Office of Research and Creative Endeavors

Pediatric Research Committee Members

Robert Annett, Ph.D.

Pediatrics

 

 

Anthony Cahill, Ph.D.

Center for Development and Disability

 

 

Sally Davis, Ph.D. 

Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention

Dr. Sally M. Davis, is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where she is the Chief of the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the Director of the Prevention Research Center (PRC).  She has a joint appoint in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Davis has more than 28 years experience conducting prevention research in partnership with American Indian and other under represented populations, especially in rural communities. She has been the Principal Investigator (PI) of numerous studies funded by National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control for the prevention of obesity, tobacco use, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  Much of her work has been school-based with a focus on primary prevention and health promotion. She has published widely in this area and is often asked to provide advice and consultation to groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and tribal groups. As a senior member of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine faculty Dr. Davis leads the Pediatric Department’s Research Committee and Office of Creative Endeavors, serves on the Chair’s Executive Committee, and is a past member of the Dean’s Science Advisory Committee.

                                    

Erika Fernandez, M.D.

Neonatology

Dr. Erika Fernandez is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and currently provides medical care to newborns admitted to the University of New Mexico Newborn Intensive Care Unit. She is a member of the Human Research Review Committee, the Western Society of Pediatric Research and the Pediatric Research Committee. She is currently the principle investigator of ongoing studies of adrenal function in critically ill newborns.

 

Jessica Goodkind, Ph.D.

Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Dr. Goodkind joined the Center in 2004.  Before coming to UNM, Dr. Goodkind was an Assistant Professor of Human Development at California State University Hayward from 2002-2004.  She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in ecological/community psychology in 2002.  Her primary interests are community-based participatory research and community-based interventions to promote the mental health and well-being of marginalized populations.  Specifically, Dr. Goodkind’s research focuses on community-based interventions to address multiple layers of trauma (including historical trauma) experienced by American Indian youth, and community-based advocacy and learning interventions with refugees and immigrants who resettle in the United States.  Her work emphasizes bringing university students and newcomers together to engage in mutual learning and the mobilization of community resources.  Dr. Goodkind focuses on both conceptual and theoretical issues (e.g., understanding the processes of refugee adjustment and the mechanisms which promote positive processes) as well as in applied problems (e.g., developing interventions which promote these processes and prevent further distress). Dr. Goodkind has been working with refugees since 1993, when she moved to Thailand for two years to work in Phanat Nikhom refugee camp to help prepare Hmong, Mien, and Lahu refugees who were resettling in the United States.  Dr. Goodkind began working with American Indian communities in 2004.  Dr. Goodkind has also been involved in research to improve the community’s responsiveness to women who experience intimate partner violence and their children, and her interests include a wide variety of community-based research projects and service learning opportunities that seek to create social change and social justice.

 

 

William Kelly, Pharm.D.

Pulmonary

Dr. Kelly was on the faculty of the College of Pharmacy in 1975-2000. He became Research Professor of Pediatrics in 2000. He completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy at Washington State University and his Doctor of Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacy Residency at the University of Minnesota. He is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist.

                  

Piyadasa Kodituwakku, M.D.

Center for Development and Disability

 

 

Alberta Kong, M.D.

Adolescent Medicine

 

Brian Lopez, M.D.

Center for Development and Disability

 

 

Jean Lowe, M.D.

Neonatology

                                 

Melinda Marsh-Russell, M.D.

Pediatrics

 

 

Prasad Mathew, M.D.

Hematology/Oncology

Dr. Mathew is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of New Mexico and Director of the Ted R. Montoya Hemophilia Program. A Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he is also a member of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the National Hemophilia Foundation and the American Medical Association, among others. He is a reviewer for Cancer, the Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Hemophilia, has published extensively, and has  received the Dean’s Award of Distinction in recognition of outstanding performance during the 1999-2000 academic year. He completed his medical education from Bombay University, India; his residency from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Ohio, and fellowship in Pediatric hematology and oncology from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN. He is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

                       

 

 

Robin Ohls, M.D.

Neonatology

Dr. Ohls received her MD Degree from the University of Utah in 1987 and completed residency training in Pediatrics at the University of Utah. She earned a fellowship in Neonatology and is board certified in Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. Dr. Ohls is a Professor of Pediatrics, and is the medical director of the Research Subject Advocates Office for the General Clinical Research Center. In addition, she is the Director of the Neonatal Fellowship Program. Her research interests include hematopoietic development in the fetus and neonate, and clinical studies of hematopoietic growth factors in term and preterm infants.

   

                     

Janet L. Poole, Ph.D, OTR/L, FAOTA

Occupational Therapy