Editorial Advisory Board
 Dr. Beard is the the physician director of Children's Pediatricians and Associates, Silver Spring, Md., and is an associate clinical professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and an assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine, Washington. She is also a national media spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. |
 Dr. Boulter is adjunct professor of pediatrics and community and family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. Her professional background includes clinical practice in a multispecialty group practice and pediatric faculty at the N.H. Dartmouth family medicine residency program. She is a past president of the N.H. Pediatric Society and has been active in child advocacy at the state and national levels. She has served on many American Academy of Pediatrics national committees and is currently a member of the AAP Committee on Development. She also serves on several editorial boards and has won numerous awards for her advocacy work. |
 Dr. Clark is an associate professor of pediatrics at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College, practicing general pediatrics in the context of a resident training program. Her areas of special interest include pediatric oral health, international adoption, quality improvement, and child abuse and neglect. Dr. Clark has served on several national committees, including the American Academy of Pediatrics section on oral health, and currently serves as the chief editor for both Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum and Protecting All Children's Teeth (PACT): AAP's Pediatric Oral Health Training Program for Physicians. |
 Kelly Curran, MD, is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, practicing adolescent medicine. Dr. Curran is member of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics, where she serves as an editorial board member for the AAP's Adolescent Medicine PREP series. Her areas of interest include bioethics, reproductive health care, and adolescent mental health care. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Ill.; served her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and served as a clinical fellow in adolescent medicine at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She also graduated from Loyola University with a master of arts in bioethics and health policy. |
 Cathy Haut, DNP, CPNP-AC, CPNP-PC, is a pediatric nurse practitioner who is the immediate past president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). Dr. Haut works at Beacon Pediatrics, a large primary care practice in Rehoboth Beach, Del. She also works part time for Pediatrix Medical Group, serving the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit medical team at the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore and serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, also in Baltimore. The coeditor of a textbook, Lippincott Certification Review: Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Haut has published and presented on many clinical and professional topics. |
 Dr. Jarvis is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children's National Health System, and assistant professor of pediatrics at George Washington University, both in Washington. She is the current advocacy chair and at-large board member of the D.C. American Academy of Pediatrics chapter, and has received formal advocacy training through the American Academy of Pediatrics department of federal affairs. Her advocacy includes working with the hospital's government affairs and the DC AAP Chapter to facilitate testimonies that assist in enacting health care policies. Dr. Jarvis' advocacy work also includes research involving screening of and intervening for vulnerable patient populations. To provide sustainable community impact, she collaborates with social work and community stakeholders to provide real-time interventions for mothers who screen positive for postpartum depression and/or domestic safety concerns. |
 Dr. Jay is professor of pediatrics and chief of adolescent medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, both in Milwaukee. She currently serves as one of the American Board of Pediatrics representatives to the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Jay has served on multiple national committees and societal boards, and was a former secretary-treasurer of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. She has served on the AAP's Bright Futures expert panel and has authored many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Dr. Jay also has presented on adolescent health and medicine topics regionally, nationally, and internationally. |
 Dr. Joos is a practicing clinician in combined internal medicine/pediatrics in Seattle. For the last decade, he has worked at a federally qualified community health center in Seattle serving a largely low-income and immigrant population. He received his specialty training through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his medical degree at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Dr. Joos previously worked with the World Health Organization in Bangladesh and Pakistan on the eradication of polio. His areas of focus have been international public health, immunization, preventive medicine, cross-cultural medicine, and working with disadvantaged populations. |
 Dr. Kinsella practices general pediatrics in a small group private practice in Cheshire, Conn. She completed the Connecticut Children's Medical Center's residency program in 2001 after graduating from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Kinsella is a member of the AAP. Her special interests are in children's mental health, gastrointestinal issues, and preventive medicine. |
 Dr. Lessin has been a practicing pediatric clinician for the past 39 years at The Children’s Medical Group. In 1997, he was a founding partner of one of the first private practice “supergroups” by merging two competing pediatric practices into one and expanding it to 25 clinicians, with eight offices in three counties in New York state’s Mid-Hudson Valley. The group provides pediatric care to more than 30,000 children and has a nearly 90-year history, across its various incarnations, providing such care. Dr. Lessin received his medical degree from Stanford (Calif.) University and trained in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Medical Center. He has been active in national policy and leadership in the American Academy of Pediatrics, having served on the executive committee of the Section of Administration and Practice Management, the national Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, and his current appointment to the national Private Payer Advocacy Advisory Committee. In those roles he has authored several national policy statements and clinical guidelines, including “Increasing Immunization Coverage,” “Immunizing Parents and Other Close Family Contacts in the Pediatric Office Setting,” “Instrument-Based Pediatric Vision Screening Policy Statement,” and most recently, “Clinical Practice Guideline for the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents.” He is also the coeditor of the AAP’s ADHD toolkit for clinicians published in 2019. Dr. Lessin served as the director of clinical research for his group for 5 years and the medical director for the practice for 10 years. He has served as a faculty member at numerous local and regional pediatric meetings. He has been a faculty member at the AAP’s annual national conference and exposition for the past decade, speaking on a variety of topics. Dr. Lessin also has been an invited speaker internationally at pediatric conferences in India and Egypt. He has participated in more than a dozen medical missions to developing countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Vietnam. His expertise includes practice management, the business of medicine, immunizations, ADHD, and liability topics. He has been a testifying expert witness for both defense and plaintiff in medical malpractice litigation for more than 30 years. He founded and served as president of a medical independent practice association that began with 12 physicians and grew to over 3,000 doctors. He is also a certified managed care executive. His most recent interest has been becoming a professional voice-over actor! While performing all of the above, Dr. Lessin is a dedicated community pediatrician whose first love and primary goal has remained providing the highest quality medical care to children while helping his colleagues manage their businesses in order to be able to survive and continue to provide such care. |
 Kevin T. Powell, MD, PHD, is a pediatric hospitalist and clinical ethics consultant living in St. Louis. |
 Dr. Francis E. Rushton Jr. is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and medical director of the Quality Through Innovation in Pediatrics (QTIP) network. He has practiced pediatrics in Beaufort, S.C., for 32 years and is the author of "Family Support in Community Pediatrics, Confronting the Challenge. "Dr. Rushton's academic interests include quality improvement, community pediatrics, early brain development, home visitation, and group well child care. |
 Dr. Schlegel joined the division of developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Connecticut Children's Medical Center after completing a fellowship in developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine. She is now an assistant professor of pediatrics with the University of Connecticut. Her clinical work includes outpatient services for children with developmental, behavioral, and learning problems; school consultation services; as well as support for the outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation programs. Dr. Schlegel is currently the medical director for the Hartford area Medical-Legal Partnership Project. She is an invited member of the Program Committee of the Society for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. Her involvement in Reach Out and Read led her to create her own youth literacy non-profit organization; she founded ReBooK (Recycling Books for Kids) in 2000. Dr. Schlegel is also the cofounder and now coadvisor of the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine American School for the Deaf Health Education program in West Hartford. |
 Laura Searcy, APRN, PPCNP-BC, is president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), and is on the medical staff at WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center in Marietta, Ga., delivering care to newborns. A member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), Ms. Searcy received the 2014 AANP Nurse Practitioner State Award for Excellence from Georgia. Ms. Searcy gained much of her governance experience serving three terms, including chair and vice chair, on the Cobb County Georgia Board of Education. The U.S. Secretary of Education appointed her to the Southeast Regional Advisement Committee, and the Georgia School Board Association appointed her to the National School Board Association Federal Relations Network. Ms. Searcy also has more than 12 years of nonprofit board experience, working with children’s advocacy centers and youth alcohol and drug-abuse prevention organizations. |
 Dr. Smart is the chairman of the department of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group in San Diego. He is a voluntary assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, and is currently chief of pediatrics at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns. Dr. Smart's interests include medical informatics, health care IT, and specifically clinical decision support and the use of data to drive clinical quality improvement. |
 Ms. Thew is the medical director of the department of adolescent medicine at Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee, in addition to working casually among Children’s Wisconsin pediatric urgent cares within the city of Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs. She has published articles on Nexplanon complications and management of the malnourished state of the eating disorder patient. She currently is involved in a longitudinal study on the health and nutrition of high school endurance runners. Ms. Thew has presented her research both nationally and internationally. Her most recent podium presentation was given at the International Conference for Eating Disorders May 2020 on her research working with high school endurance athletes. Ms. Thew serves on several committees within Children’s Wisconsin including chair of the domestic violence committee and adjunct on the electronic health record provider committee. She is leading a quality improvement project on adolescent confidential care and the judicious use of the adolescent sensitive note. In addition, she is active within her state nursing organizations; she sits on the Wisconsin Nursing Association board as the advanced practice registered nurse director at large. Ms. Thew was selected and graduated from the exclusive Duke Johnson & Johnson Nurse Leadership Fellowship in 2016 and was selected as the keynote speaker at graduation by her peers. She was asked to speak to this year’s cohort on her accomplishments as a leader at their virtual graduation April 2020. Ms. Thew received her Doctor of Nursing Practice, Executive Nurse Leadership May 2020 from Concordia University Wisconsin, and her master’s degree in nursing specializing in family practice from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in December 1997. She is presently enrolled in the nurse educator certificate program at Concordia University Wisconsin. She has worked in the department of adolescent medicine specializing in eating disorders and adolescent gynecology for 6 years and was named the medical director in October 2019. In addition to her work in adolescent medicine, she has an extensive history working as a nurse practitioner in pediatric hematology, oncology, and primary care. |
 Dr. Breach Washington returns to the Pediatric News editorial advisory board after a 10-year hiatus. She currently is employed as a medical director at WellCare of North Carolina/Centene. Her career spans 32 years in Charlotte, N.C., where she has practiced pediatrics and held medical director positions in a large health care system and a managed care organization, as well as worked in private practice and in a public health clinic. A native of North Babylon, N.Y., she received her undergraduate degree at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., and her medical degree at George Washington University, Washington. Dr. Breach Washington has been an advocate for children, access to health care, and diversity and inclusion. An active member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Breach Washington served as an elected representative to the AAP National Nominating Committee, following her term as president of the North Carolina chapter of the AAP. She is a past pediatric section chair of the National Medical Association and past president of the Charlotte Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Society. She has served on the boards of the Simmons Branch YMCA, the Mecklenburg County Medical Society, and the Teen Health Connection (a facility of Carolinas Medical Center), plus many associated committees. Dr. Breach Washington serves the community as an active life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Jack and Jill of America, and a member of The Links. She is the recipient of several awards for her commitment to diversity and inclusion, philanthropy, and community service. Dr. Breach Washington is married and has an adult daughter. She is an avid fan of all sports, a dancer, and enjoys theater, fine dining, and travel. |
Last updated November 25, 2020 |