Faculty

Bio

Ashley Bjorklund, MD, is a Pediatric Intensivist with Hennepin Healthcare at Hennepin County Medical Center. She is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor and the Fellowship Program Director with the Pediatric Critical Care Division at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Bjorklund received her MD degree from Rush University in Chicago, completed residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at University of Minnesota.
She is board certified in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Pediatric Critical Care. She served in the Navy as a Pediatrician at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from 2011-2013 and as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2016-2019.

Bio

Dr. Brown completed training in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care at the University of Minnesota where he became interested in congenital heart disease and extracorporeal support. In order to provide the best possible care for his patients, he pursued additional training in Cardiac Intensive Care at Texas Children's Hospital.
Upon returning to Minnesota, he is hoping to instill the principles of a high reliability organization into the Pediatric Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit and the Heart Center to improve patient outcomes; gain further expertise in management of hemostasis for patients requiring extracorporeal support by working with Marie Steiner who has appointments in pediatric critical care and hematology; and contribute to the education of residents and fellows by developing a curriculum applying fundamental cardiorespiratory physiology to the unique pathology of patients with complex congenital heart disease.

Bio

Dr. Fischer is a pediatric critical care physician and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota. She is an alumna of Vassar College, completed her pediatric residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital Center, and her pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Fischer's non-clinical focus is on pediatric medical devices and drug therapies. She is an alumna of the UMN Medical Device Center Innovation Fellows Program and is the founder and Director of the Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium (PDIC), which seeks to move pediatric technologies forward towards commercialization. Dr. Fischer also serves as Respiratory Care Director and ECMO Director for UMN Masonic Children's Hospital, as well as Associate Chair for Research Partnerships within the Pediatrics Department.
Her research interests include pediatric and adult medical device and drug development and clinical trials, ECMO, critical care, and regulation of medical devices.

Clinical Summary

Pediatric Critical Care; Pediatric Medical Device Technology

Bio

Dr. Caroline George is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care Medicine. She attends on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She is also a consultant for the Otto Bremer Trust Center for Safe and Healthy Children team.
Dr. George received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota College of Medicine in 1992, completed her Pediatric Residency program at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and completed the Pediatric Critical Care fellowship program at The Children's Hospital in Denver Colorado. She became a member of the Pediatric Critical Care division at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics in 1998 until 2007 when she joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota.
Her areas of clinical interest in the Pediatric Critical Care unit include acute lung injury, and care of children that have experienced non-accidental trauma. In Child Abuse Pediatrics, her clinical interest is focused on early detection of sentinel abusive injuries.

Clinical Summary

Post-operative management of cardiothoracic patients • Management of trauma patients including non-accidental trauma • Detection of Sentinel Abusive Injuries

Bio

Dr. Sameer Gupta is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Division Director of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Gupta attended Case Western Reserve University where he received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering. He then went on to receive his MD degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta completed his Pediatric Residency and Pediatric Critical Care fellowship at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Gupta currently serves as Vice President of Medical Affairs for M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital.
Dr. Gupta's academic interests are in ventilator associated events, quality improvement and patient safety.

Clinical Summary

Patient safety; Quality Improvement; Cardiac Critical Care; Organizational Culture

Bio

Dr. Heneghan received her medical degree from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2013. She completed her pediatric residency training at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and subspecialty training in pediatric critical care at Children's National Medical Center. During fellowship, Dr. Heneghan additionally earned a master's of science in clinical and translational research from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dr. Heneghan's research interests include the long-term outcomes of critically ill children, particularly those who are supported by medical technology, as well as the use of novel analytic techniques and biomedical informatics in pediatric critical care research.

Bio

Dr. Hume is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care. She received her MD and PhD (Microbiology) at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She then underwent residency training in pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and fellowship training in pediatric critical care at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Her research and clinical interests include sepsis and other pathophysiologic processes involving a dysregulated inflammatory/immune response. Dr. Hume's research projects have included studying myocardial dysfunction in community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) sepsis in a mouse model. She has also been involved as local PI in several multicenter studies through the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) network. These studies include Sepsis Prevalence, Outcomes and Therapies (SPROUT); Pathogen Identification in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients with Suspected Lower Respiratory Tract Infection; Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology (PARDIE); and Sepsis-induced Red Cell Dysfunction (SiRD).
Dr. Hume is part of the team running the Special Pathogens Unit (SPU) at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, one of 10 Regional Ebola and Special Pathogens Treatment Centers in the US. These centers were established as part of the response to the West African Ebola epidemic as a resource for treating patients with Ebola virus and other high consequence infectious diseases. She has also been involved with the development of the Special Pathogens Research Network, which is intended to facilitate clinical and basic research on high consequence infectious diseases among the 10 regional treatment centers.

Research Summary

Sepsis; systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS); inflammatory response; acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)/acute lung injury (ALI); MRSA infection, pathophysiology, and epidemiology; high consequence infectious diseases (particularly impact on pediatric populations).

Clinical Summary

Sepsis epidemiology, recognition, treatment and outcomes; acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)/acute lung injury (ALI) epidemiology, treatment and outcomes; improving treatment and outcomes for hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients in PICU; epidemiology, treatment and outcomes of pediatric patients with high consequence infectious diseases.

Bio

Dr. Kim completed training in General Pediatrics at Westchester Medical Center and in Pediatric Critical Care At the University of California, San Diego. He has practiced at Valley Children's Hospital prior to moving back to the Midwest.

His clinical interests include resident education, patient safety, and global health.

Bio

Dr. Kucher received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his pediatric residency training at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and subspecialty training in pediatric critical care at the University of Minnesota. He completed additional training in pediatric cardiac critical care at The Hospital for Sick Children before returning to join the faculty of the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Kucher's research interests include simulation and its application in multidisciplinary training and debriefing strategies.

Research Summary

Cardiac Intensive Care, Quality improvement initiatives 

Bio

Dr. Ashley Loomis is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Loomis attended the University of Kansas where she received her bachelor's degree and MD degree. Dr. Loomis completed her pediatric residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and her Critical Care Fellowship at UT Southwestern/Children's Medical Center of Dallas. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY.

Clinical Summary

Congenital heart disease; Extracoporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); Resuscitation; Severe infections; Traumatic injurie

Bio

Dr. Marquez is a pediatric intensivist and Assistant Professor of Pediatric Critical Care at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She received her medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She completed pediatric residency training at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and subspecialty training in pediatric critical care at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Marquez additionally earned a master of science in translational research from the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty in 2021 from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Dr. Marquez's research aims to improve resuscitation and neurologic outcomes in pediatric cardiac arrest.

Bio

Jennifer Needle is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care and Bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She earned her MD from Howard University in Washington DC, and a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Needle completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed her fellowship in Biomedical Ethics at the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Needle joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2013 after six years as an Assistant Professor for the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care, at Oregon Health & Science University. She is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in Critical Care and the American Board of Pediatrics. Her academic work focuses on palliative and end-of-life care communication in critical illness. She has been a PI or co-I on grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society studying Adolescent and Young Adult Advance Care Planning in Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplant. Her work has been published in Critical Care Medicine, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Palliative Medicine, and The Journal of Clinical Ethics.

Research Summary

Dr. Needle's research focuses on adolescent and young adult (AYA) advance care planning (ACP) for patients with cancer. She is funded by the American Cancer Society, the Children's Cancer Research Fund, and the National Institute on Nursing Research (NIH). Dr. Needle is utilizing the FACE (Family Centered Advance Care Planning) intervention in patients with cancer and in patients undergoing bone marrow transplants. The goals are to 1) improve congruence between patients and their surrogates in goals of care, 2) assess the impact of the intervention on patient-caregiver-health care provider communication, and 3) to determine the role of AYA ACP on provider moral distress related to end-of-life care.

Bio

Rachel joined the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2020. She has a masters degree in health professions education and her research interests center on questions about learning and professional development in the workplace, particularly entrustment, supervision, and professional identity formation.

Research Summary

Dr. Poeppelman's research interests are focused on education and professional development for medical trainees in the workplace, specifically including entrustment, supervision and professional identity formation.

Bio

Dr. Resch attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received his bachelor's in molecular & cellular biology before pursuing a MS and his MD at Wright State University. He completed pediatric residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin followed by Critical Care fellowship at the University of Minnesota, where he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Resch has research interest in adjuvant therapies in the ICU, which includes an ongoing clinical study in opiate-sparing use of magnesium in post-operative patients. He has additional interest in student and resident education.

Research Summary

Dr. Resch has research interests in pediatric analgesia, post-operative transplant care, and medical education. Currently helping run a clinical pilot study using magnesium sulfate as adjuvant analgesia in post-operative transplant recipients.

Bio

Dr. Miriam Shapiro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Affiliate Faculty at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. She earned her medical degree from the Medical School for International Health at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. Dr. Shapiro completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of Minnesota Medical School and Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additionally, she was a Hecht-Levi Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Dr. Shapiro cares for patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Units at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and Hennepin County Medical Center.
Dr. Shapiro's research interests are in decision-making in pediatric critical illness, pediatric chronic critical illness, and physician responsibility and teamwork.

Bio

Dr. Slusher divides her time between the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Hennepin Healthcare and research, teaching, and clinical care at non-profit and academic hospitals Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and several other countries throughout sub Saharan Africa. Her research in collaboration with both low and middle income partners and her Minnesota partners includes both critical care topics including bubble CPAP beyond the neonate and the diagnosis and treatment of severe neonatal jaundice in addition to helping other trainees and young faculty develop their research. Dr. Slusher regularly lectures for medical trainees (nurses, med students, residents and fellows) and consultants in the U.S., Nigeria, Africa and Thailand. She enjoys developing creative low-cost innovations for doing procedures in low resource settings and team teaching these procedures in multiple venues locally, nationally, and internationally.

Research Summary

Dr. Slusher is currently the principal investigator in two studies "Treatment of Neonatal Jaundice with Filtered Sunlight Phototherapy: Safety and Efficacy in African Neonates in Rural Communities" and "Neonatal Bilirubin Induced Neurologic Dysfunction in Developing Countries". She is collaborating with physicians at Stanford University, University of Louisville, University of California San Diago, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine (USA), Lagos State University, Bowen University and Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria). Previously she has been co- or principal investigator in several studies investigating methods and attitudes regarding breast feeding in Ugandan and Kenyan mothers.

Research Summary

Endothelial cell biology and application in gene therapy; Bioethics and it's clinical application.

Clinical Summary

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Bio

Dr. Steiner is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology/Oncology as well as the Division of Critical Care. She attends on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and conducts Pediatric Hematology and Hemostasis clinics at the M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital Journey Clinic.

Dr. Steiner received her MS degree in Genetics at the University of Minnesota in 1978 before earning her MD there in 1982. She remained at the University of Minnesota, completing her internship and residency in Pediatrics in 1985 and then both Hematology-Oncology and Critical Care post-doctoral fellowships in 1989. She moved to West Virginia University in 1990. At WVU, she started a pediatric bone marrow transplant program. She also served as pediatric critical chair division chair and PICU director, and started a PICU fellowship. She returned to the University of Minnesota in 1997, and has been the PICU Fellowship Director here since 2007.

Dr. Steiner's academic appointment is in the Clinical Scholar Academic track. She is an advisor to multiple medical students, residents, and fellows and has mentored several in their clinical research projects.

She serves on several additional hospital committees, including the University of Minnesota Infection Control, Pediatric Infection Control, and Transfusion (co-chair).

Dr. Steiner's clinical research is focused on hemostasis and transfusion practice in critically ill children. Dr. Steiner has participated in the publication of over 50 articles, teaching manuals, and book chapters. She is a member of several professional societies, including American Society of Hematology, International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, and Society of Critical Care Medicine. She also holds leadership positions in the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators.

Research Summary

Coagulopathology of Critical Illness; Use of rFVIIa in Non-Hemophiliac Populations; Hemostasis in Congenital Cardiac Surgery Patients; Hemostasis Management of Extracorporeal Circuits; Transfusion Practice in Critically Ill Children

Clinical Summary

Bleeding and clotting disorders; Critical care for oncology and blood and marrow transplant; Hemostasis management of extracorporeal circuits; Transfusion practice

Bio

Dr. Billy Sveen is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Sveen attended Loyola University Chicago where he received his MD and completed an MA in Bioethics and Health Policy. He completed his Pediatric Residency at the University of Minnesota. He completed Pediatric Critical Care fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dr. Sveen’s academic interests are medical ethics and decision-making regarding life-sustaining medical treatment.

Clinical Summary

Critical care, medical ethics, end-of-life decision-making