Zakia Alavi, MD
Is a child and adult psychiatrist, a Diplomat of American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Alavi obtained her medical education Dow Medical University, Pakistan. She completed her residency in psychiatry, followed by a fellowship in child psychiatry, from Wayne State University. Dr. Alavi has worked in both clinical and academic settings, since 1999. Currently, Dr. Alavi is engaged in providing psychiatric services to underprivileged children in Jackson Michigan. Dr. Alavi is the chief medical officer for Midstate Health Network, which is a Medicaid Managed Care Organization, providing behavioral health services for 21 counties in Michigan. In 2012, Dr. Alavi, being invited by the Program in Public, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, to develop and teach a course on Psychiatry and Public Health, joined the academic faculty, which has since, become her academic home.
Dr. Zakia Alavi is currently serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Her academic responsibilities include teaching medical students integration between basic and clinical sciences. For the Dept. of Pediatrics, Dr. Alavi is the PI for a HRSA grant that provides education and consultation to primary care providers in the Michigan UP, also involved in developing a telemedicine pilot, which will provide psychiatric and neurodevelopmental consultation to pediatricians in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Dr Alavi is also a co-moderator for the International Collaborative Office Rounds 2(ICOR2), an Inter-professional monthly meeting of US and international clinicians, that includes Primary Care Pediatricians, Developmental Pediatricians and Child psychiatrists. Dr. Alavi has published several peer reviewed articles; her primary interest in psychopharmacology and polypharmacy in children and geriatric population.
Ramzi Nasir, MD, MPH
Is a Developmental-Behavioral pediatrician and he trained at Boston Children's Hospital until 2013. He currently resides in the UK with positions in both the National Health Service and in private practice. I share SDBP and IICOR's vision of access to quality assessments and intervention for all children globally. My efforts over the past few years focus on clinical care, education and advocacy as related to children with developmental disorders in humanitarian emergency settings. These include: Telehealth consultant on developmental-behavioral disorders for Doctors without Borders; leading a Special Interest Group on Autism and Related Disorders in the Context of Humanitarian Emergencies (within the International Society for Autism Research -INSAR); authoring two book chapters on the topic; designing and launching an Arabic language online course on Autism (relevant to humanitarian settings in the Middle East); professional advisory panel member on disability matters (Medical Aid for Palestinians); membership in a variety of global task teams (Inter-agency Network on Education in Emergencies, Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities).
Ruth E.K. Stein, MD, FAAP
Is a Developmental-Behavioral pediatrician who works in research and advocacy for children, especially those with chronic physical and mental health conditions. She is professor of pediatrics and a former division director and vice chairman at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore. Her research has been supported by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, National Institute of Mental Health, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and numerous foundations. She conducted a randomized controlled trial of a pediatric home care intervention for children with chronic physical health conditions. She also has conducted analyses of largescale data sets to study the health care and services of children with special health care needs. Dr. Stein received the Research Award of the Academic Pediatric Association, the Douglas Richardson Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Perinatal and Pediatric Research from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the C. Anderson Aldrich Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for contributions to developmental and behavioral pediatrics. She has more than 250 publications and has edited four books relating to pediatric chronic illness, health care services for children, and adolescent depression. She has served numerous federal and professional advisory groups. Dr. Stein is a past president of the Academic (previously Ambulatory) Pediatric Association and currently is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee of Medical Experts to Assist Social Security on Disability Issues. She served as co-chair of a Board of Children, Youth, and Families study on the evaluation of child health, safety and well-being and as a consultant and committee member on several National Academies studies on children’s physical and mental health. She is also a founding member of the faculty and steering committee of The REACH Institute’s Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care (PPP) Program which has trained over 4000 primary care clinicians in care of children’s mental health issues. Participating in iiCOR and in the International Developmental Pediatrics Association meetings has been a wonderful way to see the potential for helping children around the world and to learn from one another.
Jennifer Kiing, FRACP
Is a Developmental-Behavioral paediatrician trained in Australia and Singapore and have worked in the Child Development Unit at the National University Hospital, KTP-NUCMI, Singapore since 2000 and am now a Senior Consultant and the Clinical Director of the Child Development Unit, which evaluates developmental, learning or behavioural issues in children under 7 years of age. Dr. Kiing has been part of iiCOR since its inception (with Singapore as an iiCOR site) and reports that she has learned so much about the nuances of evaluating and managing children with disabilities through this interprofessional network. It has also been a wonderful opportunity to get to know other health professionals doing similar work. I am an iiCOR node mentor. Dr. Kiing has presented the work of iiCOR in numerous national meetings including the International Developmental Pediatrics Association and the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions. She is currently analyzing the data and authoring the first paper that has evaluated iiCOR.
Shang Chee Chong, MBBS, MMed (Paeds), MRCPCH (UK), FAMS
Is the Chief of the Development and Behavioural Pediatrics (DBP) service and the Child Development Unit (CDU), at the Department of Pediatrics, National University Hospital in Singapore. Under the National Child Development Program, she is also involved in the development of policies in early childhood practices, as well as early intervention and educational initiatives with other ministry partners in Singapore. Dr Chong has provided leadership to several milestone programs in the past 5 years. She is currently the Principal investigator on a population health grant looking at the evaluation and implementation of a multi-disciplinary model of education, screening, and development of best practices in provision of health and development services to low-income children. She is also currently providing leadership to the CDU team to evaluate the use of telehealth technology as a novel and innovative way to enhancing therapy reach, parent participation and cost effectiveness of intervention in autism spectrum disorders. Dr Chong’s areas of clinical interests are also in neurodevelopmental follow-up of medically complex children (pre-terms, post-cardiac surgery). Believing in family-centered practice, she led a team to establish NUH CDU as the first Brazelton Touchpoints site in Asia and she is a certified Brazelton Touchpoints Trainer (Brazelton Touchpoints Institute, Harvard).
Craig Donnelly, MD
Is currently Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics and the Program Director for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He completed his Medical Education at the University of Vermont School of Medicine. His Adult Psychiatry Residency and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship were completed at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Donnelly has practiced at Dartmouth for 25 years and has been extensively involved in clinical trials and psychotropic medication development research for children while at Dartmouth. He is especially interested in Tele-psychiatry, Resilience, PTSD, ADHD and models of collaborative care for treating emotional and behavioral disturbances in childhood in working with Pediatricians, Primary Care Practitioners and other allied Mental Health Clinicians.
Roopa Srinivasan, MD
Dr Roopa Srinivasan, has over 15 years of experience as a practicing Developmental Paediatrician. She heads the Clinical Services at Ummeed Child Development Centre, a leading Not for Profit Organization that works in the space of child development and disabilities in India. She is the Coordinator of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics Accredited Fellowship Program in Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics at Ummeed. She was the India Project Director of an NIH-funded 5-year 4-country collaborative research project for the development and testing of the International Guide to Monitor Child Development in low- and middle-income countries. Her current work focusses on Implementation of Family Centred Service Delivery Models and Participation Focused Intervention Approaches in low resource settings. She is also exploring the use of technology to meet the information needs of caregivers of children with disabilities. She has presented her work at a number of international meetings and has participated in analyzing iiCOR evaluation data. She is currently on the Secretarial Board of the International Developmental Paediatrics Association.
Ayesha Cheema-Hasan MD, FAAP
is a Staff Physician in the Neurological Institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Dr. Cheema-Hasan was the Chief Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at LIH-Olivia’s Place, Shenzhen, China. She also worked as a Consultant at the American Center for Psychiatry and Neurology, Abu Dhabi. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Adjunct) at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Cheema-Hasan is serving as a member for the Steering Committee for the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics International Interprofessional Collaborative office rounds (SDBP iiCOR) and as a technical advisor on the American Academy of Pediatrics first global Early Childhood Development Project Advisory Committee (AAP-GECD PAC). Dr. Cheema-Hasan has also served as the Co-Chair of the International Special Interest Group for SDBP from 2016 until 2020. She has participated, facilitated and organized workshops on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management with a focus on children and families in many countries across the world.
Neelkamal Soares, MD
Is a board-certified clinician in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) who is currently Professor of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. He is active in the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics where he is a Board member and has been involved in the SDBP iCOR-2 from 2018-2020.
He maintains active collaborations with international clinicians and educators in DBP and is interested in telehealth deployment to improve access to families challenged by DBP issues.
Shazia Maqbool, MBBS
Is a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and Professor & Chair Department of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics at The Children Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated (MBBS), with an MD in Pediatric Medicine (1995), Fellow Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH) UK and is certified in Developmental Pediatrics, Child Health Surveillance, General Pediatrics, Griffiths & ADOS II. She is the Director/Principal for the School of Allied Health Sciences, The Children’s Hospital & Institution of Child Health Lahore, a Member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) CH-ICH, Chairperson Pakistan Developmental And Behavioral Pediatrics Expert Group PPA and an Executive Member Center, Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA). Dr. Maqbool established the field of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics for the first time in, Pakistan and now there are 3 teaching units including Lahore, Multan & Faisalabad. She is a supervisor and examiner for 1st FCPS (Pediatrics) & 2nd FCPS in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics by CPSP, Pakistan & Doctor of Medicine in Developmental Pediatrics by The University of Health Sciences, Lahore. Dr. Maqbool also established BSc (Hons) Syllabus of Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy for The University of Health Sciences, Lahore. Dr. Maqbool developed a developmental screening tool, the “ShaMaq Developmental Inventory: 2 months-5.5 years” based on indigenous data in Pakistan. Dr. Maqbool hosted the 4th International Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Conference in Lahore and has included iiCOR faculty as keynote speakers.
Jan Harold Sia, MD
is a fellow of the Philippine Society for Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, and is board certified in developmental-behavioral pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics. He obtained his medical degree at the University of the Philippines Manila. He did his residency in Pediatrics at the State University of New York-Health Science Center in Brooklyn, NY and did his three-year fellowship training in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital, in New Haven, Connecticut. He has actively participated in iiCOR since its inception, leading the Philippine site. Now in iiCOR, he participates in monthly node meetings by providing support to nodes/sites, and supervision and facilitation of discussions. His interests in developmental-behavioral pediatrics include, but are not limited to, autism, ADHD, early childhood development, parenting, and global developmental-behavioral pediatrics particularly the practice and delivery of DBP services in low and middle-income countries.
Susanne Martin Herz, MD, PhD
Is Associate Professor and Associate Clinical Director in the Division of Developmental Medicine, Department Pediatrics, at UCSF and Affiliate Faculty in the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and the UCSF Program in Bioethics. Dr. Martin Herz' scholarly work focuses on prevention of neonatal brain injury and developmental delay/disability, neurodevelopmental assessment, early childhood development, and the epidemiology of developmental disability in low-resourced settings. She has a strong background in quality improvement and systems work, including on projects to reduce disparities in access to neurodevelopmental diagnostics and services. Dr. Martin Herz’ clinical focus is on assessment of young children with developmental delay, disruptive behavior or concern for autism spectrum disorder. She also serves as the Division’s Associate Director of Clinical Services. Dr. Martin-Herz provides research, clinical & career mentorship for residents, fellows and other trainees in U.S. and globally.
Anita Kishore, MD
Anita has been a Clinical Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine since 2014. Anita serves as an Educators-4-CARE faculty member at Stanford and co-directs the Stanford branch of the Klingenstein Medical Student Mentorship Program. She is also a 2019-21 U.S. Department of State-funded, Fulbright Global Scholar. She will use the grant to build and strengthen mentorship in child psychiatry for medical students in the U.S., India, the Netherlands, Australia, and other nations, as well as to build an international collaborative mentorship network to connect them, with the goal of increasing access to child psychiatric services worldwide.
Yair Voliovitch
Is a board-certified pediatrician from Israel. After graduating from Semmelweis School of Medicine in Budapest, I moved back to Israel, where I completed a pediatric residency. Since the first year of my residency, I was intrigued by a child's physical, cognitive, and behavioral development. My interest grew more prominent during the years, and it eventually led me to complete two years of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. My experience at Yale inspired me to bring my newly acquired knowledge and skills back to Israel. I am currently amid a child neurology and development fellowship, where I am trying to continue learning and developing as a child developmental and behavioral pediatrician. My wish is to expand the knowledge and practice of Developmental and behavioral pediatrics in Israel and inform more pediatricians and families about the work, special skills, and the importance of developmental pediatricians.
Nina Sand-Loud
Nina Sand-Loud is a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a Collaborative Office Rounds as a pediatric resident at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and loved learning from the multidisciplinary group. When I first became a faculty at a different institution, I was anxious to develop a similar program to continue to learn from and engage with both hospital based and community professionals from a variety of disciplines. When I returned to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, I immediately rejoined our COR group and was so excited last year when the opportunity arose to expand our experiences internationally. We have just started our second year as an international site and have found the experience even more enriching, educational and FUN!
Chris Ladish, PhD
Chris Ladish, PhD is the Chief Clinical Officer of Pediatric Behavioral Health at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Care Network, Tacoma, WA, USA. Dr. Ladish is a licensed clinical psychologist and pediatric neuropsychologist. She serves on the steering committees for the Pierce County Behavioral Health Advisory Board and Kids’ Mental Health Pierce County. Dr. Ladish’s areas of expertise include brain injury, autism, neurodevelopmental disorders, and gender affirming healthcare. She is passionate about improving health equity and access for all children in need of behavioral health care and supporting teams who provide care to children under challenging circumstances.
Dr. Ladish obtained her doctorate from Washington State University and completed internships and fellowships at the University of Washington and Stanford schools of medicine. Dr. Ladish brought iiCOR to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in 2018 and has been involved in SDBP iiCOR since that time.
Afraz Zaman, MD, FRANZCP
Dr Afraz Zaman completed his adult Psychiatry training from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. After completing his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training from Washington University in St Louis he worked in Wanganui New Zealand before coming to Australia 15 years ago. He is a member of the International Relations Committee of the American Academy of Child and adolescent Psychiatry and deputy chair of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in New South Wales. He is also a member of the Membership Engagement Committee of the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
His interests are measurement-based care in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, developing evidence-based pathways of care for common psychiatric disorders and impact of climate change on mental health. His presentation at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry annual meeting in San Francisco in 2020 was on the impact of bushfires on families in Australia. Modern technology like Zoom has made it easy for collaboration across borders which leads to improved outcomes for patients and families. He is very keen to participate in forums like International inter-professional collaborative office rounds.
Kristina Galura, MD
Dr. Galura grew up in California prior to moving to the Philippines with her family to complete her medical education at the University of Santo Tomas. With a passion to serve, and a love for children, Dr. Galura completed pediatrics residency training at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago and went on to finish Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics subspecialty fellowship training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She currently provides care to children and families as a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center. She has been active as a volunteer for Filipino community organizations and received recognition as an Outstanding Filipino American for the year 2019. Her main interests include destigmatizing mental health, behavioral healthcare disparities, and understanding cultural implications on adherence to management.