Pediatric Residency

Vikas Dharnidharka, MD, MPH
Chair and Professor of Pediatrics

Joann Carlson, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Residency Program Director
joann.carlson@rwjms.rutgers.edu

Thank you so much for visiting our website! We are so excited to share with you the highlights of our residency program. As the world around us is changing, we are ready to face the new challenges of residency training and building virtual learning curriculums. Our main goal continues to be to train excellent, well-rounded, and dedicated pediatricians.

My favorite part of our program is certainly the people. We have amazing faculty in all of the subspecialties who are not only astute clinicians but also incredible educators who love to teach. We also are so lucky to have extraordinary residents. Our residents continue to impress me throughout their training with their dedication to their patients, to learning and to each other. It is privilege to both teach and mentor them. We see their hard work paying off when they become true leaders in both general pediatrics and the subspecialities. Our graduates are one of the best ways to measure our program’s success. Please review our website but I encourage you all to contact us for more information and any questions you have. I am thrilled to be the program director and hope through this website you can start to see why I love being a leader in the residency program at RWJ/Rutgers. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!

Natalie Torres-Feliz, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Program Director

Welcome to our website! We are so excited to share with you all the exciting opportunities that we have in our program. We have a diverse resident physician population that reflects the population that we care for in the New Brunswick area. Our close knit team of attending physicians are able to form close working relationships with resident physicians. One of the strong points of our program is the group of physicians and nurses that make this program a close-knit and welcoming learning environment. I look forward to discussing with you all more about how we provide inclusive patient care and graduate strong, well-rounded pediatricians.  

Joanne Edwards Algranti
Residency Program Coordinator
jde59@rwjms.rutgers.edu

Mona Matta
Residency Program Coordinator
mona.matta@rwjms.rutgers.edu

Chief Residents

PGY-1 Residents

• Kristina Beluskov, DO - Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran Patel School of Osteopathic Medicine
• Leigh Ann Nicole Boyle, MD - Rutgers NJMS
• Saakshi Ramesh Daswani, MD - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland 
• Erica Levin, MD Rutgers - RWJMS
• Iswarya Manivannan, MD - Sidney Kimmel College at Thomas Jefferson University
• Bao-Nghi Nguyen, MD - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
• Lawrence Paffini, MD - New York Long Island School of Medicine
• Jessenia Palacio-Meadows, MD - Rutgers NJMS
• Alyssa Shannon, DO - Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine-Middletown
• Abir Thakur, MD - Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University
• Kristin Upton, DO - Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

PGY-2 Residents

• Darlene Ashamole, MD - Howard University School of Medicine
• Simren Chotai, MD - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
• Michaela Creus, MD - New York Medical College
• Lalita Ganti, MD - Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
• Shayna Glassberg, DO - Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Mona Khan, DO - Rowan University College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Konstandina Kokinakos, DO - Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Anmol Kundlas, MD - USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
• Charles Li, MD - SUNY-Upstate School of Medicine
• Anthony Poltronetti, MD - Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
• Aline Sandouk, MD, PhD - University of Iowa College of Medicine

PGY-3 Residents

• Katherine Briski, MD - New Jersey Medical School
• Sameera Chaudhry, MD - New Jersey Medical School
• Jordana Gross, MD - New York Medical College
• Adam Halpern, DO - Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine-New York
• Axel Ivander, MD - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
• Bahaaeldin Labib, MD - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain
• Casey Lamar, MD - Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
• Bethany Mancuso, MD - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Keisha Target, MD - Ross University School of Medicine
• Sarah Trocke, MD - Drexel University College of Medicine
• George Ye, MD - Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University

Resident Support Services

Members of the faculty take an active and ongoing interest in resident well-being.

Mentorship and support services include:

• Individual faculty advisor and scholarly activity mentor
• Regular meetings with the director of the residency program
• Monthly town hall meeting
• Resident retreats, held twice a year, and organized by class
• Open-door policy of the chair and faculty
• Annual year-end residents' day off
• Year-end dinner for residents, fellows and aculty
• Back-up residents for sick call
• Parental leave policy
• Resident Wellness Program
• Resident Assistance Program
• Career development support
• Complementary access to Cognitive Skills Center

Where They Went

Graduates 2024

• Soheil Afsharpour, MD - Chief Resident then Cardiology Fellow at University of British Columbia
• Diane Algava, MD - Emergency Medicine Fellow and Urgent Care at Phoenix Children’s Hospital
• Ezra Chefitz, MD - Gastroenterology Fellow at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
• Patricia Hoffman, DO - Rheumatology Fellow at Weill Cornell Medical Center/Hospital for Special Surgery
• Samanta Mukkamala, MD - Emergency Medicine Fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Health
• Gabriel Munoz, MD - General Pediatrics, New York
• Christina Nashed, DO - General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Jessica Ohiri, MD - Anesthesiology Residency at Rutgers NJMS
• Christopher Ramirez, MD - General Pediatrics, New York
• Sruchika Sabu, MD - Endocrinology Fellow at University of Michigan
• Pardeep Sidhu, MD - Consultant Pediatrician and Fast Track Attending, Toronto, Canada

Graduates 2023

• Abigail Bergman, MD - Chief Resident then Pulmonary Fellow, CHOP
• Bianca Chendrimada, DO - PM Pediatrics
• Yisha Cheng, MD - Emergency Medicine Fellowship, St Christopher’s Hospital for Children
• Matthew Federici, MD - Cardiology Fellowship, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
• Lori Fingerhut, MD - Endocrinology Fellowship, Children’s National Medical Center
• Jazmin Garcia, DO - Chief Resident then PICU Fellowship, Baylor
• Sally Ng, MD - General Pediatrics
• Haidang Nguyen, MD - General Pediatrics
• Sonia Pothraj, MD - General Pediatrics
• Sara Rouff, DO - General Pediatrics
• Soraya Simon, MD - General Pediatrics

Graduates 2022

• Seherisch Ahmad, MD - Chief Resident, Emergency Medicine Fellowship, Rutgers NJMS
• Kathrine Baldwin, DO - Pulmonary Fellowship, Westchester Medical Center
• Avram Bursky-Tammam, MD - PICU Hospitalist, Cohen's Children's Medical Center
• Perel Bursky-Tammam, MD - General Pediatrics
• Gabrielle Capozzoli, MD - General Pediatrics
• Chika Esochaghi, MD - Chief Resident, Nursery Hospitalist in Maryland
• Michelle Gaglia, DO - Anesthesia Residency, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Courtney Greene, DO - Sports Medicine Fellowship, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
• Daniel Helfgott, MD - Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship, Stony Brook Children's Hospital
• Lauren Sall, DO - General Pediatrics, California
• Alexandria Speakman, DO - Gastroenterology Fellowship, Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Graduates 2021

• Marianne Armanious, MD - General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Madhusree Chowdhury, MD - General Pediatrics, Connecticut
• Samantha Chu, DO – Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloane Kettering
• Rannan Kased, DO – Fellowship in Neonatology at Sparrow Hospital, Michigan State University
• Jovanna Madray, DO - General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Emily Negroponte, MD - General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Akreeti Maskey-Pagodin, MD-Chief resident then General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Lauretta Oseni, MD- Hospitalist, NYU then Fellowship in Hospitalist Medicine at SUNY Downstate
• Aashiki Shah, DO - General Pediatrics, New Jersey
• Peter Wu, MD - Urgent Care Fellowship at Children’s National Medical Center
• Sarah Yavelberg, MD - Chief resident then Hospitalist/General Pediatrics, New Jersey

Graduates 2020

• Tolu Ariyo, MD – General Pediatrics, Maryland
• Amy Cheng, MD – General Pediatrics, Maryland
• Jaya Isaac, MD - Chief Resident then Fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at Children’s Hospital of Montefiore
• Maaz Jalil, DO – Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Case Western Reserve University
• Peter Jang, MD - Radiology Residency, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
• Carolyn Ochoa, MD - Newborn Nursery Hospitalist, NYP Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Mehrin Sadiq, MD – General Pediatrics, Virginia
• Shivani Shah, DO – Fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Newark Beth Israel
• Karen Teoh, MD – General Pediatrics, Brooklyn NY
• Debra Zharnest, MD - Chief Resident then Fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at St Christopher’s Hospital for Children

Dr. Patricia Whitley Williams, Associate Dean for Inclusion and Diversity and Professor of Pediatrics, discusses diversity in our residency program.

Dr. Uche Azubuine, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics is now the leader of a new task force for Diversity and Inclusion. The description of this task force is below. 

This task force will address three areas for improvement:

• Recruitment and retention of Underrepresented in Medicine (URM) faculty, residents and staff
• Education
• Health Inequity

Recruitment - The Pediatric Department has made efforts in the past to increase URM physicians and residents including attending recruitment fairs held by national organizations such as Student National Medical Association and Latino Medical Student Association. These organizations were created for the support of African American and Latino students and physicians. We look to improve our efforts by including task force members on the search committee for new employees and mandating that all members of the search committee attend implicit bias training, on an annual basis, prior to interviewing candidates.

Education - In the past few years there have been many lectures for residents and faculty on implicit bias and all employees are required to complete web based educational modules on racism and sexism in the workplace. Our Task Force will strengthen our educational efforts by implementing formal curriculum that includes in-person lectures and workshops for residents and nurses regarding implicit bias, microaggressions and health disparities. Improving the insight of our faculty, residents and staff will allow us to meet the needs of the diverse population we serve.

Health Inequity - Our Task Force will also work to improve the patient experience by ensuring care is equal regardless of ethnicity or gender. We will implement a feedback system where every patient and their family will have a voice to critique their experience in the children’s hospital and allow us to improve the care that we provide. We plan to objectively create quality improvement projects that identify biases and strive to create a solution.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”- Maya Angelou

Our mission is to create an environment where every employee feels their ideas and contributions are respected and hold merit, and where every patient feels their complaints are valid and their lives have value.

We will work to create and maintain an atmosphere where differences are valued and celebrated, knowing institutional diversity fuels the advancement of knowledge, promotes improved patient care and fosters excellence.