his PhD in Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He has 22 years of experience in virology research, including on vaccines and therapeutics against HIV, Hepatitis B, RSV, Influenza, COVID-19, and other viruses.

On LinkedIn

On Twitter

Dr. Lucy McBride is a Harvard-and Johns Hopkins-educated internal medicine physician, mental health advocate, and author of a popular COVID-19 newsletter. She has written and spoken extensively about the inseparability of mental and physical health during the pandemic, has articles featured in The Washington Post and USA Today, and is a regular contributor to The Atlantic.

Website

On Twitter

Dr. Høeg is a Danish-American dual citizen. She is a physician scientist with a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Copenhagen. She was senior author on one of the earliest studies on COVID in schools published by the CDC and continues to publish studies on COVID-related health policies in children. She testified twice before Congress on the impacts of COVID and COVID policies on children. Dr, Høeg is a University of California-Davis trained PM&R physician in private practice and an affiliated researcher with the University of California-Davis.

At NCOA

On Twitter

Dr. Noble is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Franisco, and Director of COVID Response for the UCSF Parnassus Emergency Department. She has written about COVID policy and the impacts on children for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

At UCSF

On Twitter

Dr. Kyeremanteng is the department head of critical care at The Ottawa Hospital. He dedicates his time to care for the sickest of the sick patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). During the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Kyeremanteng created ‘Solving Wellness,’ a virtual health & wellness platform for health care professionals. ‘Solving Wellness’ has been helping address health care burnout and providing health, fitness and self care for its members.

At Ottawa Hospital

On Twitter

Dr. Vinay Prasad is a graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and earned an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Biostatistics working in San Francisco. Dr. Prasad studies the quality of medical evidence, trial design, and health care policy.

Website

On Twitter

Dr. Grant is a Clinical Associate Professor at University of British Columbia. She practices as a medical microbiologist and infectious disease physician in Vancouver with research interests in quality improvement, infection control and occupational health.

Dr. Fulford, BSc, BEd, MA, MD, FRCPC is an infectious diseases specialist in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Fulford is also an associate professor at McMaster University and a hospital based physician working predominantly with children. She has been working with the 21CQ Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (post pandemic) with a focus on strategies for re-integrating children now ousted from the education system. Dr. Fulford has been published in all the major Canadian newspapers highlighting the impact of COVID policies on children and the importance of a return to normal in-person education.

Dr. Stotesbery is a pediatric psychiatrist trained at Thomas Jefferson University, Children’s National Medical Center, and the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis with experience in inpatient, outpatient, residential, and emergency care, with a particular interest in eating disorders.

Dr. Johnson is board certified in pediatric critical care and specializes in pediatric procedural sedation. She is an active advocate for restoring the patient-physician relationship and the equitable delivery of safe, quality, low-cost medical care. Dr. Johnson has been vocal throughout the pandemic about the effects of public health policy on children’s development and growth.

On Twitter

Dr. Walsh is a board-certified pediatrician in northern NJ. She is the mother of twin teenagers and has over 20 years of clinical experience in both academic and private practice settings. For the past 10 years, she has volunteered at a school for special needs children and been involved in early childhood advocacy on both the state and national levels.

Dr. Holland is a pediatric hospitalist practicing in Charlottesville Virginia. She has been supporting COVID response to enable in-person activities for students at summer camps in North Carolina and schools in Virginia.

Dr. Duriseti received his MD from the University of Michigan and his medical training and PhD in Computational Decision Modeling from Stanford University. He has been practicing clinical Emergency Medicine in both community and academic settings for over 20 years. At Stanford, he primarily works in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

Dr. Porter received his MD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and MSPH from the University of Colorado. He is a community pediatrician in Illinois whose interests include literacy instruction and dyslexia. He has been advocating for the importance of in-person learning and return to normalcy for our children since 2020.

Dr. Vidal is an assistant professor and psychiatrist who specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry. She works clinically in schools in Baltimore, Maryland and her research focuses on cannabis use, depression and suicide in adolescents. She has written and spoken about the mental health and academic impact of COVID related restrictions on children and adolescents and advocated for school openings since the beginning of the pandemic.

Dr. González-Dambrauskas es pediatra intensivista de Uruguay y Coordinador de LARed Network, una red colaborativa latinoamericana.

Es profesor adjunto de cuidados intensivos pediátricos de la Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay) y trabaja cuidando niños en estado crítico. Hace investigación en redes colaborativas, Pediatría basada en Valores, Sobre/infrauso sanitario, con foco en Sepsis, Medicina Respiratoria y desenlaces funcionales en niños críticos. Durante la pandemia hizo investigación sobre COVID19 crítico pediátrico y cierre escolar. Es Co-Director del Comité de Investigación de la Federación Mundial de Cuidados Intensivos (WFPICCS).

En Twitter

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Dr. González-Dambrauskas is a pediatric intensivist from Uruguay and Chair of LARed Network, a PICU Collaborative Network from Latin America.

He is Adjunct Professor of Pediatric Critical Care in the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay) and works taking care of critically ill children. He does research in Collaborative Networks, Value-based Pediatrics and Over/underuse in healthcare, with special focus on Sepsis, Respiratory Medicine and Functional Outcomes of critically ill children. During the pandemic I have done research on severe pediatric COVID19 and school closures.

He is Co-Chair of World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS) Research Committee.

On Twitter

Dr. Bienen is a graduate of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and is a faculty member at the OHSU-Portland State University School of Public Health in Portland, Oregon. She has written about COVID policy and the impacts on children and college students for The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The New York Times, City Journal, Reason Magazine, and elsewhere.

On Twitter

Allison Krug, MPH received her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and Masters in Public Health from SUNY Albany. Her career includes preventive health program management for Kaiser Permanente and public sector sales manager for Merck Vaccine Division. In 2005, she founded Artemis Biomedical Communications LLC to support academic researchers through the publication process by providing pre-submission peer review while the family moved with the US Navy throughout the US and overseas. During the pandemic she has served as a pro bono epidemiologist specializing in mRNA vaccine safety. Alli is a mother of two teen boys and enjoys staying active running, hiking, paddling, splitting wood and lifting weights in hockey rink parking lots. Immune to covid but not immune to worry,Alli hopes to help ground education policy in solid evidence in the interest of students and families.

On Twitter

Dr. Mario A Reyes is a pediatrician with more than 25 years experience in Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Pediatric Sedation, Healthcare Quality and Neonatology. He completed his fellowship in Pediatrics and Perinatal Medicine at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, Cuba, a postgraduate course in Medical Education at the University of Miami, and a General Pediatrics residency training at Miami Children’s Hospital. During the pandemic, Dr. Reyes has been active in clinical practice, led Clinical Effectiveness projects including COVID-19 clinical pathways and participated in healthcare research on COVID-19 impact on children’s hospitals, as part of a research group from the Children’s Hospital Association of the United States.