Contributors

Abbie (Roth) Miller, MS, MWC, is a passionate communicator of science. As the manager of medical and science content at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, she shares stories about innovative research and discovery with audiences ranging from parents to preeminent researchers and leaders. She is a Medical Writer Certified®, credentialed by the American Medical Writers Association, and received her masters of science in Health Communication from Boston University.

Brianne is interning as a science writer and editor for Clinical & Research Communications at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She contributes to a variety of publications, including Pediatrics Nationwide and PediatricsOnline.

Deipanjan "Deip" Nandi, MD, is a cardiologist with the Heart Transplant & Heart Failure Program at Nationwide Children’s. Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, he went on to receive an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University, and his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. He also obtained a Master’s of Science in Health Policy as a US-UK Fulbright Scholar from the London School of Economics. Dr. Nandi completed his internship and residency at CS Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. He then moved to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he completed his general cardiology fellowship as well as an advanced fellowship in Heart Transplant & Heart Failure. His clinical interests include pediatric heart failure, cardiomyopathies, transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. His research interests include comparative-effectiveness research focusing on the management of pediatric heart disease, as well as outcomes research in pediatric heart transplantation.

Dr. Neff completed medical school at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio, and a pediatrics residency at the Doctors Hospital of Stark County, Ohio. She is the owner/pediatrician of Hometown Pediatrics in Jackson, Ohio.

Jessica Nye, PhD, is a freelance science and medical writer based in Barcelona, Spain. She completed her BS in biology and chemistry and MS in evolutionary biology at Florida State University. Dr. Nye studied population genetics for her doctorate in biomedicine at University of Pompeu Fabra. She conducted her postdoctoral research on the inheritance of complex traits at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Chris Ouellette, MD, is a member of the Section of Infectious Diseases and Host Defense Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and assistant professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include infectious diseases in children, with an emphasis on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infections in immunocompromised children. His primary research interests include novel therapeutic approaches, in particular adoptive immunotherapies for treatment of resistant or refractory viral infections in immunocompromised children.

Michael D. Patrick, Jr, MD is a member of the Section of Emergency Medicine, medical director of Digital Health for Nationwide Children's Hospital, and an assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include helping sick and injured children in Nationwide Children's off-site urgent care network and the main campus emergency department. He is also interested in parent and patient education. Since 2006, he has hosted and produced PediaCast: a pediatric podcast for parents. This popular program covers news parents can use, answers listener questions, and interviews pediatric and parenting experts. PediaCast is the most-listened-to online source of pediatric information with over four million downloads to date. PediaCast is available wherever podcasts are found.

JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM, is a veterinarian and freelance medical writer in Atlanta, GA. She received her veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and completed a 2-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Emory University’s Yerkes Primate Research Center before beginning her career as a medical writer.

As a freelance medical writer, Dr. Pendergrass focuses on pet owner education and health journalism. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and has served as secretary and president of AMWA’s Southeast chapter.

In her spare time, Dr. Pendergrass enjoys baking, running, and playing the viola in a local community orchestra.

Jeb is the Managing Editor, Executive Communications, in the Department of Marketing and Public Relations at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He contributes feature stories and research news to PediatricsOnline, the hospital’s electronic newsletter for physicians and other health care providers, and to Pediatrics Nationwide. He has served as a communications specialist at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Research Institute and came to Nationwide Children’s after 14-year career as daily newspaper reporter, most recently at The Columbus Dispatch.

Sanjana is a graduate student in the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology program at Ohio State. She is pursuing her PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Ryan Roberts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on understanding intra-tumor heterogeneity, the mechanisms by which some cancer cells can survive the genotoxic stress from chemotherapy, and tumor-host interactions that allow for increased capacity of osteosarcoma cells to colonize the lung.

Octavio Ramilo, MD, is the chief of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, he is also the Henry G. Cramblett Chair in Infectious Diseases and professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Ramlo obtained his medical degree from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. Professor Ramilo completed his pediatric residency at the Hospital “12 de Octubre” in Madrid and a subsequent Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He has been involved in translational and clinical research related to the role of the host immune response in pathogenesis of infectious diseases for over 20 years. His current research is focused on pathogenesis and treatment of respiratory infections, especially RSV, and the application of genomics technologies for improving diagnosis and understanding of host responses to infectious agents.