I specialize in patient care and research related to pediatric gastroenterology — specifically, eosinophilic gastrointestinal (GI) disease and pediatric feeding disorders. The research I pursue is primarily influenced by the health issues that I see every day in the patients who have eosinophilic GI disease and pediatric feeding disorders. I have also become the medical director of our inpatient gastroenterology floor, where we work to continuously improve the quality of care we provide to our patients.

My colleagues and I are working to improve clinical care and monitoring of pediatric patients with eosinophilic disease. We want to better understand the causes and risk factors associated with developing complications in eosinophilic esophagitis. In addition, we are looking to improve the characterization and treatment of feeding problems found in patients with food allergic conditions.

A pediatric feeding disorder is impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and can be associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill and/or psychosocial dysfunction. Continued research into the pathogenesis and best treatment approaches is essential to help children with these disorders.

I was inspired to become a healthcare provider due to my family’s involvement in the healthcare field. My mother is a physician and my father is an academic scientist with a Ph.D. in microbiology. Healthcare and biology surrounded me as I was growing up. While I first resisted following this path, I soon realized that this was the right fit for my career. I was influenced by several inspiring mentors who first encouraged me to enter pediatric gastroenterology and then drew me to study eosinophilic diseases.

In 2010, I was awarded a national Junior Faculty research award from the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. In addition, I achieved the highest patient satisfaction score for the first quarter of 2019 from the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. My research has been published in numerous manuscripts in journals, including the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gastroenterology and Genes and Immunity.