COMSEP COACH Certificate Program 2022: Info Page

I am a Pediatric Nephrologist at the University of California Davis, and a former clerkship director. Currently I serve as the Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department (and as part of that role, I direct the Mentoring Program for junior faculty), and the Chair of the Competency Council for the School of Medicine. Outside of work, I love to hang out with my 4 legged son (Luigi!) and friends, cook, enjoy good wine and run (not all at the same time!).

Joan Connell grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, where she returned after earning degrees in pharmacy and medicine, with a masters degree in biomedical research and completing her Pediatrics residency at University of Colorado.  Upon returning to Bismarck in 2002, Joan served as an associate clerkship director for pediatrics as well as having a private pediatrics practice.  She transitioned from private practice to seeing patients at University of North Dakota Center for Family Medicine in 2009.  In 2015, she transitioned from clerkship director to the North Dakota Department of Health, where she worked as field medical officer until 2021.  Currently, she serves as Associate Professor in the Family Medicine Department, medical director of North Dakota's Special Health Services and Newborn Screening Program, as well as an Associate Editor for Aquifer Pediatric cases.  Formerly the president of the North Dakota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, she currently enjoys working with the North Dakota Medical Association as a councilor as well as president of district VI and lead physicians for the Physician Advisory Group.  Her favorite things are spending time with her family, bunny, and basset hounds, especially watching her kids play soccer.

Attended Miami University and graduated with a BS in Zoology in 2003.  Then attended the University of Cincinnati for Medical School and completed Pediatrics residency at the University of Michigan.  My clinical role is as a Primary Care Pediatrician at the University of Michigan.  I'm an assistant clerkship director and also co-direct the Peds Residency Prep course for 4th year students.  I also mentor students interested in Primary Care through the Patients and Populations Branch.  I'm a resident continuity clinic preceptor, interview residency applicants and also mentor 3-4 residents per year.  I'm excited about the COACH program so that I can learn to be a better mentor/Coach to our awesome students and residents!

People development has been my passion throughout my career. I worked with people from diverse backgrounds through coaching and also ran many other training programs for leaders with a holistic approach. Since I relocated to Qatar in 2010, I shifted my career from corporate to higher education by joining Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). I am currently working at WCM-Q as Director for the Office of Clinical & Faculty Affairs and Assistant Professor of Psychology Teaching in Medicine.  My educational background is in health psychology and organizational psychology, and I used to work as a life coach for executives.

Amal Khidir, MBBS, FAAP, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is the Vice Chair of IRB and Pediatric Clerkship Director joined Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar in 2006. She is an American Board-certified pediatrician, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP), the Section on Global Health (SOGH), and the Section on International Medical Graduates (SOIMG). She practices pediatrics in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Sidra Medicine. She is a co-leader of the Research and Scholarship Collaborative (2017-2022) and the co-chair of the Annual Meeting Committee (2022) for the Council of Medical Students Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP).

Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University, Sudan. She completed her pediatric residency training at Howard University Hospital, Washington, D.C., later joined the faculty and became the pediatric clerkship director. Her passion for faculty development rapidly evolved after completing the Program for Educators in Healthcare Professions at Harvard Macy Institution in 2007.

She is the co-founder of the Professionalism program at HMC where >3000 faculty, trainees, nurses, and pharmacists participated. She led and participated in > 30 peer-reviewed regional and international professional education workshops. She received several teaching awards and recently the COMSEP 2021 Research and Scholarship Award. Areas of interest: professionalism, remediation, professional development, assessment, and cultural competency

Awarded several grants example: National Priorities Research Program equivalent to R01 grant titled "Providing Culturally Appropriate Health Care Services in Qatar: Development of a Multilingual Patient Cultural Assessment of Quality Instrument."  and “Impact of Perceived Generational Differences on Learning Project: A Multicenter, Multiphase Collaborative Study millennial learners, a multi-institutional study”. She supervised medical students in several clinical studies.

Lisa Leggio is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director for Pediatric Student Education at the Medical College of Georgia.   Her clinical work is in the general pediatric clinic supervising clerkship students and residents.  She has been the Director of Pediatric Student Education since 2005 and has attended most COMSEP Annual Meetings since 2004.  Her other significant roles are Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Longitudinal Career Advisor for medical students.  The favorite parts of her job involve advising and counseling all levels of learners from pre-clerkship through mid-level faculty applying for promotion. She discovered an interest in coaching and completed a 15-hour Healthcare Peer Coaching Fundamentals course through the Physician Coaching Institute in fall 2021.  She is exploring opportunities to incorporate more coaching into her current roles and into the next phase of her career.

Kyra Len

Kyra Len, MD, is an associate professor of pediatrics who works with the office of medical education. She is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric hospitalist medicine and practices as a pediatric hospitalist at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. She serves as the director of medical student education for pediatrics and is the learning community co-director and longitudinal clerkship director for the office of medical education. Her favorite role in medical education is

being a mentor to pediatric residents, medical students in her learning community and medical students seeking a career in pediatrics.

I am a Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hospital Medicine, at UCSF. I received my medical degree from Vanderbilt, completed residency at UCSD, and I have practiced as a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s Hospital San Diego, Stanford, UC Davis, and UCSF.

My academic/scholarly areas of interest focus on resident and student education, and I have published and presented nationally on a variety of medical education topics, many through COMSEP! I am the UCSF Co-Director of Pediatric Student Career Advising, and the UCSF Director of the Education in Pediatrics Across the Continuum (EPAC) program, a longitudinal competency-based pediatric training program that spans medical school and residency. I am a graduate of the APA Educational Scholars Program. In 2016, I was inducted into UCSF’s Academy of Medical Educators, and I was the 2017 recipient of the APA Teaching Award for Mid-Career Faculty and the 2018 recipient of the UCSF Fellowship Faculty Mentor Award. I am co-creator of the PHM Advancing Pediatric Educator eXcellence (APEX) teacher training program, serving as faculty for the program and as a member of the steering committee. Beyond my love of pediatrics and working with learners, I enjoy traveling and spending time with close friends and COMSEPers.

Glen Medellin, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM currently serves as Professor of Pediatrics at UT Health San Antonio, where he began teaching in 2004. Dr. Medellin is passionate about caring for children with complex chronic conditions. He holds the Greehey Distinguished Chair in Palliative Care for Children at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He is the Interim Division Chief of Complex and Palliative Pediatrics. He directs Pediatric Palliative Care at University Health System where he leads a multidisciplinary team that provides comprehensive coordinated palliative care to children in the hospital, clinic and community. Dr. Medellin is also a Medical Director for VITAS Healthcare where is responsible for overseeing the end-of-life medical care and treatment of pediatric patients in their homes. Dr. Medellin previously served as Clerkship Director for pediatrics, and he is currently a faculty mentor for medical students in the Veritas advisory program. He serves as the Pediatric track fellowship director for the palliative care fellowship program. Dr. Medellin is the Academic Lead for Assessment at Aquifer.

I am a pediatric infectious disease physician and have been at UC Davis Medical School for the last 9 years. I have been a course director for Medical Microbiology for 4 years, and am now doing coaching with the third year medical students as they rotate through pediatrics.

Nicola Orlov is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the section of pediadtric hospital medicine, Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Residency Training Program and Director for Clinical Coaching in the Pediatric Clerkship at the Pritzker School of Medicine.  She is a graduate of the Pritzker School of Medicine and subsequently stayed at the institution where completed her Residency Training and Chief Resident year.  She completed an MPH at Columbia University and graduated from The Medical Education Research Innovation Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellowship from the University of Chicago.  She currently serves as the Chapter Advisor at the PSOM for the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

Dr. Orlov is board-certified in Pediatric Hospital Medicine.  She is an exemplar educator and mentor who is recognized repeatedly for her teaching and mentorship.   Her clinical research over the past 7 years has been focused on improving the sleep and health of hospitalized children.  Dr. Orlov also has a strong interest in faculty development around feedback, mentorship, and coaching.  She is currently running a pilot program at the medical school where she is implementing a virtual coaching program for all medical students.

Jean Petershack, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at UT Health San Antonio. She is a Neonatologist. She is Director of Medical Student Education in Pediatrics which includes the role of Clerkship Director. Jean is passionate about all aspects of medical student education. She loves working with students, residents, fellows and faculty, helping them develop greater skills in both the clinical and educational realms. She is a founding member and Co-Curricular Chair for her local Academy of Educational Scholars. She is an active member in COMSEP. She was accepted into the first cohort of the Educational Scholars Program of the APA and has served multiple roles in this incredible program; she is currently a faculty advisor and mentor.

I am a primary care pediatrician and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois. My residency was at Milwaukee Children's Hospital, Medical College of Wisconsin.  My academic career began when I worked for 7 years in the rural upper peninsula for Michigan State University as the only pediatrician in a 50 mile radius. I came to Rockford, Illinois in 1993 and joined COMSEP then. I have been the clerkship director for 29 years, director of the clinical curriculum for the last 3 since stopping practice, and I'm very active in helping support our rural medical education program, where my very patient wife also works. When my sons were small I used to write children's plays for their school to perform, and support them in their musical and dramatic endeavors. Like me, all 3 were in the University of Illinois Men's Glee Club. In my spare time these days I help my wife downsize the house and drive us to see our 4 grandchildren in Illinois and Ohio, and our multiple grand-dogs & cats in Indiana.

I am an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I am an associate program director for our program focusing on improving the didactic and educational components of the fellowship. Additionally, I work as am mentor for fellows, residents, and medical students. I have an interest in individual development at the GME and faculty levels, and I my research focuses on medical educator identity formation for medical educators completing a masters program in medical education.

Aaron J. Samide, MD received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Kentucky before completing his pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL. He remained at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for an additional year as Chief Resident and then for his Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship, of which he is currently completing his second and final year. His primary area of interest is resident education, particularly in relation to coaching and mentorship. He has conducted research regarding the impact of virtual inpatient rounds on the resident experience and is currently collecting data on the use of virtual vs. in-person direct observation of real patient encounters for trainee coaching.

I have been the director of pediatric student education at the University of Michigan for the past 10 years. In my clinical role, I am a pediatric hospitalist.

I am a pediatric critical care physician at UC Davis, where I have been on faculty since graduating fellowship in 2016. I live in Sacramento with my partner, 2 kids (ages 9 and 6), and dog. In addition to clinical care, my passion lies in medical education, and I am lucky to be involved in undergraduate, graduate, and interprofessional education at UC Davis. I have been a member of our "Team Coach" program for 3 years, coaching medical students during their pediatric clerkships, and am excited to expand my coaching skillset and knowledge base. In addition to this coaching role, I co-created our PICU fellowship program in 2019, now in its 3rd year. I also created and serve as the medical director of our PICU/PCICU Nurse Practitioner program. I always feel invigorated and inspired after interacting with like-minded medical educators at workshops and conferences, so am looking forward to being a member of the COMSEP Coach Program.

I am originally from southern California. I attended medical school at Brown University and completed residency and fellowship training at Stanford.  I earned a Masters degree in Medical Education from the University of Southern California in 2001.

At Stanford, I have served as director of the core clerkship in pediatrics since 2003.  I held the position of Director/Assistant Dean for Clerkship Education from 2007-2015 and Associate Residency Program Director for Continuity Clinic from 2011-2022.

My clinical work involves supervising residents and students at the Gardner-Packard Children’s Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center.  (I'm also the Medical Director there.)  My academic interests include cross-cultural communication, clinical reasoning, performance assessment, and faculty development in clinical teaching.

Success for me - both personally and professionally - means that each person I interact with feels a little more capable, a little more confident, and a little less anxious than before we crossed paths.

Dr. Anna Suessman is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) physician at Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans. Dr. Suessman also plays an integral part in education. She is the Medical Director of PEM Education as well as University of Queensland-Ochsner Clinical School's Pediatric Clerkship Director. Dr. Suessman received her medical degree from UMDNJ-SOM (now Rowan University) in Stratford, NJ. Following this, she completed her internship and residency at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, CT. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine located in Houston, TX.

After fellowship, she obtained a Masters of Education from University of Houston. Dr. Suessman board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in both PEM and General Pediatrics. Dr. Suessman's expertise is in pediatric emergencies including resuscitation and trauma as well as medical education.

Rebecca Tenney-Soeiro, MD, MSEd is a pediatric hospitalist with a clinical interest in the care of medically complex children.  Dr. Tenney-Soeiro grew up on the East Coast of the United States, mainly in Delaware and North Carolina.  She completed her undergraduate studies at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and then graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program, where she was a chief resident.  She earned a Master’s of Medical Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Tenney-Soeiro was a co-director of the Pediatric Clerkship for the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for nine years before transitioning to the role of an Advisory Dean six years ago. She is Section Chief of Education for the Division of General Pediatrics and founded the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship, of which she is now Program Director.  She is a peer reviewer for multiple national educational conferences and for several pediatric and educational journals.  Her favorite conference, even 14 years later,U is COMSEP!

Rebecca's educational interests include the changing landscape of autonomy across the spectrum of learners, providing feedback, and her new found interest in coaching.  She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania with her husband, Damon, and their 4 children, Jamison, Devon, Lea, and Landon, and 2 crazy dogs, Molly and Hershey.