COMSEP COACH Program 2026: Info Page

Susan Bannister, MD, FRCPC, M.Ed

Susan Bannister, a Professor of Pediatrics and a clerkship director at the University of Calgary, is thrilled to be part of the COMSEP COACH certificate program.  She has been a COMSEP member since 2003 and attending the annual meeting is the highlight of her academic year.  She is looking forward to working with the participants to help them grow in their roles as coaches.

Joseph Jackson Jr., MD, FAAP

Dr. Joseph A. Jackson, Jr. is a Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean and Director of the Office of Student Affairs at Duke University School of Medicine. A practicing pediatrician, educator, mentor, and coach, Dr. Jackson has been a member of the Duke University School of Medicine faculty since 2007. His work is grounded in a deep commitment to professional formation, belonging, and helping individuals navigate the personal and professional journeys of becoming and being health professionals.

Dr. Jackson has broad experience in mentorship, academic and career advising, faculty development, and longitudinal learning. He currently leads the Advisory Dean team responsible for supporting the academic, professional, and personal development of medical students. His scholarly interests include belonging, professional identity formation, and shame within the health professions training continuum.

A graduate of the COMSEP Coaching Certificate Program, Dr. Jackson is also a Certified Professional Coach with a specialty designation in Business Coaching. He approaches coaching as a relational and reflective process.  He is particularly interested in helping colleagues find greater alignment between who they are, what they value, and how they show up in their professional lives.  Dr. Jackson brings valuable expertise and perspectives as a coach, clinician, educator, mentor, and lifelong learner.

Lisa Leggio, MD, FAAP earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Emory University and medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. She completed pediatric residency and joined the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University where she is now a professor in the Department of Pediatrics with over 20 years of experience as a board-certified pediatrician. During 18 years as Director of Pediatric Student Education the department won the Clinical Science Outstanding Teaching Award 12 times. Dr. Leggio won multiple individual teaching awards as well as the Gold Foundation Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. COMSEP has been her home for faculty development and annual refuge to meet with fellow pediatric educators. She has served on the Nominating Committee and the Executive Board. She is currently the Vice Chair for Faculty Development for Pediatrics and the Associate Director of the MCG Office for Faculty Success where she initiated and directs an internal coaching program. Dr. Leggio became a certified Healthcare Peer Coaching Practitioner^TM through the Physician Coaching Institute in 2021, completed the COMSEP COACH Certificate in the first cohort in 2023, and became a Certified Executive Coach through the Center for Executive Coaching in 2024. She enjoys coaching faculty, residents, and students about career vision, transitions, goal setting, imposter syndrome, time management, prioritization, communication, and burnout. Being outside, sitting by a body of water, spending time with family, reading books, and listening to podcasts bring balance to her life.

Kyra Len, MD

Dr. Len graduated from the University of Hawai‘i John A. Burns School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland. Board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine, she has practiced as a pediatric hospitalist at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children since 2006. She serves as an associate professor with leadership roles as the current Interim Vice Chair and Director of Medical Student Education for Pediatrics, Learning Community Co-Director, Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship Director medical student education and has earned multiple teaching and mentoring awards.
Her interest in coaching began when she completed the AMA’s Academic Coaching Implementation Workshop in 2022, which equips faculty leaders to develop coaching programs. She went on to earn the COMSEP Coach Certificate in 2023. Inspired by this experience, she pursued additional coaching training and completed the Teleos Coach Development Program in October 2024. With more than 100 hours of client coaching and the requisite coach specific education, she is now eligible to apply for the ICF Associate Certified Coach credential after passing the ACC exam

Uma Padhye Phatak was raised in India and attended college and medical school in Mumbai, India. After graduation, she immigrated to the USA to complete her Pediatric training at Morristown Memorial Hospital and then a fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Yale School of Medicine. Since completion of fellowship, she has been a faculty member at Yale in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology. Her expertise in GI lies within the field of inflammatory bowel disease. Her special interest and passion is in medical education. She completed her fellowship in medical education and received a master’s degree in medical education at Yale. Early on in her career, she was selected to be a clinical assessment coach for Yale medical students. Following this position, she has held several roles within undergraduate and graduate medical education at Yale. She has served on several educational committees nationally. Presently she serves as the clerkship director of Pediatrics and the director of the pediatric gastroenterology fellowship program at Yale.

Dan Richards, MD

Dan Richards is a general hospitalist pediatrician with interests in medical education and professional development. He currently serves as the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics, and he is an Associate Professor in Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. A member of COMSEP for over ten years, Dan is a facilitator for the COACH Certificate Program.

Sandra M. Sanguino, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Education and is the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at the Feinberg School of Medicine. She is an attending physician at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in the Division of Advanced General Pediatrics and Primary Care. Dr. Sanguino has been at Feinberg more than 25 years, starting with her medical degree, and followed by a pediatric residency and fellowship at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. She was named Associate Dean for Student Affairs in 2009 and served in that role until 2020 when she was named Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education.

Sherilyn is a retired academic pediatrician and an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with over 30 years of experience in academic medicine in the U.S. Her deep knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of academic faculty informs her coaching focus and approach. Sherilyn’s areas of coaching expertise include developing leadership skills, optimizing scholarly productivity, program development, navigating the promotion process, transitioning to retirement, increasing satisfaction with clinical responsibilities, enhancing teaching abilities and developing long-term career goals.