Meet the Faculty

Name	Background
Beverley Robin, MD, MHPE, CHSE, FAAP Associate Professor, Pediatrics	Beverley Robin, MD, is the Director of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program at Rush University Children’s Hospital. She completed her fellowship at the University of Chicago in 2003 and joined the Rush Faculty in 2011. Dr. Robin completed her Master of Health Professions Education Degree at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her research interests include graduate medical education and the use of simulation in health professions education and training. Her focus also includes the use of simulation to test new healthcare environments, and she is a past recipient of an award from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for this work.
Kousiki Patra, MD Associate Professor, Pediatrics	Kousiki Patra, MD, is the Fellowship Associate Program Director, NICU Medical Director, and the Director of the Neonatal High-Risk Follow-Up Clinic at Rush. She completed her fellowship at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004 and joined the Rush faculty in 2006. Dr. Patra’s research interests include investigation of NICU-based practices and maternal sociodemographic characteristics that impact longitudinal neurodevelopmental and health outcomes in VLBW infants. Her clinical interests include quality improvement in discharge education and post-NICU discharge follow-up.
Jean Silvestri, MD Professor of Pediatrics	Jean Silvestri, MD, is the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. She previously served as the Medical Director of the NICU and was Vice Chair for Quality and Patient Safety. She completed her fellowship training in neonatology at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and has been at Rush, in various roles, since 1985. Dr. Silvestri has a longstanding clinical and research interest in disorders of respiratory control, including SUDI, as well as patient safety and quality improvement.
Aloka L. Patel, MD Professor, Pediatrics	Aloka Patel, MD, is the Chief of the Division of Neonatology and the Research Director for the Division. She completed her fellowship at St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in 2002 and joined Rush in 2003. Her research interests focus on the impact of lactation and nutrition on outcomes in hospitalized infants. Dr. Patel is multi-PI of a R01-funded randomized controlled trial of an economic intervention designed to reduce racial disparity in provision of mother’s own milk. Her other areas of investigation have included health and economic outcomes associated with mother’s own milk and donor milk feedings, physiology and biomarkers of lactation, nutrition intervention studies, necrotizing enterocolitis, and the intestinal microbiome. She has collaborated with investigators nationally and internationally on randomized trials and observational studies. She has served as principal investigator, co-investigator or mentor for 22 funded studies, including three NIH-funded grants, and she has 64 publications.
Steven Powell, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Steven Powell, MD, is the Co-Director of the Perinatal Center and Director of Neonatal Transport. He completed his fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 2003 and joined the Rush Faculty in 2005. Dr. Powell’s research interests include safety/efficacy of intratracheal administration of human umbilical cord stem cells for the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in extremely low birth weight infants; and monitoring devices for patients in the NICU.
Rakhee Bowker, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Rakhee Bowker, MD, is the Medical Co-Director of the Rush Fetal and Neonatal Medicine Center. She joined Rush in 2016 at the completion of her fellowship at Northwestern University. Her clinical and research interests include fetal-neonatal medicine, antenatal and postnatal management of infants with congenital anomalies, palliative care, necrotizing enterocolitis and the intestinal microvasculature, and neonatal nutrition.
Andrew Berenz, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Andrew Berenz, MD, completed his fellowship training at the University of Virginia in 2017 and joined Rush thereafter. He is the NICU Associate Medical Director. His research interests include neonatal nutrition, the intestinal microbiome in preterm infants, neonatal infection and antibiotic stewardship in the NICU. His current research includes maternal to infant transmission of commensal intestinal bacteria, effects of supplemental lactoferrin on intestinal microbiome and outcomes of infants with early onset sepsis.
Jieun David, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Jieun David, MD, completed her residency training at the University of Chicago and fellowship training at LAC+USC Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Thereafter, she returned to Chicago in 2019, to join the faculty at Rush. In 2022 she was appointed as Fellowship Associate Program Director. Her clinical and research interests include neurodevelopmental outcomes of high-risk infants discharged from the NICU, and implementing measures to improve neurodevelopment and family-centered care within the NICU. Dr. David also has a strong interest in medical education and curriculum development.
Laura Seske, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Laura Seske, MD, completed her residency training at Washington University St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 2013. She completed her fellowship training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2016 and joined the Rush faculty in 2020. Dr. Seske is the Director of Neonatal Quality Improvement at Rush University Children’s Hospital. She is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified. Her quality improvement and research interests include improving outcomes for ELBW infants, length of stay reduction, and hospital acquired condition reduction. She facilitates quality improvement methodology and measurement for multi-disciplinary teams in the NICU.
Esther Lee, MD, MPH Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Esther Lee, MD, MPH, completed her fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 2020. During fellowship she completed her MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under the NIH T32 grant. She moved to Chicago thereafter to join the faculty at Rush. Her research interests are global health medicine and effective implementation and quality gap reduction in neonatal units in low- and middle-income countries.
Suhagi Kadakia, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Suhagi Kadakia, MD, completed her residency training at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in 2017. She went on to complete her neonatology fellowship training at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She then returned to Chicago, her hometown, in 2020, to join the faculty at Rush. Dr. Kadakia’s clinical and research interests include high risk deliveries and maternal-fetal medicine. Her other passions include resident education, global health, safe sleep and parent education.
Hernan Sierra-Fernandez, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Dr. Hernan Sierra-Fernandez completed his medical education at the Universidad de Ciencias Medicas in Costa Rica, and his general pediatrics residency at John H. Stroger Hospital in Chicago. He then went on to complete his neonatology fellowship at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles, California. He completed a fellowship in Clinical Informatics at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2017 and joined the Rush faculty in 2022. Dr Sierra’s research focuses on the potential health benefits of clinical informatics for NICU patients and their families.