COMSEP COACH Certificate Program 2023: Info Page

Alison Chiang

In my professional life, I am a general pediatrician and a clinician educator. I am also the Lead Faculty Coach within the Pediatric Residency Coaching Program at OHSU. I have been the beneficiary of coaching during my own residency training and have been lucky enough to continue coaching now as an attending.

In my personal life, I am a mother, a wife, an avid baker, and an every other weekend runner. I am a native Californian, but currently reside in Portland, OR.

Luke Finck

Luke Finck is the Associate Director of the Office of Medical Student Research and Assistant Professor of Medical Education and Administration at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is responsible for the development of program goals, objectives, and success criteria, including assessment creation, development, implementation and oversight of the Inquiry Program. In addition to course evaluation and improvement, faculty development and administrative supervision of the Office, he is the course director for three courses (Discovery, Research Immersion, Research Special Study). He also serves as a case-based learning small group facilitator, is a member of the admissions committee, and is the PI for the Kern National Network Grant focusing on integrating caring, character, practical wisdom and flourishing within the profession of medicine.

Laz Gordon De Groff

Laz Gordon De Groff received a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in Italian from Florida International University and a Master of Liberal Arts from the University of Miami.

After working as an interpreter and translator in Milan, Italy, she settled back in Miami and raised a family while volunteering at UM’s Lowe Art Museum as a docent, the Junior League, Girl Power, Team Footworks as a running coach, and others.

Laz began her career at UHealth--University of Miami Health System, where she rose to the position of Associate Director of Marketing and Communications for the Latin American and Caribbean markets before switching careers to pre-med academic advising—she has never looked back.

She has advised and taught at Florida International University and Miami Dade College then moved to Colorado, where she works at Rocky Vista University as an educational learning specialist.

Heather Harrell

Heather E. Harrell, M.D. is Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of Medical Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is a general internist who earned her BA, BS, and MD with honors from the University of Florida. She trained in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and completed the Master Educators of Medical Education Program at the University of Florida. She maintains an active clinical practice and was recognized as a Master Clinician by the Department of Medicine. She is on the board of the Chapman Chapter of the Gold Humanism Society and is the Alpha Omega Alpha Councilor at UF.

Dr. Harrell has substantial experience in curriculum design, implementation, and assessment both at the local and national level.  She is a College of Medicine exemplary teacher, member of the Society of Teaching Scholars, and honored with a departmental Lifetime Mentor Award. She was internal medicine clerkship director for 15 years. In that role, she initiated one of the first programs in the country to successfully incorporate portfolios into clinical education and served as president of the Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine. Recently she became Editor-in-Chief of the Aquifer Clinical Excellence course.

Dr. Joseph A. Jackson, Jr. is Associate Dean and Director of the Office of Student Affairs and Associate Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health at Duke School of Medicine. He was raised in Pennsylvania and received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Medical Degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA. He completed his Pediatric training at Duke University and started his faculty appointment at Duke in 2007. Dr. Jackson is an exceptional education leader working with learners across the Health Professions Programs at Duke. He brings a track record of excellence focused on innovative longitudinal learning curricula. He served as founding Associate Director for the Primary Care Leadership Track program helping to establish Duke’s first Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship for students interested in Primary Care. Dr. Jackson’s scholarly interests are focused on Professional Identity Formation across the health professions training continuum. He is actively engaged in research related to Belonging, Shame and Identity Formation among learners aspiring to and traversing the health professions. He is a strong advocate for his patients and serves as mentor and advisor for learners and colleagues. Described in the Herald Sun Newspaper as a “Father of Five (now six) and Pediatrician of Many,” Dr. Jackson’s greatest passions are stirred as he interacts with his family, his patients, his learners, and colleagues.

Marta King

Marta King, MD, MEd is passionate about advancing medical education through innovation, program development, process improvement, mentoring, and scholarship. A nationally recognized leader in medical education, Dr. King is a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Educators in Pediatrics, the Pediatrics in Review editorial board, and faculty in the Academic Pediatric Association Educational Scholars Program.  Two of her first author manuscripts have been recognized among top ten publications of the year in medical education and in pediatric hospital medicine.  A firm believer in life-long learning and continuous personal and professional growth, Dr. King completed her medical degree, pediatric residency, masters in medical education, quality improvement science training at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

I have worked as a pediatrician for Nationwide Children's Hospital's Primary Care Network for 35 years. For the past 11 years, I have directed our Portfolio and Coaching Program at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. My interest is in faculty development pertaining to coaching of medical students. We have published a couple of articles on this topic.
On a personal level, my wife and I have 10 adult children and just met our 20th grandchild, so we spend a lot of time going to birthday parties. I enjoy providing some degree of coaching for our children and some others in our faith community.

Lindsay Koressel

I am a pediatric hospitalist at Lurie Children's/Northwestern University. I also serve as the Pediatric 4th year medical student director where I oversee the pediatric sub-internship, pediatric electives, visiting students, pediatric career advising, and exit coaching for students entering pediatric residency. I completed my Masters in Medical Education through the University of Cincinatti and also recently completed the Educational Scholars Program through the APA where my main project was a qualitative study investigating student perspectives in career choice. I am very interested in coaching and learning more about how I can use these skills in my current (and potentially future) roles with both medical students and residents.

Sonia Malhotra

Dr. Sonia Malhotra is the Director of Palliative Medicine at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO)/Tulane School of Medicine (SOM).  She trained in Adult and Pediatric Palliative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and obtained a Masters degree in Medical Education after completing Med-Peds residency at Tulane SOM.  She is expanding Palliative Medicine services through the LCMC Health System and will be an Associate Section Chief for GIM/Geriatrics/Palliative Medicine at Tulane SOM in September, 2023.

She currently serves as an Associate Program Director for the Tulane Med-Peds Residency Program where her primary focus is on scholarship and quality improvement.  As a Med-Peds APD, Dr. Malhotra has been working on innovative curricula for the residents including the intersection of humanism with Medicine and bringing empathy and listening skills to the residency curriculum.  She is a certified Listener Poet for The Good Listening Project where she is working on emotional exhaustion in Med-Peds residents.  She is a graduate of the Tulane Anti-Racism Leadership Institute and has training in Coaching for Equity.

She is active nationally in Palliative Medicine and Justice/Equity/Diversity/Inclusion work.  She loves spending time with her family and friends, traveling when able to, dancing and attending Mardi Gras (and any other parades) in New Orleans.

Bev Nazarian

Bev Nazarian is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA.  She attended medical school at the University of Minnesota and completed her pediatric residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.   She is a primary care pediatrician at UMass Chan and precepts medical students at all levels, as well as pediatric residents for their continuity clinic. For over 9 years, Bev directed the community-based continuity clinic for pediatric residency, as well as resident advocacy experiences.     She has been active in medical student and resident education and advising throughout her career.

Two years ago Bev became a Learning Community mentor at UMass Chan, working with medical students longitudinally over their 4 years of medical school in a role that encompasses teaching, advising, and mentoring.  Now that the Learning Community mentor role is starting to formally incorporate coaching, Bev is excited for this opportunity to learn more.

In addition to medical education, Bev’s  primary academic interests are advocacy, children with special health care needs, pediatric mental and behavioral health, and school health.

James Nixon

My training is combined internal medicine and pediatrics.  I started off as a pediatric clerkship director and director of UME for the pediatric department.  I have also directed the internal medicine clerkship.  Currently I am the Vice Chair for Education for the Department of Medicine and serve as the Course Director for our medical school's clinical skills course.  My entire career has been at the University of Minnesota and I am interested in developing the coaching capacity for our department for 2 reason's.  First is to provide coaching to faculty related to their role as a teacher (when they may be doing things that are getting in the way of their success as a teacher) and second to provide coaching for our residents.

I am married and have 2 boys who are in college.  I enjoy biking, taking international trips with my family and cooking (special occasions more than every day).

Erin Pete Devon

Erin Pete Devon is a Pediatric Hospitalist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Pete Devon grew up in central Pennsylvania and completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Drexel University College of Medicine, she completed her pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she has been practicing ever since. She has been involved in many roles in undergraduate medical student education and is currently one of the Pediatric Clerkship Co-Directors. Recently a student herself, she completed a Medical Education master's program at Penn. She loves to travel, eat good food and binge-watch a new show. She currently lives in West Philadelphia with her husband, two kids, and two dogs.

Rosemary Peterson

I am a Pediatric Rheumatologist at Dell Children's Medical Group in Austin, Texas, and Assistant Program Director for the Pediatrics Residency at Dell Medical School, UT Austin. I completed medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern, pediatric residency at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, and pediatric rheumatology fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia prior to joining the Dell Children's crew in August 2020. As an early career faculty member with a focus in medical education and trainee mentorship, I am enthusiastic about receiving training in coaching and learning from others who have stablishing coaching programs at their institutions. Outside of medicine, I enjoy spending every possible moment adventuring and making memories with my husband and two young children, Zoe and Brodie.

Maria Quintero

I was the President of the Monitoring 3 Committee and Medicine 3-4 Committee in my UPR School of Medicine from 2016-2018 and at present I am the Pediatrics Clerkship Director since 2017. I have been mentoring students in their careers and when facing educational difficulties. We are facing a declining number of our students interested in pursuing Pediatrics as a career-a trend that appears to be sustaining for the next years.
Facing these challenges, I feel the need to train/develop and enhance my skills for Coaching and engaging with students and residents. There is a need for formal instruction in our institution and I am interested in getting the skills and guidance to start a Program/Service at my Medical School.

I'm a general pediatrician who trained at UC Davis for residency and did a chief year after that. It was during that year when I realized my passion for academics with a focus on wellbeing. I thoroughly enjoy working with medical students and residents and finding ways to incorporate wellbeing pearls that hopefully they carry with them. As the years have passed, I have accumulated several different roles and responsibilities. One is being the  medical director for pediatrics at one of our FQHCs that we are contracted to work at. We have medical students rotate through for their clerkship, and this is where the majority of residents have their continuity clinic. This past year I stepped into the role of pediatric specialty advisor for the UCD SOM where I've had the chance to advise pre-clerkship students on their career paths as well as students who are applying to pediatrics. Lastly, I was promoted to an APD position this past year with a focus on wellbeing, which one of my big tasks is to oversee the coaching program that we started for our residents last year. I'm excited to learn more and take back anything with me to help make the program the best it could be for our residents.

Ben Rothwell

I'm a Med-Peds-trained academic hospitalist at Tulane University School of Medicine.  I am the Medical Director for Simulation at the Tulane Advanced Center for Teamwork Training and Simulation, and I am the Course Director for Clinical Diagnosis.  Finally, I serve as a Core Faculty Member for the Tulane Med-Peds residency program.

Kristy Smith

Kristy Smith, MD, attended the University of Florida School of Medicine for medical school and stayed to complete her family medicine residency. Smith joined the University of Florida faculty in 2012 as an outpatient primary care physician. Dr. Smith is very involved in the education of students at every level. She has an active role in teaching students at the pre-clinical and clinical levels as well as participates on multiple medical education committees. She is the collaborative learning groups director since 2017. She is a member of AOA and the Gold Humanism Society and has been awarded the Exemplary Teacher Award the past 5 years. She currently mentors students and leads multiple faculty development workshops related to medical education and hopes to incorporate more coaching principles.

Lynn Thoreson

I am an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and practice clinically as a pediatric hospitalist. After a number of years as an associate program director for the pediatric residency, I have transitioned to a broader role of Director of Pediatric GME Curricular Innovation & Assessment, which involves leading the pediatric hospital medicine fellowship, overseeing pediatric fellowships and leading accreditation for GME office. My academic interests include individualized curriculum, impacts of scheduling, and competency based evaluation.

My husband and I have a 10 year old daughter and we enjoy keeping up with all of her activities and interests.

Sports and coaching have been very influential in my life so I am looking forward to applying coaching principles to my academic work.

Marc Zucker

I am a General Pediatrician, having worked at CHEO (the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) for the past 22 years.  I am the Director of Clerkship, Anglophone Stream for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.  I completed medical school at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and did a four year Pediatrics residency at the University of Calgary.    I am married to a Pediatrician who works in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Child Maltreatment.  We have three daughters and one dog.